My son, a junior in HS, is interested in applying for a NROTC scholarship. We are moving out of state in July. The students at his present school will start the application process soon and interview in June. I have heard that he may have to wait to interview when we move. There is an informational meeting coming up but I wanted to find out if anyone here had a similar experience.
Moving between Jr and Sr year in HS
- Thread starter dms840z
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Ohio2015Parent
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My experience is with Army, but either branch, I would attend the informational meeting. The applications are the same for all states - not sure about how the Navy does interviews - but Army was interivew at a school close to you or one of your top choices. I'm sure one of the Navy posters will on shortly and be able to help with more details. Good luck starting the process
Pima
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I agree with Ohio, attend the meeting. You may be able to ask them to put you in contact with whoever does it for your new area. If they can't, I would suggest you contact your incoming HS GC now, because they probably know who it is also. I understand you may not know which HS, but traditionally, these people cover all of the HS's for a particular county, and from a realtor perspective, I know the majority of my clients with kids in school, always placed the school as the top priority, than the home wish list.
I wouldn't be too concern over this, in the military it is quite common, unfortunately, that kids move during their rising sr yr due to their parents careers. (This is one of the reasons why the Presidential nom for SAs exist). Most military families move in July, so these kids will be in the same boat as your child.
The one thing I would do is get their transcripts sealed and HAND CARRY their records. During the summer some schools will shut down for a few weeks and only the front office is there. If your outgoing or incoming hs does this, it could cause a delay. EX: outgoing closes from July 1st to 15th, incoming closed from 15 July to 1 Aug. That means you can't register for classes and move forward. Hand carry them, and arrive July 1st to the new school, and you are good to go.
Again, contact the incoming HS or the county school administrative offices to see if they will allow this. Traditionally, it is not a school by school choice, it is a county wide acceptance. Best to double up your bet by asking if you could have their email address (county) and shoot them this email requesting verification in writing. Print it up and hand carry that too.
HS's really don't like records to be hand carried because you can mess with them, so that is why it is important to get it in writing. We did this, and they placed a caveat... they would register them for classes, but if the HS faxed them different records, it would change.
One thing to think about, is be prepared that their gpa may change. Our kids outgoing hs had a 7 pt scale with a 5.0 weight for AP, incoming was 10 pt with a 4.5 wt. This is also why many people, including me place little emphasis when posters state I have X wgpa. It is because we know selection boards will re-weight to their system. This was an issue for our DD, because they had to go back and look at the last hs's system, and re-weight every class because of not only the scale, but also that school had Std., honors and APs, whereas they only had Std or AP. They changed it 3 times on her, upping it each time because they also requested the school class selection brochure and determined that at their last school, you couldn't take AP unless you took Honors 1st, in other words if you wanted to take AP Bio, you took Honors Bio, and than AP. It hindered her at the new school because she never had that option since in 10th it would have been std or AP, same with Chem. They were really terrific and worked with her sorting through what was std to them and what honors would have been AP comparable without the tests.
It was a long process and if I recall correctly it was Nov before they had it all sorted out. Not saying this will happen to you, and I hope it doesn't because it means constantly sending new transcripts, but I am saying be prepared, and the best way to do that is to start investigating now.
Our final problem was PE. Believe it or not it was an issue. Old school required only 1 yr of PE, new school required 3 to graduate. She was probably the only sr with 2 PE's and the funkiest schedule...the rest of her classes were AICE/AP.
OH and also many, most states will require a yr of history that is their state. DS1 moved to NC and had to take that as a jr with freshman because we came from VA and he did not have their box checked. DD had to also because we moved from NC to VA and she didn't have VA history. Stupid, I know, but that is how it worked for us.
Hope all of this helps to give you a better picture on how things may play out for schools when you move.
Good luck.
I wouldn't be too concern over this, in the military it is quite common, unfortunately, that kids move during their rising sr yr due to their parents careers. (This is one of the reasons why the Presidential nom for SAs exist). Most military families move in July, so these kids will be in the same boat as your child.
The one thing I would do is get their transcripts sealed and HAND CARRY their records. During the summer some schools will shut down for a few weeks and only the front office is there. If your outgoing or incoming hs does this, it could cause a delay. EX: outgoing closes from July 1st to 15th, incoming closed from 15 July to 1 Aug. That means you can't register for classes and move forward. Hand carry them, and arrive July 1st to the new school, and you are good to go.
Again, contact the incoming HS or the county school administrative offices to see if they will allow this. Traditionally, it is not a school by school choice, it is a county wide acceptance. Best to double up your bet by asking if you could have their email address (county) and shoot them this email requesting verification in writing. Print it up and hand carry that too.
HS's really don't like records to be hand carried because you can mess with them, so that is why it is important to get it in writing. We did this, and they placed a caveat... they would register them for classes, but if the HS faxed them different records, it would change.
One thing to think about, is be prepared that their gpa may change. Our kids outgoing hs had a 7 pt scale with a 5.0 weight for AP, incoming was 10 pt with a 4.5 wt. This is also why many people, including me place little emphasis when posters state I have X wgpa. It is because we know selection boards will re-weight to their system. This was an issue for our DD, because they had to go back and look at the last hs's system, and re-weight every class because of not only the scale, but also that school had Std., honors and APs, whereas they only had Std or AP. They changed it 3 times on her, upping it each time because they also requested the school class selection brochure and determined that at their last school, you couldn't take AP unless you took Honors 1st, in other words if you wanted to take AP Bio, you took Honors Bio, and than AP. It hindered her at the new school because she never had that option since in 10th it would have been std or AP, same with Chem. They were really terrific and worked with her sorting through what was std to them and what honors would have been AP comparable without the tests.
It was a long process and if I recall correctly it was Nov before they had it all sorted out. Not saying this will happen to you, and I hope it doesn't because it means constantly sending new transcripts, but I am saying be prepared, and the best way to do that is to start investigating now.
Our final problem was PE. Believe it or not it was an issue. Old school required only 1 yr of PE, new school required 3 to graduate. She was probably the only sr with 2 PE's and the funkiest schedule...the rest of her classes were AICE/AP.
OH and also many, most states will require a yr of history that is their state. DS1 moved to NC and had to take that as a jr with freshman because we came from VA and he did not have their box checked. DD had to also because we moved from NC to VA and she didn't have VA history. Stupid, I know, but that is how it worked for us.
Hope all of this helps to give you a better picture on how things may play out for schools when you move.
Good luck.
Sr Year Move this Year
We unexpectedly moved last summer - before my daughter's senior year. I thought it would be devastating to her and actually the move was harder on me. She has made some nice friends at her new school and is Cadet Commander at her CAP Unit.
She started her AFROTC application last May, before she knew about the move. (She was awarded a scholarship in December.) Here's her experience:
-- Her new school sent her transcript in September because as PIMA said, we could not have her records sent over the summer. The new school would not place a rank on the transcript because her class rank was with the old school. The guidance counselor attached an explanation on the transcript.
-- She did her physical fitness assessment at the new school a couple of weeks after the move and did not do nearly as well on the run as she should have because we went from sea level to high altitude.
-- She interviewed at a university she did not apply to in our new state. The officer did, however, endorse her.
My suggestion is get as much done as you can in your old location, but if you cannot, you should be fine.
As PIMA said, make sure of the high school requirements. There are several differences in graduation requirements and fortunately she is going from a private school to private school so the principal was able to waive a few things. If you child is in a public school that option would likely not be available.
We unexpectedly moved last summer - before my daughter's senior year. I thought it would be devastating to her and actually the move was harder on me. She has made some nice friends at her new school and is Cadet Commander at her CAP Unit.
She started her AFROTC application last May, before she knew about the move. (She was awarded a scholarship in December.) Here's her experience:
-- Her new school sent her transcript in September because as PIMA said, we could not have her records sent over the summer. The new school would not place a rank on the transcript because her class rank was with the old school. The guidance counselor attached an explanation on the transcript.
-- She did her physical fitness assessment at the new school a couple of weeks after the move and did not do nearly as well on the run as she should have because we went from sea level to high altitude.
-- She interviewed at a university she did not apply to in our new state. The officer did, however, endorse her.
My suggestion is get as much done as you can in your old location, but if you cannot, you should be fine.
As PIMA said, make sure of the high school requirements. There are several differences in graduation requirements and fortunately she is going from a private school to private school so the principal was able to waive a few things. If you child is in a public school that option would likely not be available.
Here are my thoughts and tips regarding the NROTC applications process.
Assuming the online application becomes available on April 1 this year, I would, in your position:
1) Complete the application within two weeks, by April 15. Don't try to do it as HS final exams, AP exams, etc. approach in May/June.
2) Work with your NROTC recruiting contact to get the Math Teacher, other Teacher, and HS Counselor (the purpose of the HS Counselor is to verify Class Rank) their Recommendation forms by April 30.
3) Take the SAT in March, and again at the next sitting in May. (or ACT) You have until Feb 10 to early register for the Mar 10 SAT.
4) Work with your NROTC recruiter to schedule and complete your Officer Interview in May or early June.
The bottlenecks to the NROTC application process are usually the HS teachers and Counselor not understanding, because the NROTC Scholarship Applicant honestly doesn't understand and doesn't explain, how critical it is to get these forms back to NETC *quickly*. Another issue is that it is not easy to track these forms getting to NETC b/c the forms go directly from the Teacher/Counslor to NETC, and not to the Applicant for forwarding. Therefore, the Applicant needs to make sure the teacher/counselor gets it done, and this is tricky given the end of school year chaos at a lot of High Schools. If any of those three HS documents fail to make it into the file at NETC, and the teacher or Counselor is not reachable over the summer break, the Applicant misses the 1st Board, and possibly the 2nd Board, and misses any fast-track opportunities in your NROTC recruiting area. The Applicant might also miss getting the Scholarship assigned to one of the very popular Battalions, which tend to fill up completely, or almost completely, out of Boards 1 and 2 (out of about 12 from Aug. - March)
Assuming the online application becomes available on April 1 this year, I would, in your position:
1) Complete the application within two weeks, by April 15. Don't try to do it as HS final exams, AP exams, etc. approach in May/June.
2) Work with your NROTC recruiting contact to get the Math Teacher, other Teacher, and HS Counselor (the purpose of the HS Counselor is to verify Class Rank) their Recommendation forms by April 30.
3) Take the SAT in March, and again at the next sitting in May. (or ACT) You have until Feb 10 to early register for the Mar 10 SAT.
4) Work with your NROTC recruiter to schedule and complete your Officer Interview in May or early June.
The bottlenecks to the NROTC application process are usually the HS teachers and Counselor not understanding, because the NROTC Scholarship Applicant honestly doesn't understand and doesn't explain, how critical it is to get these forms back to NETC *quickly*. Another issue is that it is not easy to track these forms getting to NETC b/c the forms go directly from the Teacher/Counslor to NETC, and not to the Applicant for forwarding. Therefore, the Applicant needs to make sure the teacher/counselor gets it done, and this is tricky given the end of school year chaos at a lot of High Schools. If any of those three HS documents fail to make it into the file at NETC, and the teacher or Counselor is not reachable over the summer break, the Applicant misses the 1st Board, and possibly the 2nd Board, and misses any fast-track opportunities in your NROTC recruiting area. The Applicant might also miss getting the Scholarship assigned to one of the very popular Battalions, which tend to fill up completely, or almost completely, out of Boards 1 and 2 (out of about 12 from Aug. - March)
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Thank you everyone for responding and sharing your experiences and advice. As if junior year isn't stressful enough, we have to deal with moving, too. Hopefully we'll get many of our questions answered next week and be told who to contact for more information. Until then, I'll be reading and researching. It's amazing how much I've learned from just this forum already.