Minimum Requirements

Entry Requirements

In order to enter AFROTC, prospective cadets will need the following:

  • Be admitted to a university that has an AFROTC detachment, or a university that has a cross-town agreement with a detachment. Check with the College Locator.
  • Be a full-time student, able to maintain full-time status for at least three years. This can be for a first or second bachelor’s degree, or graduate degree, as long as the cadet is considered full-time by the university they are enrolled in. If the university does not define full-time status, then AFROTC defaults to considering 12 semester hours per semester for undergraduate and 9 semester hours for graduate courses as full-time. Note that the last semester a cadet is in the program does NOT have to be full-time.
  • Cadets must be at least 14 to enter the program, with parental or guardian consent. However, cadets must be at least 17 with parental consent in order to activate a scholarship, or contract with AFROTC in the later parts of the program. Cadets 18 and older do not require parental consent. The maximum age to commission as an officer in most jobs is 39. For most rated (flying) jobs such as Pilot, Combat Systems Officer, Air Battle Manager, the maximum age to enter pilot training is 33. Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) pilots may enter training up to 39.
  • Enroll and participate in Aerospace Science (AS) class, Leadership Laboratory (LLAB) and Physical Training (PT). These are regular classes in the university catalog that award college credit and are taught by AFROTC cadre. The exact codes and credit hours for each class will vary for each university. Please contact the detachment you’re interested in attending for details on which classes you need to take.
  • Fill out an application in the AFROTC WINGS system. Please wait for instructions from your detachment before filling out this information.
  • Provide original birth certificate or proof of naturalization or US passport to certify US Citizenship.
  • Provide original signed social security card.
  • Complete a “Sports Physical” with the university clinic or your own family doctor, or have a cleared DoDMERB or MEPS physical certification. The sports physical is a basic medical exam to make sure the applicant doesn’t have any major injuries or medical conditions that would prevent them from exercising as part of the AFROTC program. Note, this exam is only good for 30 days, so don't do it too far in advance of the start of the school year
  • Provide an academic degree plan showing that the cadet has a plan to graduate on time.
  • Have a clean criminal record, or obtain waivers necessary to enter the program.
  • Complete other paperwork and forms as directed by the hosting AFROTC Detachment.

Chances of Entry

Most detachments will allow anyone meeting the above requirements to join the detachment as an applicant, pursuing cadet, or cadet.

Some detachments will have a filtering process before allowing someone to join, and those details will be up to the commander of that AFROTC detachment. They may have an interview process, or an ‘eyeball check’ of an applicant’s fitness or height/weight ratio, standardized test scores, or high school GPA, etc.

Please note that entry into the AFROTC program does not guarantee a commission as an officer at the end! The ‘competitive’ part of AFROTC comes normally in the sophomore year, when cadets will compete for an Enrollment Allocation to attend Field Training through a process called the POC Selection Process (PSP). Learn more about the POC Selection Process.