ROTC is based more on merit than USNA. My brother is a Captain who sits on the Navy ROTC boards and said that in the application packages they did not know an applicant's race, gender, or ethnicity, it was strictly merit. USNA turns down more qualified white, males, due to the requirements to have a high percentage of women (last year's class was 27% women versus 16% overall women in the Navy) and fill race and ethnicity quotas. Ironically there is even a bias against alumni... only 4.7% of those accepted last year were from alumni versus 28% for Notre Dame and similar Universities. Both my brother and I are grads and my son was overqualified for USNA (in my opinion), with 3 NOMS, and received an NROTC scholarship by no appointment this year from USNA.