Just wondering what advice you would give a high school student who had a choice of either a military academy or a scholarship ROTC program at a well regarded college or university.
I'll give you my two cents on this one. I graduated from USMA back in the 90s and then served on the faculty there for several years more recently. In my opinion, the best thing about the service academies, from both the student and the parent perspective, is the price--cadets/midshipmen do not fund any of their education out of pocket (including room and board). In addition to a fully funded education at a highly regarded institution, cadets/midshipmen also receive a small salary. The cost of their uniforms, books, etc. is deducted from that pay, but they still end up with money at the end of each month. I have a lot of friends that received their commissions through ROTC and, according to them, their ROTC scholarships did not necessarily cover all of their expenses. The scholarships are generous, but in many cases cadets/midshipmen still have to pay some costs out of pocket (room/board and uniforms, in particular). Some schools offer more incentives to ROTC folks than others so not all have the same experiences.
Another upside to the service academies is that by the time cadets/midshipmen graduate, they know most of the other 1,000 or so folks in their class as well as many in the classes above and below them. It means that at ever duty station, there is always a familiar face regardless of the branch. Even the largest ROTC programs do not afford that kind of exposure to so many of your peers within the profession of arms. In the military, as in many professions, networking is important. As I've progressed in my career, I've found that those connections have sometimes come in handy.
In the plus column for ROTC, most individuals in those programs do not get the same level of immersion into a military lifestyle as service academy folks (VMI, Citadel, North Georgia College, and the like are exceptions obviously). They generally get to live a more "normal" college life outside of their ROTC duties and responsibilities. Service academies definitely do immerse cadets/midshipmen in the military lifestyle and, to some degree, curtail their social lives compared to other college aged kids.
ROTC cadets/midshipmen also generally have a greater degree of flexibility with regard to their major. The service academies have expanded their curriculum over the last several decades, but they remain very heavily focused on engineering degrees. Everyone, regardless of their major, graduates with a BS due to the high number of required math/engineering classes. Traditional universities/colleges offer more choices for folks not interested in math or engineering focused degrees.
At the end of the day, a service academy or ROTC program gets a cadet/midshipman to the same place--a commission in one of the branches of the Armed Forces. Whichever path a prospective officer chooses, I applaud them for volunteering to serve.