The Military's Influence on College Students

New cadets receive their gear during the first week of ROTC

Returning to the UMass Amherst ROTC Building on a cold February Tuesday with a rucksack on his back, UMass Sophomore George McCormick was in good spirits. He had just completed a 3-mile march with a 30lb pack. This concept may seem crazy, carrying around all that weight for such a long distance, but to McCormick, it helps pay for school.

McCormick is one of the estimated 30,000 ROTC cadets in more than 1,400 universities across the country who are taking advantage of military benefits and working his way through college in exchange for service. With ROTC enrollments reaching all-time highs (Army ROTC alone with 36,474 cadets in 2011) and with recruiters meeting and exceeding their enlistment quotas, we see that these educational benefits could play a significant role. 

That said, are these benefits the sole purpose of their decision to join?

“Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all parts of the military including the mental and physical benefits,” Juliann McEachern, an airman for the Massachusetts Air National Guard, said. “But it was the money that helped solidify my decision.”

            This seems to be a growing trend among college students.

            This recent year almost every branch in the military has reached or exceeded 100 percent on their recruitment quotas, with the exception of the Army National Guard, which only reached 95 percent. In addition, branches like the Army and the Navy have seen a 50 percent increase of recruits with college degrees.

With this increase of college students joining the military, it becomes easier for recruiters and enrollment officers to use these benefits as a selling point. For Travis Wright, the enrollment officer at UMass’s Army ROTC program, he sees them as more as incentives.

“What we do with the scholarships and the stipends that the students get is that we use it as an incentive program,” he said, “If we see a student that is doing a good job and is in the program, then we offer that [scholarship] as an incentive to them.”

Economists agree that the idea of using these incentives help encourage students in college to start thinking about the military as a career. Beth Asch, a senior economist on military recruitment at the RAND Corps, thinks that they play a huge role.

 “These [incentives] are very effective in the recruitment process,” she said, “even with enlistment bonuses in low levels.”

Benefits for ROTC include a two to four year scholarship that helps pay for tuition and fees or room and board. Along with this, a cadet can receive a monthly stipend that increases every year, and $600 dollars a semester for books.

Some benefits for enlisted personnel include The G.I bill, which covers 100 percent of student tuition and fees, and provides a monthly housing allowance and a book stipend.

In addition, a Student Loan Repayment Program, which caters to those that need help in repaying student loans made prior to joining or during their service.  

However, with every incentive there is a catch. For a person to receive a scholarship in ROTC, they have an obligation to serve 8 years in the Army. For other branches like the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, the amount of service years differs. For people who enlist, they will expect several years of service in the branch they want to go in.  

Along with the service obligation, there comes a possibility of deployment. If a recruit quits before the contract expires, then he/she must prepare for the possibility of severe consequences.

Without educational benefits, would enlistees still want to join? John Conley, a UMass Army ROTC cadet and an Army National Guard soldier, has his doubts.

“The whole reason I enlisted in the guard was to pay for college,” he said, “I was doing ROTC without any benefits, but that was with the plan of a good income after I graduated and being able to have military service on my resume.”