I got on outstanding opportunity to work with the University of Kansas ROTC program this week.  After talking with MAJ Clark I learned that the program currently has 118 students ranging from seniors to freshman.  The program is run under the Department of Military Science and currently has roughly 200,000 dollars of scholarship money available.  What does that mean for you?  That means roughly 15-20 scholarships available for next year.  These scholarships are available to not only High School students but current college students as well as long as you have at least 2 years of school remaining.  A lot of you that read this blog may ask yourself, why would I want to go to KU and enter their ROTC program?  Here is what I can tell you. Being an Army officer is rewarding challenge.  Leading troops in a variety of specialty fields will no doubt be the most rewarding and special thing you will do with your life.  Besides that there is the monetary compensation that comes with the job.  A 1^st year 2LT will average over 47,000 dollars a year and that jumps up over 13,000 dollars by the start of your 3^rd year in the Army.  These numbers don’t count the free medical, dental, and eye insurance as well as the MGIB bill that’s worth roughly 54,000 dollars and can be worth well more than that if you complete 36 months of service which qualifies you for the post 9/11 GI bill.  You also qualify for special duty pay with certain jobs and Basic Allowance for Housing which varies by post that pays for your living cost.  I don’t know about you but that sounds like a pretty good deal.  Now I don’t know about you but free school and more money for education after your service plus free health care, and an additional 4,500 hundred dollars a year for continuing education while you are in the service, all for free sounds like a really good job. 

Now, you may be wandering what you have to do to get a scholarship through KU.  It’s actually not that hard. The average scores for scholarship winners are very attainable. Average score for the ACT is 25 with a Cumulative GPA of 3.27 and maintain a 3.0 GPA semester/cumulative of college classes if you are currently enrolled in college.  Now that’s just the average, all you have to have to apply is a 19 on the ACT and a Cumulative GPA of 2.5.  I would strongly recommend this program after meeting and getting to work with the teachers and students in this awesome program.  If you’d like more info about the program and scholarship benefits you can call them at 1-795-864-1113 or e-mail at goldbar@ku.edu.  They will help you through the process and get you started on the path to being a college graduate and an U.S. Army Officer either as an Active Duty member or the Reserves.  Hope this info helps you in your future decisions on life and college.

I’d like to thank all the cadets that came out to help as well as MAJ Clark.  Your students and cadets displayed all the Army Core Values and conducted themselves with the utmost amount of professionalism.  I look forward to working with them after graduation as they join the ranks of the Finest Team in the World, The U.S. Army.

Sincerely,

   DS Grabener, Derrick