NROTC Marine Option

Atticus

5-Year Member
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Sep 29, 2010
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I'm a nervous wreck right now. I am applying for a NROTC scholarship right now, but looking over the application, I'm in very poor shape.

I'm a soon-to-be Eagle scout (my final board of review in on the 28th of this month), with over 7 years of scouting under my belt.

I have roughly 192 community service hours.

I have an 3.36 average for my GPA.

I have a 29 on the ACT and a 1800 on the SAT.

I am a 4 year varsity swimmer, with one varsity letter and 2 school records.

Yet, my math scores are fairly poor, in the C and B range. In addition, I am not pursuing a major in the tier 1 or tier 2 majors.

So my chances of getting the NROTC scholarship has probably just went down the drain.

As for my question, are there any differences between the Marine option and the Navy option? Do I have a better chance of getting the Marine option versus the Navy Option.

Truthfully, I would rather go into the Navy Option, but I need a ROTC scholarship, this is my only way to go to college.

Thank you, I truly appreciate any info on the matter.
 
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I am not going to address the issue of joining ROTC primarily for the purposes of getting a scholarship and paying for college. I'm sure others will advise you on that approach.

As for your "chances" of receiving a scholarship with your stats and college major interest, I would say that your best bet of receiving a scholarship is the following:
1. Army ROTC - They need a lot of officers and college major is not a big concern.
2. NROTC Marine Option - The MC doesn't seem to particularly care what your major in college is going to be, they will teach you everything you need to know to become a Marine Officer. They are very discerning however on attitude and ONLY want people that seriously want to be Marines and are in good physical condition.
3, NROTC - As you've already mentioned the Navy is primarily interested in applicants pursuing technical majors. However, they are (supposedly) more generous with scholarships to non-technical majors and applicants without "top" stats than the Air Force.
4. Air Force ROTC - Good luck. Good stats/grades. Mostly tech/nursing/foreign language majors and currently experiencing a Reduction In Force. IOTW - they currently have more officers than they need and more cadets in AFROTC than they can commission.

Please keep in mind that IMHO....none of these is a "sure thing". If you need money for college you should definitely have a Plan B, C & D in addition to applying for one or more ROTC scholarships.
Good Luck!:thumb:
 
I am not going to address the issue of joining ROTC primarily for the purposes of getting a scholarship and paying for college. I'm sure others will advise you on that approach.

As for your "chances" of receiving a scholarship with your stats and college major interest, I would say that your best bet of receiving a scholarship is the following:
1. Army ROTC - They need a lot of officers and college major is not a big concern.
2. NROTC Marine Option - The MC doesn't seem to particularly care what your major in college is going to be, they will teach you everything you need to know to become a Marine Officer. They are very discerning however on attitude and ONLY want people that seriously want to be Marines and are in good physical condition.
3, NROTC - As you've already mentioned the Navy is primarily interested in applicants pursuing technical majors. However, they are (supposedly) more generous with scholarships to non-technical majors and applicants without "top" stats than the Air Force.
4. Air Force ROTC - Good luck. Good stats/grades. Mostly tech/nursing/foreign language majors and currently experiencing a Reduction In Force. IOTW - they currently have more officers than they need and more cadets in AFROTC than they can commission.

Please keep in mind that IMHO....none of these is a "sure thing". If you need money for college you should definitely have a Plan B, C & D in addition to applying for one or more ROTC scholarships.
Good Luck!:thumb:

To make myself clear, it is my goal to join the military, regardless of college or not. Its simply that I would rather go to college first then enlist right after high school. I'm not just joining the military for the money.

Also, can you apply for both the Navy option and the Marine option, or just one of the two?
 
Does anyone know any general information about the Marine option?
 
So, from what I've read, my chances come down to this:

1. Because I am pursuing a tier 3 major, I have probably only a 15% chance of getting the Navy option scholarship.

2. Only a few Marine option scholarships are handed out every year, and are extremely competitive.

So, with those two things in mind, which do I have a higher chance of being accepted?
 
2. Only a few Marine option scholarships are handed out every year, and are extremely competitive.

So, with those two things in mind, which do I have a higher chance of being accepted?
With a non-technical major I believe your "chance" of being selected is higher with the Marine Option (as I posted earlier). Further I think you would have a better chance of receiving an Army ROTC scholarship than a NROTC MO scholarship.

At the risk of offending any veteran Marines; if you are willing to join either the Navy or MC why aren't you at least considering the Army?
 
With a non-technical major I believe your "chance" of being selected is higher with the Marine Option (as I posted earlier). Further I think you would have a better chance of receiving an Army ROTC scholarship than a NROTC MO scholarship.

At the risk of offending any veteran Marines; if you are willing to join either the Navy or MC why aren't you at least considering the Army?

Oh I am. I would rather prefer a Navy scholarship over the Army though.
 
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Just to throw in my two cents:

Another option I have been reading on and talked to for the Army (That's my goal :biggrin:) is the Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP) http://www.goarmy.com/rotc/enroll/enlisted.html. Don't know if Navy or MC has the same thing. But here's what I understand about the Army deal, and what officers that did my AROTC interview said:

1. With SMP, you will enlist in the Army National Guard sometime during your senior year and plan to attend Basic Training the summer after your senior year and prior to your freshman year of college. You will enroll at whatever university and be enlisted in the NG but not deployable. You will take AROTC classes in college as any scholar-shipped cadet would. You will have drill for the NG part of your deal maybe once a month, maybe more or less. After your freshman year of college you can go to AIT which will give you the ability to basically have more skills for your MOS and give you a larger paycheck. At the end of your 4 years you will be commissioned as a 2nd lt in the NG and the way I understand it it isn't very hard to go from there to active duty.
2. As far as $$$ goes, SMP should give you more money (all that I looked at was going to be about double) at any state/public university than an ROTC scholarship.
3. I am not sure, but I think the commitment is the same as the scholarship. Check on that though.

Like I said, this is just all army info. Don't even know if the USN has SMP. But it's worth checking out. Good Luck!
 
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After your freshman year of college you can go to AIT which will give you the ability to basically have more skills for your MOS and give you a larger paycheck.
Once you have completed your AIT (and before you graduate from college) are you deployable?
 
Once you have completed your AIT (and before you graduate from college) are you deployable?

The way I understand it you aren't deployable until you get your commision. But I'm in the rat race too :rolleyes: and therefore not the absolute expert. Pretty sure you're not.
 
*Only Army has SMP
*SMP members are non-deployable
*SMP is a 2 or 3 year program
*Basic and AIT are not required (optional)
*If you finish AIT you get paid more - for remainder of time in ROTC
*Time served in SMP counts for 'time in service'.

SMP/Scholarship options, Link: BamaROTC
Purdue University Army ROTC has a nice PowerPoint covering the various options at Link
 
Not sure how this fits in with all of it, but in the past couple years there have been National Guard cadets(Not sure if they were SMP) that wanted to deploy with their units but were actually told(ordered) by the PMS that they needed to stay finish their commitments and commission as a Lt.
 
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