Transferring From U.S. Naval Academy to NROTC

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3sacrowd

5-Year Member
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Oct 18, 2012
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I'm seeking information and am trying to get some help

I want to know if you know of or hear of, seen...anything...about transferring from USNA (in good standing) to NROTC (after plebe year is through), and what their experience was like. This thread will get super, super long if there are tons of why questions as I know people are wondering and back and forth arguing for or against each.

I'm just wondering if anybody on here knows of scholarship opportunities, what NROTC would think, favorable? or no? I know people transfer into NROTC their sophomore year and they have to do the accelerated program over the summer to catch up, but since coming for USNA, would you have to do that?

Thank you much in advance
 
3sacrowd said:
I'm seeking information and am trying to get some help

I want to know if you know of or hear of, seen...anything...about transferring from USNA (in good standing) to NROTC (after plebe year is through), and what their experience was like. This thread will get super, super long if there are tons of why questions as I know people are wondering and back and forth arguing for or against each.

I'm just wondering if anybody on here knows of scholarship opportunities, what NROTC would think, favorable? or no? I know people transfer into NROTC their sophomore year and they have to do the accelerated program over the summer to catch up, but since coming for USNA, would you have to do that?

Thank you much in advance
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In my two years hanging out on these forums I have never seen this scenario come up before. There may be some experts here who can give you a definitive answer, but certainly most of us won't be able to. If you are able to do it, it would probably be on your dime (but who knows?). My recommendation is to ask someone at the Academy about this. A chaplain might be able to point you in the right direction if you feel the need to be discreet.

Per your request I won't bother with the whys and wherefores.
 
I have only read in 2.5 years here of one Poster who left USMA during Beast (same as Plebe Summer at USNA) and after 1.5 years of participating in AROTC has still not been able to get a scholarship. It is still unknown if he will be able to Contract at all.
 
I think calling the CO of the unit you are interested in and asking them. IMO you could go in as a college programmer( without scholarship) and try to earn the 2 year side load scholarship. You would have only 1 year to" show your stuff" and will be competing with others who have been a programmer since day 1. Currently there are about 100 2 year scholarships available nationally. If you don't get the scholarship you must get advanced standing or you will be disenrolled. Side note-DS turned down USNA to do nrotc without a scholarship but he now has a 2 year scholarship-he is a happy camper.
 
Somewhere in the bowels of the USNA forum on this site there was a thread about this, but it was like the one dunninla noted, they decided to leave right after plebe summer. I would start looking around August/Sept time frame.

I don't know why, but it sticks in the back of my mind they were told they couldn't get a scholarship.

You might want to actually post over there to see if anyone from that side of the fence knows the process.
 
Thanks much guys, much appreciated.
Will hopefully give the chaplain talk a try. I read somewhere, maybe on this forum or airwarriors or something similar, that there are a good number of people that leave USNA and still do NROTC and end up fine.

Again I'm trying to keep away from any specifics, biases, and claims as I've seen at the school and online that it only causes arguments and judgments. I'm going to try posting in the USNA section as well. Any other advice? I was told to stick out the 1st year because it doesn't look good to colleges to leave half semester and to give USNA a chance, so that is what I'm doing.
 
I would stick it out for the 1st yr. What you are considering is not uncommon. One of our friend's DS came home for T-Day and told his folks he wanted to leave the AFA. They made an agreement that if he stuck it out until the end of his C4C yr., they would 1000% support his decision. FF to today, he commissioned last May from the AFA. He was thankful he stayed at had no regrets of staying.

Good luck in whatever your decision may be in the future. Thank you for wanting to serve this great nation.
 
This isn't a bag on NROTC or OCS. Great people come from both and if you were to end up getting a commission from either, you'd do fine. Different people succeed in different environments and it just might be that USNA isn't the environment you succeed in. That's okay. You'll probably still be a good officer.

However:

Right now, you basically already have a Naval/Marine commission in the bag, provided you continue to fog mirrors at USNA. If your ultimate goal is to commission Navy/Marines, which I'm guessing it is since you want to transfer over to NROTC, you honestly might want to consider toughing it out at USNA. Again, if you really are not succeeding or not enjoying USNA there's no point in being miserable for four years but here's something to think about.

It's getting harder and harder to get accepted into both Navy and Marine OCS and from what it sounds like NROTC scholarships are starting to dry up as well. You could go to a civilian school, kick ass, and not get picked up for an NROTC scholarship/OCS contract because that's just the way it is right now. There are no guarantees. Even if you talk to the CO of an NROTC unit you're interested in, there still are no guarantees. To use a quote shamelessly stolen from airwarriors "you know what a verbal promise will get you in the military, a story to tell on how you were screwed out of something." You don't want that "something" to be your commission.

You already have the "bird in hand" right now. The "birds in the bush" are pretty elusive. I'm not going to talk about the USNA experience "getting better" or any of that stuff because I don't know your situation. You're a big kid now and can make that call on your own.
I'm just trying to put out there that there might be fewer options to end up with gold bars in four years if you leave the Academy.
 
Hurricane12 said:
This isn't a bag on NROTC or OCS. Great people come from both and if you were to end up getting a commission from either, you'd do fine. Different people succeed in different environments and it just might be that USNA isn't the environment you succeed in. That's okay. You'll probably still be a good officer.

However:

Right now, you basically already have a Naval/Marine commission in the bag, provided you continue to fog mirrors at USNA. If your ultimate goal is to commission Navy/Marines, which I'm guessing it is since you want to transfer over to NROTC, you honestly might want to consider toughing it out at USNA. Again, if you really are not succeeding or not enjoying USNA there's no point in being miserable for four years but here's something to think about.

It's getting harder and harder to get accepted into both Navy and Marine OCS and from what it sounds like NROTC scholarships are starting to dry up as well. You could go to a civilian school, kick ass, and not get picked up for an NROTC scholarship/OCS contract because that's just the way it is right now. There are no guarantees. Even if you talk to the CO of an NROTC unit you're interested in, there still are no guarantees. To use a quote shamelessly stolen from airwarriors "you know what a verbal promise will get you in the military, a story to tell on how you were screwed out of something." You don't want that "something" to be your commission.

You already have the "bird in hand" right now. The "birds in the bush" are pretty elusive. I'm not going to talk about the USNA experience "getting better" or any of that stuff because I don't know your situation. You're a big kid now and can make that call on your own.
I'm just trying to put out there that there might be fewer options to end up with gold bars in four years if you leave the Academy.
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Based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever, my expectation would be (and at least what I would plan for) is that there is no NROTC scholarship awarded and the best OP can do is win Advanced Standing. So, OP would be doing college on his own dime and receive the stipend the last two years. If that's the plan, and OP can handle that, then if a scholarship does turn up it's gravy.

Hope all works out for the best and that OP eventually commissions.
 
I don't know your situation so I won't judge, but being a MIDN in Annapolis is definitely something special. Think long and hard about it. Coming from AFROTC cadet
 
Thank you for the advice guys, much obliged

I am thinking about it very much, that's why I'm not just dropping out right now. I'm going to stay the whole Plebe Year and my best in all things attaining to Plebe Life and academics and then make that decision near the end on what I want to do for next year. I'm just trying to gather information. As I've been told/heard that there are a good number of Mids who leave the Academy and do NROTC and end up fine but from the responses I've gotten on here that may be wrong.

Do any of you know whether ROTC units look high,mid,low against leaving the Academy and how the Navy in general looks at that?

Thanks
 
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