NROTC Chance/LREC Question

[trabi_skoda]

Dear All,

This is my first post, and I googled for answers before sending it, so please accept my apologies if this is a repeat question. My son began his NROTC application yesterday. About midway through the process, we saw that a (we think) new rule has been added -- one of his top three choices must be a school at which he is eligible for in-state tuition. The issue for him is that he is applying for third tier/LREC, and none of the schools in our state (SC) offer an LREC major. We will speak to a recruiter about this, but wonder if he needs to apply in state or is eligible for a waiver. A second question is what his chances are for an LREC. He wants to major in Asian Studies and take Chinese. He is fully capable of doing a technical major, but has no interest.

His desired schools are Rice, Northwestern, Yale, and Notre Dame. His grades are straight A's with a lot of APs. He will be doing AP B/C calculus his senior year. He is a 4-year varsity wrestler and will be captain this coming year. He has over 100 hours of community service in high school. He is co-founder of his school's model U.N. His SAT's are 800 Math, 800 Verbal, and 700 Writing. Thank you so much for any thoughts you might have.

 

[navymomwannabe]

I cannot speak directly to the rules for NROTC college selection in SC, but in IL, my son had to list an in state public school in his top 3 choices.

NROTC, unlike AFROTC and AROTC only give you the scholarship to one choice. It seemed this year that most kids got their first choice school for NROTC scholarships. My son's first choice was out of state (OOS) public and that is where he is going. There is also always a chance (not a guarantee) that you could transfer your scholarship to another school but that is risky bet.

Your DS's (dear son's) stats are fantastic and I am sure he will have a good chance but remember that the scholarship assignments/chances are dependent on a lot of factors that are out of your control. So make sure you have back up plans. Those are all very expensive schools, if you can not afford the tuition if he doesn't get a scholarship then maybe there needs to be an in-state school on his list as plan b.

Also please know that the navy is very heavy in STEM majors nowadays. I think it is close to 85% of their scholarships. Not saying Chinese isn't wanted/needed, just that the majority of scholarships go to the tech degrees. With your son's stats, I would think they would be interested in him for tier 3 but it's good to know the stats.

Good luck and welcome to the site...we need more wrestling moms!

 

[Seawings18]

If I'm not mistaken, USC Columbia does offer an LREC major of Russian. I would use USC to fulfill the instate tuition requirement but place it as low as possible on the list of schools so that his chances of being placed at one of his top choices is higher if he is selected. I understand Russian isn't his top choice but it would meet the req for the app, plus there is a Chinese minor offered at USC (not too sure how LREC works but just thought I'd throw that out there; it may help somehow). Best of luck!

 

[USMAROTCFamily]

In the past, some have selected a school like Texas A&M that offer an out-of-state tuition waiver for ROTC Midshipman to fulfill this criteria. TAMU offers International Studies and Chinese.

 

[USMCGrunt]

trabi_skoda: This information is dated but gets you started on researching the answer to your question.

Here are two quotes from P-Flying17. Not sure if she is still around as I haven't seen anything from her in months. Recommend you PM her or search for posts from her as she is an NROTC insider.

The following was posted by P-Flying17 back in Sept 2011.

"The best thing to do is call the NROTC Unit at the school you are interested in and ask if that school offers reciprical agreements.

Any NROTC Scholarship student is eligible for instate tuition at any public Texas School.
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University at Galveston
University of Texas
University of Houston
Texas Southern University

There are schools that offer reciprical agreements with other states, but none to the effect that Texas does.

For instance State University of New York offers instate tuition for residents of Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Wisconsin has a reciprocal agreement with Minnesota.

Minnesota currently has one with North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The Citadel offers to certain counties in Georgia. South Carolina will occassionally offer instate tuition eligible scholarships."

A more recent comment from P-Flying17:

"also any public Texas school. University of Houston, TAMU, UT, Rutgers as well. Next year, maybe Minnesota. University of South Carolina is good about giving scholarships that reduce tuition to that of instate or close to it, but would have to have that documentation before applying it to instate tuition cost."