Army ROTC is an elective curriculum taken along with your required college classes. It gives you the tools, training, and experiences that help you succeed in any competitive environment. Along with great leadership training, Army ROTC can pay for your college tuition. Because Army ROTC is an elective, you can participate during your freshman and sophomore years without any obligation to join the U.S. Army. You will have a normal college student experience like everyone else on campus, but when you graduate, you will be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army.  At that point, you will have a range of interest areas you can specialize in called branches.

Learn more about officer careers

"Challenge the possibilities and learn to lead!" 

Students who succeed in the Army ROTC program are those who excel and want something more out of their college experience. Generally, these students are scholars who keep their grades up; athletes who are physically strong; and leaders who have a great desire to learn.

Army ROTC Demographics

These are the program demographics as of Fall 2024.

• Cadet strength: 100, 27 are female
• Ethnicity: 69% Caucasian, 12% Hispanic, 15% African American
• On scholarship: 51%

At Grand Valley State University, Army ROTC classes are broken down into a classroom period once a week and Leadership Lab once a week. In the classroom portion, you will be separated by your military science level and will be instructed by one of our staff instructors who is either an Army officer or senior non-commissioned officer. You will be instructed on topics such as ethics and values, leadership styles, orders preparation, map reading, Army structure and roles, and training management, just to name a few. Classes run from one hour once a week for first-year cadets to three hours weekly for MS III and IV cadets. All cadets participate in Leadership Lab together. So, it doesn't matter if this is your first semester of ROTC or your last, everyone does lab at the same time. These labs are completely student-led and run. This is where you get to put into practice all the concepts that you learn in class. You will hone your soldier skills in activities such as rifle marksmanship, water survival training, first aid, and land navigation. Since all cadets do lab together, everyone has a two-hour lab period.

In addition to class and lab, Laker cadets conduct physical training a minimum of three days a week and participate in one field training exercise each semester. Physical training is conducted early in the morning before any classes begin so there is no need to worry about missing other classes. Our field training exercises are held at Fort Custer located in Battle Creek, Mich. These are weekend events that allow us to train on activities that are unfeasible to do on campus.