It is finally feeling real!

jiller59

5-Year Member
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Nov 3, 2011
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204
My son was presented with his NROTC "check" tonight! As many experienced posters have written, as tough as the application process may seem, that is only the beginning - the tough stuff is still to come. Our DS is a hard-working, goal-oriented, self-directed young man. He is excited by this opportunity and we feel certain he is up to the challenge. It will be an interesting ride!

Thanks for the advice and insight over the past several months; I will keep reading as the process continues.

And best wishes to the other parents that are going along on this journey with your children.:thumb:
 
Our son received his “big check” from the Navy last night also. It has been an amazing journey just to get to this point for both him and us (mom and dad). Just a few months ago I would have bet he was going Army but after a lot of thinking, planning and discussion he has decided he is a Navy Man. Words can not express how proud we are. One of the best parts of this process is knowing how good HE feels about his decision.
 
Congrats to your kids. Take this summer to just enjoy these moments.
 
Does the school or the Navy recruiters present the "big check", and do all schools do this for NROTC scholarship recipients? I believe my DS is completely unaware that this recognition happens, and I hope his school does it at their award night tomorrow. I think it will be so awesome if he is surprised and honored this way.
 
My son’s high school guidance counselor asked us if there was someone that could present his NROTC scholarship. I contacted the recruiter that my son had been working with and they made the arrangements to get someone to the awards ceremony to make the presentation.
 
I am going to assume since the school did not contact me to help make this arrangement then perhaps my DS won't get the extra little "perk" of a presentation; however, there are other young men at his school receiving NROTC scholarships so just maybe someone else did help connect the dots. The awards ceremony is tonight so we'll see! I'm just so proud of him and think it would be awesome for him to experience this type of presentation b/c truly, how often in one's life does this type of thing happen? Thanks for the information!
 
My son's counselor has contact with the local Navy recruiter and followed up with him when my son told her he received the scholarship. The recruiter then arranged for someone to come for the presentation. It is probably a little bit different at every school!

Congratulations and have fun tonight!
 
We let our kids' counselors know about the scholarship and then coordinated with the recruiter. With our first kid we didn't know to do this but figured it out with the next two. Our recruiter was too disorganized a couple of years ago to manage it all so he asked my husband (active duty) to present it to our kid at awards a couple of days ahead of time and dropped off the check. This year we have a new recruiter who is very squared away but our senior requested Dad to present it. I recommend any recipient be proactive a couple of months ahead of time to try to make it work out. It is also a great way to encourage underclassmen to think about applying for ROTC or SA when they see the awards.
 
My DS received his NROTC scholarship award certificate at last night's awards ceremony. There was a Navy officer and enlisted seaman there to present it, alas no big "check" -- it was quite nice nonetheless, but I think that big check helps those less informed to truly understand the significance of this scholarship, and as basilrathbone commented, it helps the underclassmen consider these scholarships.
 
I have seen every branch do this, just in various ways, but it also depends on timing. Many HS's do their awards night the same night, thus the rep for the branch may have already been committed to another ceremony.

I know for our DS (AFROTC), he asked his ALO to present, but he asked too late, so it was someone from ROTC command that did the presentation. It wasn't a big check, but a letter framed.

As others have stated ROTC likes to do this because it is free marketing. Think about it, if 800 kids graduate, 500 families attend, many of them will have siblings, they just got more people interested when they hear all of the perks, such as the total cost of the scholarship, monthly stipends, book allowances, and of course a job waiting for them the day they graduate from college.
 
My DS received his NROTC scholarship award certificate at last night's awards ceremony. There was a Navy officer and enlisted seaman there to present it, alas no big "check" -- it was quite nice nonetheless, but I think that big check helps those less informed to truly understand the significance of this scholarship, and as basilrathbone commented, it helps the underclassmen consider these scholarships.

We had no idea what to expect. During the ceremony, the officer briefly discussed the application and acceptance process and noted the potential dollar value of the award. I even commented to my husband that the presentation is probably partially a recruiting tool - there were quite a lot of murmurs in the crowd when the amount was mentioned. Of course it was a proud moment for our DS and our family.

The big check was presented & photos taken after the ceremony and our family had a few minutes to speak privately with the officer. He had an opportunity to review our DS's application and interview form and was able to tell us a bit about the "scoring" and his impression of our son's qualifications, which we really appreciated. All in all a fabulous evening!
 
At the hs's that our kids attended (1 in NC, 1 in VA), each time there were the murmurs, very interesting when you are sitting in the crowd among strangers and hearing their opinions, all very positive with them never knowing it was your child.

I don't know what occurs at other schools, but the ones that we attended, the heartbreaking moment for me was when the entire audience gave a standing ovation after the presentation for the students awarded either apptmts or scholarships. I have never believed it was about the scholarship/appt, but their way of applauding them for wanting to serve this great country. It becomes quickly apparent who the parents are because somebody always will congratulate them at this point. The night DS got his, strangers came up to me and asked how can they do this for their next child.

IMPO it is the best recruitment tool out there, especially in these economic times.

If you have never seen one of these presentations, it is amazing as you hear them read off the stats of the recipient, and how many people they had to fight against nationally to win the scholarship. In AFROTC it is over 5K applicants, for 900 scholarships. Parents in the audience look at each other with that WOW face just trying to process the competition. They immediately than go to we need to look into this, and check Johnnie/Janie's academic record.

For our DS, his scholarship award also was an eye opener to many parents, because the presenter gave the back story of how 7 AFJROTC cadets applied too for the scholarship at his hs., and that DS was never in JROTC, but the only one to receive a scholarship, thus, it removed the fallacy for parents that only JROTC cadets could get ROTC scholarships.
 
At my DS' high school, he and another student were receiving AROTC scholarships. The PMS from the closest college presented the award, but I was a little disappointed in the presentation. He basically mentioned that about 10,000 students apply for these scholarships and only about 10% receive one. He didn't mention anything about what it covers. The Naval Academy award and the AFROTC scholarship were much bigger to-do's. But he did get a really nice certificate in a bound cover. Oh well, that's OK - he's just thrilled he received one, and HE knows what the benefits are!
 
It is nice to see that some of these kids get recognized at school for these scholarships. My son's school does not recognize scholarship winners at the awards night other then the top five graduates, not even academy appointees are recognized unless they were in the top 5, and since our school does not weight the GPA the top 5 is very skewed to those who took only easy classes.

The unfortunate thing is that my son's went to what can be considered a very liberal school, when the services came to career day they were not allowed to wear their uniforms and had to have people at the meeting that gave a "Contrary view" to the military, all students had to have a signed release form from their parents to attend. Needless to say even if the school did announce scholarship, military scholarships would not have been included.

After both my son's received AROTC Scholarship the word did get around to others and the interest peaked in a lot of kids. Even with the atmospher at my son's school they have had several ROTC scholarships and academy appointments despite the schools views.

Glad to see kids here getting the recognition. Congratulations.
 
It is nice to see that some of these kids get recognized at school for these scholarships. My son's school does not recognize scholarship winners at the awards night other then the top five graduates, not even academy appointees are recognized unless they were in the top 5, and since our school does not weight the GPA the top 5 is very skewed to those who took only easy classes.

The unfortunate thing is that my son's went to what can be considered a very liberal school, when the services came to career day they were not allowed to wear their uniforms and had to have people at the meeting that gave a "Contrary view" to the military, all students had to have a signed release form from their parents to attend. Needless to say even if the school did announce scholarship, military scholarships would not have been included.

After both my son's received AROTC Scholarship the word did get around to others and the interest peaked in a lot of kids. Even with the atmospher at my son's school they have had several ROTC scholarships and academy appointments despite the schools views.

Glad to see kids here getting the recognition. Congratulations.

I guess it helps that we live in a military-friendly area, and that kids who are taking the military route are respected. It was very cool to see all the military representatives on the stage in their uniforms.
 
I guess it helps that we live in a military-friendly area, and that kids who are taking the military route are respected. It was very cool to see all the military representatives on the stage in their uniforms.

No recognition at all at my DS's high school during the senior award night. I asked the guidance counselor about it, but she just said if DS didn't get an invitation for the evening, he did not have to attend. What a bummer. In the end, though, he is relieved. The attention is not what he is seeking, but the recognition for the achievement would have been nice.
 
No recognition at all at my DS's high school during the senior award night. I asked the guidance counselor about it, but she just said if DS didn't get an invitation for the evening, he did not have to attend. What a bummer. In the end, though, he is relieved. The attention is not what he is seeking, but the recognition for the achievement would have been nice.

I totally agree with you! These kids have worked hard to get these scholarships, and most people don't understand what they're all about. But in the end, the big prize is the commission, and that's the focus. So onward and onward as DS preps for the fall!

BTW, do I remember you saying that your DS is going to CNU?
 
Glad to see Scholarship winners getting the recognition they deserve. At my school they only announced Academy appointments.
 
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