College Programmer Questions

Frassy16

5-Year Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
18
My DS was denied both USNA and NROTC for class of 2017. He plans on reapplying to USNA and wants be a college programmer so he still has a chance at a commission. He's planning on attending a cross-town affiliate of a school with an NROTC unit. He will be majoring in Electrical Engineering and playing football. He's contacted the NROTC unit by e-mail, but they have not responded. Would you recommend calling them, or just enrolling in the Navy Classes - I guess we're not really sure how that works if he's not at the host school, but at the affiliate. Also, he passed his DODMERB physical - will he still need the private physical in order to be a Programmer? Thanks in advance!
 
Sent you a PM

Not enough posts to PM: Hopefully this will answer your questions:

I have some worries that it is too much, too. A little background:
He currently is a three sport athlete: Football, Wrestling and Track. He has a 3.4 unweighted GPA, including a few AP's and College Credit English and a 28 ACT. He has been in Project Lead the Way and is currently completing a Senior Design Project. He is on the Student Library Advisory board and the "All In" leadership committee at his high school. He is also active in our Church and is a Pontifical Server for the Bishop of our Diocese. He also works part-time for the local indoor football league. Simply put - this is a young man who cannot stand to have any free time. He works well "under pressure" and loves the structure and time contrainsts that he works against in school and sports. He seems to do better when he is busier. He is going to the University of St. Thomas. We've made several visits and I did ask the question about the load of everything and was told that the football team does have a few athletes that ROTC. They have a few NROTC football players that he can connect with for the 5-10 minute ride to do NROTC lab and class.

I am a bit worried, but my DS is bound and determined. If accepted to USNA, he would attempt to make the football team there, as well. We've had discussions about working with tutors right away and good time management. He knows and understands that if he does not do well, he will have no chance at Advanced Standing, much less scholarship or USNA.
 
That sounds like a very heavy load doing nROTC, football and electrical engineering in addition to doing crosstown. He will need to average 18 credits per semester for EE and have good grades to earn the scholarship or advanced standing. My DS earned a 2 year sideload scholarship, is averaging 18 credits per semester and is president of a fraternity and has very little free time. Its nice to be busy but that may be a bit much. There are a number of posters on here with kids that earned a sideload scholarship and the common denominators are 3.5+ GPA and ranked very high in the unit.
 
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5-Year Program

St. Thomas has a curriculum posted for EE plus AFROTC, and it takes 5 years. Maybe your son could follow that program, substituting NROTC for AFROTC. At some schools, including TAMU, the ROTC cadre encourage their scholarship students to plan on 4.5 or 5.0 years to finish an engineering major. They can get the scholarship extended to cover the extra time, if it's planned in advance. The cadre's logic is that if GPA suffers too much, the scholarship goes away.

In your son's case, the obvious drawback is that he's not on scholarship (yet), so it will cost more to go five years. But it won't cost as much as flunking out.

It sounds like your son has developed some good time management skills. But he will need to spend significantly more time on college classes than he did on high school classes.

I hope things work out for your son.
 
Can't comment on the mechanics of sideloading, but would echo Terp and Blind about EE.

College is enough of a shock and Freshman year in engineering is a weed out year. After that, the math only gets more intense and tedious. In high school, my DS was the math cock of the walk because he could figure out any math problem. When he hit ChemE requirements sophomore year, he hit a brick wall. As he said, "You can't figure these problems out. You simply have to know how to do them. And you need to have been shown how to do them. And you need a full base of calculus and an attentive ear to even understand what the hell the TA from Northern India is even talking about." All is well, but it was a rude awakening.

If your DS scored 750 SAT or 34 ACT Math and 4 or 5 on AP Calc, he may be okay. If not, I don't know how he could play football and fully commit to xROTC and EE.

One thing in DS's favor is that cross town commute (if it is St. Thomas-MN) is probably the shortest you could ever find.

Sorry to sound harsh, but it is mild compared to the lecture he and I got from his academic advisor when she found out DS got his AROTC scholarship.

Best Of luck. Sounds like your guy has all the right skills to succeed. If he's like mine he'll simply use the warnings as motivation and will figure out when to throttle back.
 
It does sound like a lot, especially when you throw in the football. However, he wouldn't be the first EE student doing NROTC and from what I hear on this forum they are usually willing to work with the athletes to make it all work for everyone. Finally, nothing ventured, nothing gained. IMHO he ought to at least give it all a shot. He can always change his mind as a college programmer. Because it's a cross-town school I would say keep trying to contact the cadre to handle enrollment questions, but if worse comes to worse, enroll in both the Naval Science class, Naval Lab, and if its listed as a class the Naval PT. Usually its the enrollment in the course that trigger the mailings he'll need. They'll let him know as part of the mailing if he'll need to do the private physical, but if you reach them by phone be sure to mention the DoDMERB as I doubt they'll go looking for it and may therefore ask for the physical even if its not needed.
 
Thanks for all your feedback. I showed my DS the responses to initiate another conversation to help him understand the demands on his time. We're also making another on-campus visit and will be discussing time constraints with his football coach and his academic advisor. We'll still keep trying to get in touch with the ROTC unit and we've enlisted his admission coordinator to help us out. As long as everyone is willing to work with him and as long as he is understanding that his plate will be more than full, I can do nothing but prepare him as best I can and support him in his desire to reach for the stars.
 
Sounds like you are doing an awesome job. He will have many sources of support and guidance to help him succeed and stay on track.

:thumb:
 
Thanks for all your feedback. I showed my DS the responses to initiate another conversation to help him understand the demands on his time. We're also making another on-campus visit and will be discussing time constraints with his football coach and his academic advisor. We'll still keep trying to get in touch with the ROTC unit and we've enlisted his admission coordinator to help us out. As long as everyone is willing to work with him and as long as he is understanding that his plate will be more than full, I can do nothing but prepare him as best I can and support him in his desire to reach for the stars.

I expect the admissions coordinator will be a good resource for getting in touch with the unit. But if worse comes to worse, while you are there, I would march right down there and stick my head in each and every office. Frankly, if you've been persistent in trying to reach them by email and phone, then I don't think they have any excuse, unless they are all currently on spring break or attending funerals.
 
Can you walk on college program Marine option? Or do they require you to first go as a Navy option, then prove you have what it takes to switch over?
 
Can you walk on college program Marine option? Or do they require you to first go as a Navy option, then prove you have what it takes to switch over?

You can join as a Marine Option college programmer. Don't just "walk-on". Contact the unit and find out what courses you need to register for. They'll also require a physical be done by your personal physician. etc. etc. I imagine that's what you meant by "walk-on" but wanted to be sure. BTW, that's how my sone started.
 
I would just force contact and drop into the Unit. They will talk to you. Most Units require a separate College Program application that is due by June or July at the latest. They have to run the apps by Pensacola so they can screen them. Not an extensive app but yet another app. So you would definitely not want to just sign up for the classes. Every Unit handles the class registration deal differently for cross-townies. You'll need to check with the Host Unit.

The Navy has published numbers for sideload scholarships for your son's class (Year Group 2017). Nationwide, they will offer 93 3-Year Navy scholarships (offered during Freshman year) and 119 2-Year scholarships (offered during Sophomore year). From NSTC Note 1533. Not sure about the Marines. Those numbers will change based on whether the expected wash-out rate materializes. Those are actually pretty high numbers. This year's graduating class was offered zero sideload scholarships because they offered too many 4-Year scholarships. The class of 2013 was offered 2254 4-Year scholarships but this year's incoming Freshman class will be offered just 1207. They are doing that so they can essentially reserve more scholarships for College Programmers that deserve them. Makes sense. They can get the kids on campus and make personal evaluations instead of choosing from data presented to boards. So if DS does well, ie. everything they tell him to do, he has an excellent shot of getting a scholarship. To be competitive, he will next to take the same Calculus and Physics courses the Scholarship kids do. The Unit can tell which courses those are. He could take Calc, but take the wrong Calc, so ask. By and large, the Mids themselves don't care if you're College Program or Scholarship. In the fleet, it never comes up. You're either Academy, NROTC, or OCS.
 
Can anyone shed some light on the sideload scholarships for the class of 2016? My DS is a freshmen college programmer, EE major with a 3.79 GPA in fall semester and no issues so far this semester. Unit advisor told him he was ranked #1 in is class at the end of 1st semester so he hopes he'll earn a scholarship this year. When are the sideload scholarship normally handed out? He's been told April notification, then May and now they're saying June. Just trying to get some clarification.
 
Last year notification was in April. Looks like you son has a great shot at the scholarship. DS had a 3.7 and at or near top of unit and recieved 2 year scholarship. There were only LREC 3 year scholarships offered for 2014. It changes every year according to the expected needs and attrition. Looks like 51 3-year awards will be made. Good luck.
 
Does anyone have an update on when side load scholarship notifications will be made? It very frustrating to think the semester ends in a few weeks and the notification may still be several months away.
 
Well, it won't be several months away. Certainly no later than early August. I know guys who applied for Advanced Standing do not expect to hear until early August. If they are saying June now, then I wouldn't expect it before June.
 
Just wondering if any one had an update on sideload scholarship notifications for the freshman class that just finished their 1st year? We keep being told by the unit "it should be any day now". I appreciate any insight.
 
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