Which colleges have ROTC programs?
In today’s post, I will show you how to find out which colleges have ROTC programs on their campuses (or close by).
The first thing you want to do is to create a preliminary “target list of colleges” you’re interested in.
It may seem a little premature for this step, but I’m sure there are some colleges that have piqued your interest over the years. Today, you’re going to find out whether or not those schools actually have ROTC programs.
By no means do I expect you to have an official “target list of schools” yet (that may not happen for another 15 months), but I want you to come up with a practice list.
Let’s say your list includes:
- Northwestern
- UVA
- Bowdoin
- Hamilton College
- Penn State
And you’re wondering whether these schools have ROTC programs.
First, you have to decide which branch(es) of service you’re interested in:
- Army
- Navy
- Air Force
[Coast Guard does not have an equivalent ROTC program].
Once you’ve selected your branch(es) of choice, go to that branch’s website (links below) and enter the names of these colleges (or the states they’re in) hit the search button.
Voila!
You will see whether or not they have an ROTC unit at these schools and for what branches.
Why don’t you use my practice college list above to see which colleges have which ROTC programs on campus and for which branches.
Did all of these schools have ROTC programs?
If so, for which branches?
Did some have programs for the Army and Air Force but not the Navy?
Or the opposite?
This is an exercise that you can do anytime you’re interested in whether or not a school has an ROTC program in your preferred branch of service.
To review, the number of colleges that have ROTC units vary among the branches.
There are about 150 colleges with Navy ROTC units and over 1,000 colleges with Army and Air Force ROTC units.
And, of course, there is a lot of overlap. Many colleges have multiple ROTC units from various branches.
HOST UNITS
You may have also discovered that some colleges are designated as Host Units and others are known as “cross-town affiliates”.
This means that not every college with an ROTC program has an official “ROTC headquarters” on their specific campus.
Instead, one campus serves as a Host Unit and students from surrounding colleges (or cross-town affiliates) will travel to the Host Unit college where they will do a majority of their ROTC-related work.
For example, Navy ROTC students at Stanford (which is a cross-town affiliate) will travel to their Host Unit (which happens to be the University of California at Berkeley) to conduct a lot of their ROTC training, leadership labs, and meetings.
You may or may not care about whether the colleges you are interested in serve as ROTC Host Units or affiliates.
You can dig into those details at a later date.
TAKEAWAYS
The point of today’s lesson, is to educate you on
- The difference in the number of ROTC units based on the branch of service (Army and Air Force have a lot more ROTC units than the Navy).
- How to find out which colleges have ROTC units and for which branches of service
- Understand the distinction between a college that is a Host Unit versus a cross-town affiliate
As you begin to build your target list of colleges, this lesson will be a good one to reference when you are trying to find which schools have what type of ROTC programs.
If you're enjoying this content, consider enrolling in our online mentoring program, where I teach lessons like this every week (starting in 9th grade) to students who aspire to attend service academies and ROTC programs. There's not better way to prepare for the rigors of the application process.