I am prior service, enlisted Infantry so I fully understand that prior enlisted make for better officers. I am of the opinion that all butter bars should be required to pass the AIT for their officer corps, and serve 1 year as an E5 in a unit that is tasked for their corps.
Not sure what my son wants to do. He does show an aptitude for STEM courses and is a sophomore taking honors chem and honors geometry. He is a solid B at this level and is improving to an A. These are his first honors classes. He does have a bit of a self disciple issue about homework and when he achieves that, he will be a solid A student. Right now, he is a 3.0 +/- .2
He has expressed interest in being a chemical engineer, working in IT (like dad) or music. Though he realizes that it is difficult to make enough money with his guitar / saxophone to live in the lifestyle that he has grown accustomed to. So he is still deciding, has time, and nothing is set in stone.
The current plan is to work with him to get him to manage his own grades and take mom/dad out of the picture. This coming summer, start doing a little college exploration and invest some time in researching scholarships. So while ROTC is on the table, it may not be the path that he decides on.
We have a friend of the family who is ARNG Military Intel enlisted so she can help him with the Guard options. We live in Colorado so if he wants to go the IT path, there is even a guard option for that as well - assuming he can score high enough on his ASVAB.