Air Force ROTC is designed to produce new officers from a pool of college-educated participants. Students who complete the program and graduate from school move on to join the service on active duty and are expected to take on leadership roles throughout their careers. Along with the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, ROTC is one of the three ways the Air Force produces commissioned officers.
The Air Force works with more than 1,000 colleges in universities around the nation to offer ROTC to students. There are detachments at various schools in all 50 states along with Puerto Rico. Even if a student does not attend a college with an ROTC detachment, however, he may be able to work with a different school that does have the program.
Students that participate in Air Force ROTC can earn a commission in the service after graduation, which essentially boils down to being given a steady job immediately after finish school. That isn't the only benefit, though. Qualifying students in ROTC can earn scholarships for participating in the program that pay for all or part of the costs of attending college. These scholarships, available to incoming high school students, college students and prior military students, are a major selling point for the ROTC program [Reference 3].
Students that join ROTC are not, at first, obligated to join the Air Force. While in college and not on scholarship, students can choose to quit the program at any point. Students on scholarship, meanwhile, are not obligated to join the military until their sophomore year. After that, students on scholarship are required to sign a contract and enlist in the Air Force Reserve---officially obligating themselves to service following college.