I'm not sure if the OP is even reading this thread anymore, but I'll offer some advice anyway.
Whatever you do, don't allow what you've heard regarding the 'treatment' of prior enlisted (OCs) within a given ROTC unit to influence your decision to apply to the respective school. ROTC units are run by a small staff of officers on shore duty, and the perceived treatment you receive as a prior can change as frequently as those billets exchange hands. Anyone who's been attached to a duty station long enough to witness a change of command knows what I'm talking about. As an OC who took the entire 36 months to finish a degree, I've seen a fairly wide range of expectations from the command leadership just within my one school. The bottom line is, trying to get into a unit with a reputation for going easy on its OCs is like trying to game the aviation pipeline for jets-- you're only setting yourself up for disappointment.
You can, however, somewhat reliably select a school with a greater or lesser percentage of OCs that make up the ROTC unit as a whole. The number of STA-21 students at a unit is usually influenced by that school's proximity to a Navy base. The larger the base, the larger the STA-21 representation. A school in the middle of BFE, on the other hand, is not likely to have many OCs at all. Obviously, each of these extremes has its merits, but it's something to consider when applying.
Good luck,
Don
EDIT: FMRAM, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with UW. I wish I had heard of your situation when you were trying to apply. FWIW, I've never seen an OC complete an AA degree while I was here, mostly due to the course sequencing requirements and the tailoring to a four-year plan. If you have transfer credits, however, you'd probably be alright. Furthermore, there is no foreign language requirement in the College of Engineering, so I'm not sure what their beef was with your Spanish, either.