NROTC 2013 students / parents

Thank you for the helpful insight. I would be grateful for thoughts/advice relative to my DS' NROTC application. He has excellent credentials (1500+ SAT; 4.3GPA; 4-year varsity athlete; school vice president; section leader in nationally renowned school jazz band; National Honors Society; etc.). For a variety of reasons (some his fault, some not), he is just completing is NROTC application. Everything is with the local recruiter except the officer interview submission. He had his interview a few days ago with his BGO, and the recruiter is waiting to receive the interview summary. (He is also applying to the USNA and the BGO interview is for both NROTC and USNA). His five school choices include 4 top private universities (Cornell is top choice) plus Univ. of Michigan. He selected a tier 1 major. The comments above indicate that private schools tend to fill up early. Given that his application will not be in on time to be considered by the early boards, should he consider changing his school choices and/or applying to some more public universities that may not have otherwise been on his list? Thanks in advance for your responses!

It’s not so much that the private schools fill up first, although some do. I think the reference may have been to the ratio of public/private scholarships given out overall. Cornell rarely, if ever, fills up so that’s a pretty safe bet for your son. What’s harder is getting into their Engineering school. The NROTC Unit at Cornell gave us a very helpful spreadsheet of the admission stats of the NROTC students & their majors, and the average admissions stats broken down for each school there. The officers at that Unit would be a great resource for you and your son. I would suggest contacting all of the Units on his list to find out when each Unit generally fills and if they take off their waitlist. That is just helpful information to have when filling out school choice. Although your son has as good a shot as any at getting into Cornell, it’s good to be prepared.

I think it’s likely that your son will get picked up for a scholarship on his first board. In fact, if he doesn’t I would call the NROTC office to find out for sure if his packet went before the board. If something gets lost, your local recruiter would usually not know about it so don’t rely on the local recruiter for information after his application has been completely submitted.

It’s still a good idea to explore additional options for schools. If your son puts Cornell as his first choice and gets picked up for a scholarship in October or November, he’d get placed in that Unit. If he finds out in April that he didn’t get into Cornell, he needs to then switch his scholarship to another school. He has more leeway since he currently has a private school spot. If he had been admitted into all of his 4 other NROTC schools on his list, then he can switch to one of them, private or public, as long as they haven’t already filled up. That’s why it’s important to have contact with all of the Units on your list. For complete flexibility, he’ll want to already be admitted to at least a couple of schools that rarely fill their Units.

The hope is that by April your son will have both an Appointment to USNA and an NROTC scholarship to a terrific school and then he can choose which kind of college experience he’d prefer to have. Both are tremendous opportunities and great choices.
 
Didn't know the BGO interview could also count towards NROTC though. Not saying that's not the case, just that it's news to me.

I was thinking the same thing. For our kids the NROTC interview was with an AD JO whereas the BGOs in our area are all civilians. But we live near Navy bases so I guess it's probably different all over the country. The good thing about the interview being done by a BGO is that you can see when it's submitted on the USNA applicant site.
 
Thanks for the responses. It's encouraging to hear that DS's application is perhaps not as late in the process as I thought. We will definitely contact the units for the schools on his application and any others to which he applies. With regard to the BGO also doing the NROTC interview, DS's BGO is active duty, so perhaps that's why he can do both. The suggestion to use the BGO for NROTC came from the recruiter. Hope he's right!
 
Thanks for the responses. It's encouraging to hear that DS's application is perhaps not as late in the process as I thought. We will definitely contact the units for the schools on his application and any others to which he applies. With regard to the BGO also doing the NROTC interview, DS's BGO is active duty, so perhaps that's why he can do both. The suggestion to use the BGO for NROTC came from the recruiter. Hope he's right!

So long as the BGO knows he was also doing an NROTC interview, I wouldn't think there is any problem with it.
 
I was thinking the same thing. For our kids the NROTC interview was with an AD JO whereas the BGOs in our area are all civilians. But we live near Navy bases so I guess it's probably different all over the country. The good thing about the interview being done by a BGO is that you can see when it's submitted on the USNA applicant site.

I agree - my understanding was that was totally different - I know my sons' BGO told them both that he had no input for NROTC. Both had to go to a local Navy recruiting center for an interview there for NROTC. I do know that for USAFA/AFROTC the same interview from the ALO was used.
 
His five school choices include 4 top private universities (Cornell is top choice) plus Univ. of Michigan. He selected a tier 1 major. The comments above indicate that private schools tend to fill up early.
Not all Privates are the same. Those that fill up early tend to be privates in a tier below Cornell. Very popular Private NROTC Battalions (going by memory) that are not as difficult academically as the Cornell (the Private part, not the Land Grant part) are: 1) University of San Diego, 2) Villanova, 3) Tulane, 4) George Washington, 5) Boston University, 6) Fordham. None of those is nearly as hard to get into as Cornell, and therefore will have many, many more NROTC applicants listing them as top choice. Remember the applicant must list in rank order, so not many would list Cornell, or MIT, or Northwestern, etc. #1 since they are uncertain about admissions. When 80-95% of academically fully qualified applicants don't get in through Admissions, the NROTC scholarship Awardee must then pitition NETC to transfer that Award to another college... that is a large risk. For high stat students, those I listed are much surer bets on Admissions + Scholarship being in alignment.
 
Not all Privates are the same. Those that fill up early tend to be privates in a tier below Cornell. Very popular Private NROTC Battalions (going by memory) that are not as difficult academically as the Cornell (the Private part, not the Land Grant part) are: 1) University of San Diego, 2) Villanova, 3) Tulane, 4) George Washington, 5) Boston University, 6) Fordham. None of those is nearly as hard to get into as Cornell, and therefore will have many, many more NROTC applicants listing them as top choice. Remember the applicant must list in rank order, so not many would list Cornell, or MIT, or Northwestern, etc. #1 since they are uncertain about admissions. When 80-95% of academically fully qualified applicants don't get in through Admissions, the NROTC scholarship Awardee must then pitition NETC to transfer that Award to another college... that is a large risk. For high stat students, those I listed are much surer bets on Admissions + Scholarship being in alignment.

Great points, dunninla. Notre Dame is another that fills up very early in the process. Many students put that as number 1 because they hope that having a scholarship to that unit will help in admissions. In reality, the Notre Dame Unit gets filled early and many scholarship recipients have no shot of getting into the school. Notre Dame may also have more spots than most schools occupied by those who go on to receive Appointments and eventually choose USNA. That’s why it’s important to also ask about the wait list details at each unit. Notre Dame fills early, gets a long wait list, and then go through their wait list to the point where there are usually spots left over. Whereas with San Diego , although it also fills early, most everyone who receives an NROTC scholarship can get into the school. They don’t have nearly as much movement off the waitlist. Not all waitlists are equal.

The danger for very high stat students is that the very top tier universities are a stretch for everyone so if they list those universities first and not their safeties, their safeties often get filled and the high stat student is still left scrambling if they don’t get in.

As an aside, when I spoke to someone at the NROTC Unit at SUNY Maritime about the Fordham Unit last year, they said it was a late fill, not an early. That’s where setting up a visit with the Unit comes in handy. Sometimes the phone calls are a little sketchy depending on who answers. That would have messed up our plan C.
 
Awesome idea!

I applied in May 2012 since my college credits would count against me after the spring semester. Interview is done, everything is turned in. The status on my NROTC login page says that my application has been processed. I am now waiting for a decision. Does anyone know another student that has his or her results for the 2013 application?
 
I dont think he will have a problem getting in anywhere if you were speaking of 1500+ math and verbal only, that is exceptional.
I would agree with you except for about four or five NROTC programs at schools who reject more 1500 SAT students than they take, proportion of rejected 1500 in descending order: Harvard, Stanford, MIT. The following will also reject almost as many 1500+ SAT students as they take: UC Berkeley Engineering, Duke, Northwestern, and Hopkins. It wouldn't surprise me if MIT, Harvard and Stanford rejected over 80% of students with 1500+ SAT and 4.3 GPA, with exceptional ECs, etc. That is not out of step with the general statistics that only 7% of applicants get into Harvard or Stanford, about 10% into MIT, etc. The overwhelming majority of those applicants are over 1400 SAT and over 4.0 GPA.
 
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Hoping to start an official thread for all students who are applying for an NROTC scholarship entering college in the fall of 2013. I thought this post would be a good way for applicants to see where everyone else was in the process, and what their status is.

Getting back "on topic," it looks like the board met the last week in August and made their decisions on the first batch of applicants. If you have a "Selection Status" line on your application status and its blank, it may be good news.

This 2009 Service Academy Forum thread seems to have the best outline of what to expect in the next several months:

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=8773&highlight=nrotc+application+status
 
What was the Topic?

"to see where everyone else was in the process, and what their status is"

At least, that was what I thought it was. Correct me if I am wrong.

The board appears to be moving out on the current applications. The thread I referenced, may provide some insight on what you are hearing (or not hearing). Apparently, when you receive a "Selection Status" reference in the "Scholarship Selection/Placement System" it means that your application has been processed and a board (in this case the first board) has made their review. Under the "Selection Status" section you should see one of three things: (1) Nothing (which may be good news); (2) a statement that "no selection has been made on your applicaton" (e.g., your application was reviewed but not picked); or (2) a statement that you have not been selected.
At this time, if you do not have a "Selection Status" reference, I believe that it means that your application was not reviewed (maybe submitted too late or not complete) by the first board.
 
Hoping to start an official thread for all students who are applying for an NROTC scholarship entering college in the fall of 2013. I thought this post would be a good way for applicants to see where everyone else was in the process, and what their status is.

So far for me, I submitted my application early this month with everything completed, and I am waiting to hear back.

Please post any questions or information you think is necessary for this thread! Good luck to everyone applying for this years NROTC scholarship.

I think that information on school choice is on topic for the original post.

School choice matters now for both parents and students because they are in the midst of preparing applications. It's something that can be researched now while in waiting mode and put into action now in college applications. When I was at swearing in for my 4/C a couple of weeks ago, the topic of conversation among the parents was about the various school choice adventures that got our kids to that Unit.

The board has either met, or it hasn't. Some have either been selected for scholarships or not. Conjecture is interesting and completely understandable but it doesn't change anything or help anyone prepare. It could be that the thread from three years ago has relevant information on how to guess if an application has gone before the board. One of our kids is a 1/C so we were in that group of waiting parents but I don't remember if we saw any pattern in the change. I don't remember a change for our 2/C or 4/C either so maybe I'm just not observant enough.
 
I think that information on school choice is on topic for the original post.

School choice matters now for both parents and students because they are in the midst of preparing applications. It's something that can be researched now while in waiting mode and put into action now in college applications. When I was at swearing in for my 4/C a couple of weeks ago, the topic of conversation among the parents was about the various school choice adventures that got our kids to that Unit.

The board has either met, or it hasn't. Some have either been selected for scholarships or not. Conjecture is interesting and completely understandable but it doesn't change anything or help anyone prepare. It could be that the thread from three years ago has relevant information on how to guess if an application has gone before the board. One of our kids is a 1/C so we were in that group of waiting parents but I don't remember if we saw any pattern in the change. I don't remember a change for our 2/C or 4/C either so maybe I'm just not observant enough.

It appeared to me that this thread was tracking the status of applications. Seems a little late to be talking about schools although it seemed to me that was where this thread was going. If that was what the thread was for, I suggest that the decision be made quickly as your DS or DD's application was definitely not vetted at the first board and his/her application may not make it in time for the next one.

For the rest of you, check the status of your DS/DD's application. If the application had no missing items, you should see an updated status.
 
Getting back "on topic," it looks like the board met the last week in August and made their decisions on the first batch of applicants. If you have a "Selection Status" line on your application status and its blank, it may be good news.

This 2009 Service Academy Forum thread seems to have the best outline of what to expect in the next several months:

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=8773&highlight=nrotc+application+status

Thanks, hopefully some people will start seeing a new status to reflect the boards decision.

I applied in May 2012 since my college credits would count against me after the spring semester. Interview is done, everything is turned in. The status on my NROTC login page says that my application has been processed. I am now waiting for a decision. Does anyone know another student that has his or her results for the 2013 application?

Haven't heard anything yet, am going to check the application status once I get home. I believe I submitted mine too late for it to have been reviewed, as I didn't get it in until the beginning-middlish part of August (do not remember the exact date).
 
I have also been told that the first review board sometimes doesn't select many applicants unless they are very very strong. But I was only told this, so I have no confirmation that it is correct.
 
I recently found this summary on the NROTC Scholarship process on the NC State website. I only wish that I would have seen it earlier as its the best summary of what my DS has gone through to date in the application process.

Here is the jump:

http://www.ncsu.edu/navy_rotc/Visitors/Scholarship application info.pdf

Below is an exerpt from the document that addresses the Navy's selection process:

"Scholarship selection boards for the Navy meet about a dozen or more times (depending on the total number of applications) throughout the year with the first board usually convening in late August/early September. Marine Corps scholarship selection boards are held in November and February. Each board will review approximately 500 applications and they are reviewed in the order in which they are received. For this reason, you want to make every effort to have all of your application complete by early August so that you will be reviewed as early as possible. By August, there are usually 2,000 to 3,000 applications completed so if you’re just finishing in the September timeframe, you may not be reviewed until several months later. The selection board ―scores‖ all of the applications it reviews based on everything contained in the application and then selects the top hundred or so highest scoring applications. Those not selected are automatically rolled to the next board which would meet about a month later and select another hundred or so applications. In this manner, about 1,800 to 1,900 students will ultimately be selected over the course of the year (the last board meets in April) out of the roughly 8,000 to 10,000 that apply. This represents around a 20 percent acceptance rate, though it varies by year."
 
AMS,

Thanks for the link. I think it is important for candidates to realize how competitive it is.

For NROTC candidates, remember a large percentage of SA candidates apply for ROTC scholarship as plan B. Take the time if you are only a NROTC candidate and not an SA candidate to peek over at the SA threads regarding their stats too. They will be your competition too.

Additionally, the reason they are important is many of them that are awarded a scholarship, can hold onto it until they report for I-Day. If they hold onto the scholarship, that money is spoken for, and the pot of gold is reduced. NROTC will assume they will activate the scholarship come next summer until they are told the candidate went SA. In the 4 yrs here, I would say the majority of SA candidates spend more time on the SA boards @ this time, because the scholarship is plan B, it is only in Dec. do they start thinking about plan B becoming plan A. Usually when the appointment list starts to grow. Thus, that is when they start investigating ROTC more and post on ROTC forums.

This is also true for A/AFROTC.
 
Processing question

Quick question - I'm hoping someone can give me some feedback as to the process. My DS submitted his application in July, had his interview in early August but now a month later his on-line application status still shows his interview and forms(the ones they sign at the interview) are "items waiting to be processed".

Is this normal? He has made a call about two weeks ago to the PO who has been extremely helpful to date who advised not to worry about it.

Please advise.
 
swimmom,

Re-read AMS's post. It is 1st in 1st out. If his contact says don't worry, don't worry.

It takes time to process everyone.
By August, there are usually 2,000 to 3,000 applications completed so if you’re just finishing in the September timeframe, you may not be reviewed until several months later.

2-3K by August. That's a lot! 2-3K applicants and assume they spend 10 minutes per candidate updating the file. That is 30K minutes. Do the math. 40 hrs a week, leaves 750 manpower hours for 1 person.

Deep breaths, because as AMS stated many are re-boarded, this is a hard yr emotionally.
 
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