Indeed...Stuff Happens!
I think your post is an enlightenment to candidates of what may occur regarding this process.
I debated for quite awhile about sharing DS’s NROTC scholarship application experience on this thread –the series of unfortunate events that unfolded were unsettling and not inspiring, but…this is the good part –in spite of the unsettling, unfortunate, and uninspiring events of that process, DS is now very happily settled and extremely fortunate and altogether inspired as he makes his way through his USNA sponsored prep year 1300 miles away at NMMI. Serving his country as a Naval Officer remains his goal. So okay…the story -
The Reader’s Digest Version
DS began his NROTC scholarship application April of his junior year. One YEAR and one month later (May 19) he received the letter from the Department of the Navy “I regret to inform you…” blah, blah, blah no scholarship.
Typical Kar57 Version
DS began his NROTC scholarship application April of his junior year. A couple weeks later (May 16, 2011) DS submitted his completed application and arrived (early, but not too early) for his Officer Interview at the local recruiting station a few miles up the road. CDR XXX who was scheduled to do the interview was suddenly called out just before DS’s appointed time. So DS sat and waited for just a little more than an hour before a replacement interviewer could be found. DS reported that the interview, although delayed, seemed to go pretty well. Skip ahead a bit to fall of senior year, college applications completed and submitted, visits with NROTC units made, more ACT and SAT tests taken and results submitted, NROTC status page reads “
NSTC Selection/Placement Office has received your application. All required items have been processed. No decision has been made on your application.” Highest Math and Verbal SAT or ACT equivalent listed. 5 College Choices listed. Everything in order…or so it seemed.
Until December 14 (7 months after the initial interview). The phone rang in the middle of the school day and it was Petty Officer XXX from the local recruiting station. He called to say that he had just gotten off the phone with the NSTC Selection/Placement Office – THE office in Pensacola - and they were requesting that DS come in ASAP for a second interview. So Petty Officer told me to tell DS to make arrangements to miss the last couple hours of school the next day to drive to yet another city to be interviewed by yet another Officer – this time a LCDR XXX. Well, okay. This was looking very good – and being so close to Christmas and all, put everyone in a cheery mood. So Interview #2 went well, according to DS.
Winter break, college acceptances started coming in, MOC nomination to the Naval Academy, school back in session, DS begins his final semester in high school! Friday, January 13 – yes, Friday the 13th, DS calls me from school – I could barely understand him through the excitement…Petty Officer XXX (same guy from local recruiting station) had called the school this time and requested DS be pulled from class and immediately report to yet another town to be interviewed – a THIRD time – by yet another Officer. (Now this is 8 months after the initial interview.) DS was calling to say he was on his way home to change into his interview clothes and then head out. Once DS drove out of the driveway I grabbed up his two youngest brothers and had a bit of a celebration dance party! All kinds of wonderful scenarios were playing out in my head. DS arrived home and reported, “No Mom, they didn’t hand me a scholarship on the spot.” The interviewer did say that he “had a good feeling about this, though.” Well, that will just have to do. Two weeks pass – January 31, 2012 - Petty Officer calls and offers an explanation for the Three Interview Saga. Interview #1 – Although what Pensacola received from the “substitute” interviewer way back in May of 2011 was good, it wasn’t in the proper format and so deemed “incomplete.” So a second interview needed to be conducted. Interview #2 (December 2011) – the interview Officer was called out on temporary assignment right after interviewing DS and before the Officer could input the interview. Still looking like an “incomplete” file, says Pensacola. DS was “falling through the cracks” – Petty Officer’s words, not mine. Thus Interview #3 (January 13, 2012).
So there on NROTC Scholarship Application Deadline day, January 31, 2012 – 8 ½ months AFTER DS submitted his complete application and had his Officer interview, his file was NOW complete?
And just made it under the wire.
And that means his file can go before the Review Board now. Really? Seriously?
Well, skip ahead, past winter, past early spring, and on April 27, 2012 – DS’s status page finally changed its very stale message of "all required items have been processed, no decision has been made" and on May 19 the snail mail letter confirmation arrived…”you are not among those selected to receive a four-year scholarship…”
A series of unfortunate events to be sure…but like I said earlier, in spite of all of that, DS remains on his journey.
And has seen up close and personal before arriving on the NMMI Post and next summer (hopefully) the Yard, how “Hurry Up and Wait” works and “Stuff Happens” and “This is The Military.”
For those of you in the midst of the NROTC Scholarship season, my advice based on personal experience, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Good luck!!