I have heard for civilian colleges, it is possible to be overqualified.
Example- a person with 2400, 1/x of students, president of this and that, does volunteer work, applies to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Rice- accepted to 2 of the Ivy's but not Rice. Rice is still a very good academic school but not quite at the elite level of top Ivies. The logical explanation was Rice knew this student was using Rice as a safety school.
I have known someone who fell into a similar crack (with different schools but getting accepted to multiple better schools but not the safety).
This NROTC application status not changing is driving me crazy. My coordinator and recruiter simply told me to wait.
I am also a minority and first generation college bound. Theoretically i have these outside advantages...but apparently it hasn't worked.
Should I try contacting the units I am interested in?
You are correct. Many schools are concerned about their "accepted but not matriculated" statistics (i.e., the number of students to whom they extended offers, but students didn't accept those offers). The goal for middle-tier colleges is to have a low number here, so these schools will often reject students if they appear to be higher-caliber candidatess("Let's reject this student before s/he rejects us!"). There is nothing wrong with that.
But as for the Navy, I don't think it is an overqualified issue. The Navy has had a bit of a problem in recent years getting the officer corps to look like its enlisted rank and file. Specifically, it has had a problem recruiting from minorities. I am 1000 percent in favor that the officer corps should not be all white males, and the Navy needs to fix this or risk having an officer corps that is "out of touch" (or at least perceived so). This worked to my DS's disadvantage last year in terms of NROTC (he is blond hair/blue eyes). But my DS is truly grateful because he absolutely loves USMA and quite possibly could have been "distracted" with a different career path if NROTC had presented him with an offer. Fate intervened here on his behalf.
As for any branch of service, for NROTC, the emphasis needs to be on recuiting the best officer class possible, and the emphasis changes from year to year. For example, if the Navy recruits too many folks from one demographic one year, you can expect that that demographic will be at a disadvantage the following year. That's just "Life." For example, at many schools, being an Asian-American can be a disadvantage if that demographic is over-represented.
You will never know whether last year was the big push for minorities, and now minorities are at a disadvantage this year because the officer ranks are saturated with minorities. You will never know.
Scholarship money is what any service uses to lure folks into the service. If the Navy needs "Tuba players from Nebraska," those who can play the Tuba and are from Nebraska will get the scholarship money. It is NOT a meritocracy. It is called "recruiting." Everyone needs to remember that scholarships are a recruiting tool, notably NOT an award for doing good work! This is how it truly should be or else it's just a waste of money for the government if their dollars are not achieving their recuiting goals.
You are an outstanding candidate. Yes, you should contact the units and push every opportunity you can. Educate yourself about the unit and look at last year's threads about how many students received NROTC offers to colleges to which they NEVER applied.
As for the wait, I know that it is agonizing. It gets even worse in January/February!!! Just know that the NROTC folks are doing the best that is humanly possible in trying to recruit the best officers possible, but there is understandably a lot of "noise and confusion" in that process. I am certain that within 6 months, your path in life will become clear!!!! Have patience.
Your main objective at this point should be to open as many doors as you can. Avoid the temptation to jump through the first door that opens or only to apply for one opportunity (which you obviously have not done!!). Once you have multiple doors open to you, you then carefully evaluate your options and pick the one that is the best fit for you. It is truly agonizing to wait for that last door to answer -- again, resist the temptation to simply go with USMMA or USNA because you havent heard from NROTC yet.
The weirdest observations that I have made in this process is:
(1) EVERYONE gets dinged somewhere (often for wholly arbitrary reasons) and no one has a yellow-brick road laid out for them in terms of opportunities (fate really plays a role);
(2) EVERYONE ultimately finds the "perfect fit." (again, this is fate truly playing a role); and
(3) Stuff Happens (e.g., you can recieve 1000 LOAs from USNA every day, but your local congressman places you on the nomination list for, say, USAFA (even though you specifically requested USNA) simply because your last name was at the beginning of the alphabetical list of candidates). You need to embrace luck and fate.
Good luck!!!