How to Complete and Submit USACC Form 174-R: Eligibility and Six Parts

USACC Form 174-R is the Army’s Green to Gold program application, used by active-duty enlisted soldiers who want to earn a degree and commission as officers through ROTC. In most cases the form is generated for you inside the online application portal at the Cadet Command Green to Gold site, though a blank PDF is available on the Army ROTC website if your battalion asks you to complete it that way.¹ To complete it, pick your program track, confirm you meet every eligibility requirement, gather your Phase 1 documents, then work through the six parts of the form and submit through the portal.

Pick Your Program Track First

The first field on the form asks which Green to Gold option you’re applying for. The choice controls your pay, your duty status while in school, and the length of the program, so decide before you open the application.

Scholarship: you leave active duty to attend college full-time. Two to four years, depending on credits already earned. Covers full tuition or room and board, a flat book payment, and a monthly stipend.
Active Duty Option (ADO): you stay on active duty with full pay and benefits while attending college and ROTC. Two years. The most competitive of the four.
Division Commander’s Hip Pocket Scholarship: a selective scholarship your chain of command recommends you for based on service record and officer potential.
Non-Scholarship: you leave active duty to attend school with a monthly stipend, then commission at graduation.

All four paths end at the same place, a commission as an Army officer, but the financial picture and day-to-day experience differ.²

Confirm You Meet Every Eligibility Requirement

Miss even one criterion and your packet either gets kicked back or forces a waiver request that will slow you down considerably. Check yourself against the full list before you start typing.

At least two years of active duty by the date you would be discharged to enroll. Waivers can bring this down to 24 months in some cases.³
Enlisted member of the Regular Army.
Under 31 in the calendar year you would commission. Hard ceiling with limited waivers.³
Cumulative high school or college GPA of at least 2.5 for the Scholarship and ADO tracks.²
ASVAB General Technical (GT) score of 110 or higher.
Current, passing Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) with a validated scorecard from the current application cycle.⁴
U.S. citizen. No waivers, because the requirement comes from Title 10.³
Favorable National Agency Check with Law and Credit (NACLC).
No more than three dependents including your spouse; waivers available.
Medical qualification through DoDMERB under AR 40-501. The medical exam happens after the selection board, not before your initial application.

If you were ever disenrolled from an officer training program, the form will ask. A yes answer doesn’t automatically kill the application, but it will require explanation and likely a waiver.

Gather Your Phase 1 Documents Before You Start

The application runs in two phases, and what you upload changes between them. Have the Phase 1 materials assembled before you open the online portal. Chasing down transcripts mid-application is the most common reason soldiers miss the cutoff.

An updated Soldier Talent Profile showing citizenship, GT score, security clearance status, awards, and assignments.
Official college transcripts from every institution you’ve attended.
An academic summary listing all completed college courses.
A current, validated ACFT scorecard, plus DA Form 5500 or 5501 if body composition applies.
Letters of recommendation combined into a single PDF.

The form itself is generated automatically inside the online system, so you generally don’t download and hand-fill a blank copy unless your battalion tells you otherwise. Phase 2 documents (USACC Form 104-R, the PMS letter, any waivers) only come into play if the board advances you, and no medical documents go into Phase 1 at all.⁴

Filling In the Six Parts

The form has six parts. The portal pre-fills some fields from your personnel records, but you’re responsible for verifying every entry. Errors here follow you through the rest of your commissioning timeline.

Part I: Personal Information

Select your program option (ADO, Scholarship, Hip Pocket, or Non-Scholarship) at the top. Then rank, full name, Social Security number, date of birth, gender, and race or ethnicity. The citizenship field is mandatory and must reflect U.S. citizenship; naturalized citizens enter their naturalization number.⁵ Marital status, spouse’s military status if applicable, dependents, and full contact information finish the section.

Part I also asks about civil convictions. See the disclosure section below before you answer.

Part II: Military Information

Current unit assignment, unit address, and unit phone. Basic Active Service Date (BASD), enlistment expiration date, MOS, GT score, and whether you hold a favorable NACLC. Your most recent ACFT date and individual event scores go here as well.⁵

Part III: School of Intent

Enter the host university where you’ll attend ROTC and, if different, the academic institution where you’ll earn the degree. Both require a FICE code, the federal identification number assigned to colleges. Your battalion’s enrollment officer or the university registrar can provide it.

Part IV: Academic Information

Major, cumulative GPA, SAT or ACT scores with the composite equivalent. The board reads these numbers next to every other applicant’s, so they need to match your official transcripts exactly. This section also asks whether you were ever disenrolled from an officer training program. Answer honestly; it is independently verifiable.

Part V: Chain of Command Evaluation

You don’t fill this part out. Your company commander and battalion commander each write an evaluation of your military aptitude, motivation, and potential to earn a Regular Army commission, then select one of three recommendations: Highly Recommend, Recommend, or Do Not Recommend. Your battalion commander also confirms whether you’re pending UCMJ action, barred from reenlistment, or flagged under AR 600-8-2.⁵

A “Do Not Recommend” from either commander effectively ends the application. Talk to your chain of command well before you open the online portal so there are no surprises.

Part VI: Applicant Statement

Write a brief statement explaining why you want to become an Army officer. ADO applicants also initial a series of acknowledgment statements covering the four-year active duty service obligation after commissioning, repayment of bonuses if you don’t complete the program, prerequisite course costs, and restrictions on using Tuition Assistance while in the program. Read each one before you initial. They are binding commitments.

Submitting Through the Portal

The primary submission route is the online Green to Gold application portal at the Cadet Command website. Your completed Form 174-R and all Phase 1 supporting documents upload through this system.² Loop in your commanding officer before you start; they have to complete the Part V evaluations, and many units run internal timelines ahead of the official deadline.

Once you submit Phase 1 and your status moves to “Board Ready,” the Green to Gold team forwards your name to DoDMERB for medical scheduling. You don’t initiate the medical exam yourself. In the most recent ADO cycle, the selection board convened in December and results were released via MILPER message in January.⁴ Dates shift between cycles, so confirm the current ones with your battalion or on the Cadet Command site.

If selected, you move to Phase 2 and submit USACC Form 104-R (completed by the university’s ROTC program and signed by you, the school registrar, and the Professor of Military Science), the PMS letter verifying your acceptance and start date, and any waiver requests on a fillable DA Form 4187 with digital signatures. DoDMERB must clear you medically no later than 45 days before your school start date, or you can request a deferral to the following fall.⁴

Answer the Civil Convictions Question Honestly

This is the field that trips up the most applicants. The Army’s disclosure standard is broader than a civilian background check. You must list every offense, including juvenile records, expunged records, sealed records, nolo contendere pleas, and pretrial diversion programs. The only category the form doesn’t require is an arrest that never led to charges, or charges dismissed without any finding of guilt.

A disclosed misdemeanor is usually a solvable problem, sometimes with a waiver. An undisclosed one discovered later is a career-ending one. Every answer on Form 174-R is a statement to the federal government, and false entries can be prosecuted under the UCMJ or resolved through administrative separation with an unfavorable discharge and loss of benefits including the GI Bill and VA loan eligibility. Disclose everything the form asks about, even if it feels uncomfortable.

1
United States Army Cadet Command. USACC Form 174-R – Army ROTC Green to Gold Program Application
2
U.S. Army. Army Green to Gold Program
3
U.S. Army Cadet Command. USACC Regulation 145-1 – Army ROTC Incentives Policy
4
U.S. Army Cadet Command. Green to Gold Active Duty Option Program Handbook
5
Campbell University. USACC Form 174-R – Green to Gold Program Application