Can you get a college scholarship for doing JROTC, even if you are not wanting to go into the military?

I’d suggest checking with the college you are looking to attend. I imagine there are many ROTC scholarships out there. Some may have a hook that you have to go on to some sort of military position for a time, such as in the reserves. I was in JROTC for a period in HS but left it because the family moved and we went to a school district that did not have the program. Years later I joined the US Navy, but it was completely unrelated. I went in as an enlisted person. I do know that there are military officers that got a degree that was paid for by the military. Their catch was that upon graduation they had to serve in that branch of the military for something like 3 years. They viewed it as a good trade off.

Best of luck!

From the JROTC site:

https://www.usarmyjrotc.com/scholarship-opportunities/

Have you ever heard of “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”? These days, they seem to be handing out free lunches everywhere to certain types of people.

But I suspect the “No free lunch” would truly apply to JROTC. When I was in college many decades ago, they had a laundry list of expectations that you had to fulfill.

Something else to consider is what the future holds. My son got invited to the Air Force Academy. He ended up not accepting which was a huge mistake in my view. He initially said he wasn’t interested in going into the Air Force as why. I tried pointing out all the facts to him. Yes, he had to give them a 4 year stint after graduation. But they pay for all your college. They pay you while you go to college. You get one of the best educations in the country. You do your 4 years in the military as an officer which means higher pay and better benefits than enlisted. If you like it you can stay in for 20 years and retire, collecting a pension when you are 40 years old. You could then go get another job, work another 20 years and get another pension. If you don’t like it after 4 years, you have a great education AND real world experience in your field AND leadership experience so you are far more marketable than someone who just went to college.

He reconsidered but still rejected it. He has since told me he wished he had taken that opportunity.

@seawulf575 Air Force is a great branch, too.

@jca2 I know. I wanted to kick him but in the end he was kicking himself. He’s doing well in life though so maybe that wasn’t in his fate.

I think if you have any scholarship there is usually some string attached. Unless its a private scholarship. But even those have strings attached. Like you can’t go below a certain grade. But most institutional scholarships have something you must do, like work in the field. Football scholarships are tied to playing football for instance. @seawulf575 Who would’ve thought we have a similar history. My son also could’ve gone to the Air Force Academy and turned it down. 2 years later after attending college in Hawaii and costing us a pretty penny, he joined the Airforce. Ugh! My husband is retired Marine so I understood why he didn’t want to join the military but he ended up all the same doing it.

@Pandora small world, eh? Yes, several years after passing on this my son suddenly wanted to get his pilot’s license and go to work at NASA as a test pilot, presumably. I pointed out to him that they would likely get their pilots from the military, not just a guy that qualified on a Cessna, but if he thought he had a chance, go for it. That’s when he remembered he passed on the AF academy.