School Preference

BigBus7

5-Year Member
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Aug 11, 2013
Messages
25
Hello all,

Going through the Marine NROTC and AROTC applications, there is the section that requests you rank schools that you want to go to. How do these schools factor into receiving a scholarship? From what I understand, the detatchments essentially elect who receive a scholarship for themselves, but as far as ranking schools goes, how does that affect receiving a scholarship to any one school?

Greg
 
Works differently for Navy/Marine vs Army. For Navy, the schools play no role in getting the scholarship. You are awarded a scholarship by a board and another board awards the scholarship to a particular school. Basically, as I understand it, they try to award it to the school you most prefer that still has an open slot.

I'll let others answer for Army because I'm afraid I've never really grasped how it works for Army.
 
BigBus: recommend you search this forum for posts on school ranking. There is a lot of opinions on instate vs out of state; popular vs less popular units; strategy, etc. These discussions pop up often in regards to NROTC.

Here is some advice from a document on the NCSU website:

"Once a board has chosen the hundred or so students it will select, those applications are then sent to a placement department which determines what college/university NROTC unit each scholarship will be assigned to. Obviously, every effort is made to place a student where he/she wants to go, but other factors do come into play. For example, each particular unit (there are roughly 70 total) has a certain ―quota‖ or max number of students that they can accept in a given year. NC State’s quota is usually 30. For us, this means that once 30 students have been placed in our unit and have accepted the scholarship offer, no additional students will be added here. If a 31st student was selected and their application went to placement, they may then be assigned to their number two, three, or four choice of school (again, depending on availability at that school). There are a few ―morals to this story. First, it is very important that you actually apply to all of the five schools that you list on your scholarship application because it is possible that you may not be assigned to your first choice. Second, you want to have your application completed early (before the August board) so that you maximize your odds of being assigned to your first choice (because certain schools, like NC State, tend to fill up fast). Other things that affect placement include whether a certain school would be in-state or out-of-state for a particular student. As you might expect, this doesn’t apply to private schools like Duke, MIT, etc. where there is no difference in tuition and most students come from out-of-state. It does, however, apply to state schools like NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, etc. For these type of schools, the Navy requires that a minimum of 50 percent of students placed there come from within that particular state. It is for this reason that you will be required to place at least one state school on your list of five.

One final comment about placement. When you indicate your school preferences, you must be realistic about your chances of admission! Remember, the university application process is completely separate from the scholarship process and there is NO guarantee of admission to a particular school just because your scholarship gets assigned there."

Source: http://naval.dasa.ncsu.edu/sites/nav...info-2013F.pdf
 
Thanks for the replies kinnem and USMCGRUNT, I really wasn't clear how it plays a roll and between the two of you, you guys nailed it. If anyone knows about the Army, that'd be great.

USMCGRUNT, I'll try to look better in the future.

Greg
 
BigBus7: no problem. Glad to help.

In the future, you can save yourself a lot of time by searching this forum - lots of FAQ's are answered here.

(I saw Kinnem had made the same recommendation to you on another thread - great minds think alike!)
 
AROTC

I do not believe that AROTC requires that you select an in-state school or its equivalent like NROTC does. However, I think that you can expect in the coming years that most 4 year AROTC scholarships will be awarded to in-state schools with the out of states and more expensive privates receiving 3-year awards. As has been mentioned on this forum before, make sure you have some schools on your list that you can afford to attend without the scholarship (in the worst case scenario) where you could then compete as a college programmer (NROTC) or for a campus based scholarship (AROTC)
 
However, I think that you can expect in the coming years that most 4 year AROTC scholarships will be awarded to in-state schools with the out of states and more expensive privates receiving 3-year awards.
Totally disagree with that statement (as the ROO at an expensive private university) I got more 4 year scholarships this year than last and don't forsee a reduction as the Army continues to seek quality STEM applicants.

In the case of Army ROTC the Battalions do not "essentially elect" who receives the scholarships. So many scholarships are allocated to each school. As Cadet Command makes their offer they take the winner from the top of the pile and go down her/his list of schools. If the top school has an allocation - offer, doesn't have an allocation - next school on the list. If you think about it, eventually those applicants near the top of the pile in the later rounds may have no schools on their list that have allocations left. Then Cadet Command has some wheeling and dealing to do. If you followed the process last year you would have seen some crazyness with what we call misfires (should be winner with no schools with allocations on their list) and the transfer process. Some schools got more than they were allocated due to this phenomenon.

So, as I always say, control what you can. You can't control allocations or the decisions Cadet Command makes to assume risk. What you can control is submitting a quality application with a list of schools that are a good fit for you. If you don't get an offer go to one of those schools, compete for campus based scholarships, and don't be afraid to make an investment in yourself if you don't get the scholarship. You can still be a military officer.
 
+1 Clarkson.

Excellent perspective and sound advice.

"Control what you can" applies to every aspect of life - not just ROTC applications.
 
AROTC

When we attended DS's graduation at LTC, cadet command gave a presentation and showed a chart of how the scholarships were broken down. If I recall, out of all the AROTC cadets on scholarship about 75% of them were on 4yr scholarships. Much higher than I expected.

They also showed the increase in the gpa of scholarship winners, by 2015 it is predicted to be close to 3.75.
 
I'm apreciating the responses and everything is clearing up. I like the "control what you can" advice, nice touch Clarkson

Greg
 
Another note I forgot to add, I will definitely seek 3 or 2 year scholarships if I am not awarded a 4 year scholarship. I always have DEP programs avaliable as well. I do want to be an officer though.

Totally random, but I keep seeing DS get thrown around, what does it stand for?

Greg
 
Totally random, but I keep seeing DS get thrown around, what does it stand for?

BigBus: once again, I encourage you to look through this entire site. There is a great deal of information that can answer your questions. In the case of the thousands of acronyms that this site and the military will present you with, there is a "stickie" under the "Community" Forum that lists definitions.

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=11568

DS = Dear Son
 
Scholarships

Clarkson, my bad. I should have specified my point of reference was DS' MSI class last year, approx. 18 cadets, I think he said there were two 3 year scholarships and no 4 years.
 
In the case of Army ROTC the Battalions do not "essentially elect" who receives the scholarships. So many scholarships are allocated to each school. As Cadet Command makes their offer they take the winner from the top of the pile and go down her/his list of schools. If the top school has an allocation - offer, doesn't have an allocation - next school on the list.

Clarkson, my son and I just read this and are trying to interpret it in a meaningful way. Lets say my son submits his application by the first board (all he has left is the interview scheduled next wk) and lets say his stats are good enough to get a scholarship in the first round (I have no clue if they are or not or what those types of stats might be...he may be not at all in the running for all I know...) but if he does get a scholarship in the first round does that mean they look at his #1 college choice and he gets choice #1 if there are any spots left, and if not he gets to choice #2 and he gets #2 if there are any spots left and if not he gets to choice #3?

Right now his plan is to list his second choice (OOS public) first because he is sure that his second choice is more likely to get him the scholarship than his real first choice (small expensive private) -----clear as mud??? He met on an informal interview with his dream school and loved it a lot but is nervous that he wont get it as easily as his 2nd choice.

Im trying to convince him to put his real first choice first and his second choice second but he is worried about missing out on ROTC-which trumps all else. My thought is why not go for dream school AND ROTC at least in the first round...cant he change the preference later by the second round-or am I totally clueless here?

I dont want to stare him wrong...

ps-sorry if I am asking the most outrageously stupid questions ever.
 
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