As a non-scholarship ROTC cadet, should I pursue an ROTC scholarship or join the Guard (and pursue SMP)?

Hard to answer without knowing more about the school, and the current resources going to scholarships in Cadet Command - but I would tell you to trust your Cadre and meet any/all deadlines they give you for applications, medical exams, etc. etc. Keep your grades up and try to get that PT score to 270+ As a PMS, I had a good deal of latitude on 2yr-3yr on-campus scholarships and what I would have been assessing is: intelligence, character and desire! Live the Army Values and never, never, never quit! Avoid sentences such as "stuck in the Guard..." Good Luck!!

It disappoints me to read your views that being in the National Guard is some sort of a bad thing. I was a 3-year scholarship cadet. Earned an Active Duty commission and after 4-years of Active Duty switched to the Reserves and and the to the Guard. After 33 years of successful service leading at the platoon, battery and battalion levels, I retired with nearly half that time serving on Active Duty and 3 overseas deployments. The Guard is an operational force and is used as such. The sooner you realize we are a Total Force to defend this Nation, the better we all will be as an Army.

Service in any component is honorable if served well and faithfully. Take care of your Soldiers and your mission, the rest will take care of itself.

If you were in my office asking about this, there are 2 questions I would ask you . First, what is your goal after graduation (active duty, Reserve, or Guard). Second, what concerns do you have in paying for college. My default recommendation is for you to compete for a 2-year scholarship. This scholarship option keeps all of your options open for commissioning. If you enlist and become an SMP cadet, your scholarship options limit you to reserve forces duty. If that is your commissioning goal, that would work. Also in many cases, combining state provided NG benefits with an ROTC scholarship becomes the biggest amount of financial benefits you can receive. If you enlist in the NG, there are only a few MOSs that allow you to complete basic and AIT in the same summer. Most others would require you to miss a semester. So you have to look at that as well. I would not worry about what the top-rated MS3 cadet encountered. There are numerous reasons why someone could be refused a contract, many of these you would not have any visibility on to protect privacy rights. Base your decision solely on what you want to do. Again, my recommendation is to go for the scholarship.