My son is in the process of finishing his app for 2014 Fall. He has great grades (3.85) and SAT good (2030 total) and is an Eagle Scout and a Blackbelt, as well as a varsity athlete. Several family members are Aggies and a few were in the corps.
BUT - he wants to wait a year to help me with my parents who are dying with dementia in their last few months and to work and help with the family. Good intentions, but I don't want him to hurt his career. He plans on taking the NROTC scholarship if possible with the goal of his Marine commission and career military.

He is already older than his classmates by a few months, so he would be 20 going in as a fish. Will that be a problem? If he is not a senior in High School, will his admission and scholarships be in jeopardy? I can't really get a straight answer from the University.

Thanks for any advice

Luke wanted to leave for the Academy because most of his friends had already gone.

Uncle Owen wanted him to stay. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru died and it wouldn't have made much difference whether Luke stayed or not.

I can appreciate wanting to be there through the final stages but, don't you think that if your son has a great opportunity for his future that his elders would want the best for him? Of course they would.

This is one of the things I deal with since my father (77) and grandmother (94 - not his mother) are getting up there in age and I live 8,500 miles away. But, I had an uncle die unexpectedly 4 years ago at age 54 and I was able to get on a plane and be there with my family during that tragic time.

The only other experience I can offer up is that when I was in the National Guard, I had a soldier who needed to miss drill because his grandfather was dying. We drilled in Brownwood and his grandfather lived in Brownwood so I was kind of like hmmm. Sounds like a B.S. excuse. But OK. After this soldier used the - my grandfather is dying any second now excuse for the 3rd month in a row, I was like, well... is your grandfather dead yet? Needless to say, he filed a complaint.

Going into fish year at 20 is not a big deal. I knew guys that were older than that. His biggest issue is going to be buddies asking him to buy them alcohol after he turns 21.

I think whatever your son decides to do, he will be fine. He sounds like a fine young man.

I can see one bonus of him waiting a year is that he can have an extra year to mature, and want college. He may have a better outlook on his classes than most 18 year old freshmen.

Lots of LDS (Mormon) kids wait two years for college, or take a 2-year mission break during college. Seems to work for them.

I know of LDS kids who were accepted to a Service Academy, went two years, took off two years for mission, and were allowed to come back and finish.

I'm sure you can get an ROTC contract even after taking a year off, but I'm not sure how competitive it is now and how that year off will be viewed by the selection board.

I think there's a good amount of potential to mature between high school and college. I met someone last year who was in medical school after a full 20 years of service in the Air Force. So in the grand scheme of things, 1 year isn't that big of a deal. And, if he matures during that time, takes his academics more seriously and doesn't let the freedom of college get to his head, the year off may pay dividends in less failed and repeated courses. He can also use the time to figure out if what he wants to major on is really something he can see himself doing for the rest of his life.

The only thing I can see that could change things is if he takes community college classes. This would require him to apply as a transfer student, but if he hasn't taken any classes he'd be applying as a freshman, and a year away from school shouldn't change his admissions, except that he might be up against even more people next year. As far as ROTC goes, I don't see any reason it should be a problem for him to take a year to help you out.

[This message has been edited by BarnesCat11 (edited 10/30/2013 6:56p).]

I don't know how they do it now but i had a high school classmate who took a couple years off, took some juco classes and started at A&M as a fish in the Corps when I was a junior, so two years later. He said it helped him and he did far better in classes and Corps stuff than he would have. He was also able to just take 12-13 hours a semester since he already had some juco stuff knocked out.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned above is how the sequestor could affect potential NROTC scholarship/contract potential. As budgets increasingly tighten and the OEF retrograde continues, there may be fewer opportunities for ROTC scholarships/contracts. However, I admire your son for wanting to help out, and I don't see why staying home would hurt his future. Such a test of character may delay his admission, but I believe that it certainly shouldn't hurt his chances at a successful education and career.