My daughter, a Junior in high school, is interested in Corps of Cadets, and likely Army ROTC. She is planning to major in Wildlife and Fisheries (wildlife conservation focus), she is a high school athlete (soccer/track/cheer) and scholar (3.8), with involvement in theater and other clubs as well.... Info given with hopes that someone can recommend Army corps outfits that may be a good "fit" for her...she is planning to spend night with the corps and would like to select an outfit that could potentially be one to join..... Suggestions??

Also thoughts on women experiences in the corps of cadets in general....?

Thanks for response! We have reviewed the outfits online...many sound similar and it's a little difficult to distinguish differences without being familiar with the Corps...we also called the recruiter office, not much specific info there either....that's when we turned to the forum for suggestions...

Have her take a look at F-2.

TXAggieMom11 said:

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Have her take a look at F-2.

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Thanks, will do!

Tango_Mike said:

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s_dez said:

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TXAggieMom11 said:

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Have her take a look at F-2.

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Thanks, will do!

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I strongly recommend that you don't take any outfit-specific advice from anyone who was not in that outfit within the last 2 years. Personalities change, foci change, leadership changes, and thus outfits change.

I could tell you exactly what I thought I knew about every outfit... 15 years ago. Most of it probably wasn't accurate then and none of it is accurate now. For example, from 2000-2004 F-2 was an all male outfit that leaned heavily to the frat-not-military side.

Current cadets can give you the most accurate opinions of the basics, but 95% of the responses will be something like: "My outfit, X-1, is the best at academics and we have lots of contracts and we do PT 17 times a day and we are all really good friends. Our outfit is the only one that does things the right way and doesn't let the commandant push us around!"

So, take anything you read here with a grain of salt. The recruiter's office is the best place for information. COL(R) Hawes posts here sometimes

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Appreciate the perspective...she will find out more for herself when she goes to spend the night with the corps, but hoped to have an idea in order to choose which outfit to stay with overnight....when not from Texas, and with no experience with the Corps (although in a military family- just not A and M), it's difficult to glean from the online outfit descriptions, and the recruiters office basically said any of them will do...

Contact the Office of the Commandant, particularly its Recruiting Chain. On site, knowledgeable. Its their job.

Ask for the contact number for the OR Simpson Honor Society. They make grades and may be a good place to identify major and grade performance characteristics of specific outfits.

Ask for the contact information for the Corps soccer team. Would be good to know which outfits are represented on it.

Having upperclassmen in the above may be beneficial for any fish.

As to the Corps itself, obviously we heartily endorse it, whether going contract or not.
While the University is immense in size, I believe all would agree that the Corps provides a home on campus where there is a clear expectation of what is to be done and support for each student to get there.

(Data here is out of date, so more investigation is recommended). May be beneficial to look at other outfits as it has been, at least in the past, permissible to be in an ROTC program not associated with the major unit. We had a Navy ROTC in our Army outfit. But this may not be possible as that experience is out of date.

great suggestions...thanks

Col. Hawes is head of recruiting, join the Corps of Cadets Class of 2024 page on Facebook. A lot of info there.

There is a lot of truth in what has been posted, My class of '11 outfit is nothing what it was then, my class of '19 helped to change and improve his outfit. Had he gone to the unit he was being pushed towards he would have been extremely unhappy. If he hadn't been in an all male outfit I would recommend it.

My recommendation of F-2 comes from knowing a few of the cadets and seeing them from the outside.
They are a starting place for you. 1st or 2nd Battalions have had the better integrated units the past 4 years.

My grand-daughter is a high school junior, active in ROTC, and has expressed an interest in the Corps. I have served on the scholarship committee of the San Antonio A&M Club for over 20 years. I took her up to a football game where she met with the two young ladies in the Corps we have on scholarship. The loved it. This was last fall, so one graduated with a 3.4 and is now an officer in the USAF. Over this 20 year period we have had a great deal of success with ladies in the Corps in both leadership positions and academics. One young lady, class of '14 graduated in 3 1/2 years and did her last semester in the Corps in graduate school. Of course, we've had few disappointments too, but percentage wise, far les than young men in the Corps or civilian students.

The above posts are full of good advice. Please take them to heart. The only thing I would ad is please don't let your daughter get sold a bill of goods that the Corps is an extension of high school ROTC. If she goes in with that in mind, she will be very disappointed..

I was on campus two days ago and WOW!
The facilities available to Cadets on the Quad and in the new music facility are unbelievable.

Not relevant to your daughter's major but, I also toured the new Zachary Engineering building and it was just amazing. Looked like somebody took a Google-like business campus from The Bay Area and dropped it in College Station.

There are plenty of opportunities for females in the Corps at Texas A&M these days however, keep in mind that it is very difficult to get accepted into Texas A&M University.

My advice to you is to include two more colleges in your search - Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute. I recommend doing a spend the night with all three programs.

My daughter did the spend the night program at A&M and Virginia Tech. She liked both but wound up attending VMI where she's now a First Class Cadet.

As others have mentioned, Colonel Hawes is definitely the go to guy for joining the Corps at A&M.

Good Luck!

HollywoodBQ said:

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There are plenty of opportunities for females in the Corps at Texas A&M these days however, keep in mind that it is very difficult to get accepted into Texas A&M University.

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Is it really "very difficult"?

She cannot play an instrument

HollywoodBQ said:

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Tango_Mike said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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There are plenty of opportunities for females in the Corps at Texas A&M these days however, keep in mind that it is very difficult to get accepted into Texas A&M University.

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Is it really "very difficult"?

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Bro, don't get me wrong. A&M is not Harvard, Stanford or Rice, it's still a safety school.

But, the very real fact is that many of my friends who got in to A&M as provisional admits would not be accepted today (I'm talking about people ranging from retired Military Officers to well known public figures - wouldn't even make it through the front door). I know a lot of my contemporaries whose kids are going to A&M Galveston, Tceh, UT-Dallas, Texas State, UTSA, etc. because they couldn't get in to A&M.

Also, I think the OP mentioned being from out of state. That makes the admissions process even more difficult. So, yeah, I stick by my comments.

My perspective comes after 4 years of fielding questions about why my VMI Keydet "didn't want to go to A&M". Hey guess what? It's not a matter of "want" per se. Even if you knock out a 1450 on your SAT, if you don't dot every i and cross every t on your application to Texas A&M, you're not getting in. Just because it was easy for you to get admitted in 1988 doesn't mean the admissions process is that easy today.

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Yes, we are aware of the difficulty...she is a strong student with strong test scores, but because we are not from Texas the odds are stacked against her..she will apply and hope for the best. She will certainly apply to other schools...primary concern is schools with strong programs in her field of interest and less of a concern for the military aspect. If she gets in Texas A and M, she will pursue the Corps as well, if she does not get in, she will likely stay in state due to strong incentive programs here (TOPS program)

Thanks for the responses...she is signed up for Spend the Night with the Corps next month!

My husband is the assistant commandant at Tarleton Corps of Cadets. She can go there and go PSA to a&m.

Tango_Mike said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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There are plenty of opportunities for females in the Corps at Texas A&M these days however, keep in mind that it is very difficult to get accepted into Texas A&M University.

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Is it really "very difficult"?

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Acceptance percentage means nothing when you are stuck with the Top 10% rule.

Col Hawes,
Is there a place we can look up the following on units:
Number of cadets
Avg GPA's
Retention rate
Rankings in GM, Hocmuth, etc?

Although I'd like my son to join my old unit, he needs to make his own call.
Thanks!