Life as an NROTC/Student?

Slurve

5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2011
Messages
3
Hello! I am a prospective midshipman whether it be NROTC(still waiting!) or PLC and I was wondering how NROTC affects the college lifestyle and workload. I ask because I plan on becoming an Mechanical Engineering major, after taking AP Calc and AP Physics this year and found myself enjoying it quite a bit; I understand from my my friends currently in College the workload for an Engineering major is rough and I found out recently that EOD, the job I aspire to be after College, had Spec-ops physical requirements and I want to improve my swimming and lift during college (I already run since I was on the XC team albeit only on the JV team); with that in mind how much free time is there being both a Midshipman and an Undergrad?
 
OUTSTANDING question and I am interested in any answer as well! I have an NROTC Marine Option scholarship to ERAU and I have no idea what to expect.
 
Life as an ROTC/Student?

OUTSTANDING question and I am interested in any answer as well! I have an NROTC Marine Option scholarship to ERAU and I have no idea what to expect.


asenopoulos

Which campus? If is Daytona Beach, I think you going to love it. My DS went on a visit, summer of his senior in 2007. They offered him a heck of scholarship to go there. He didn't like the ROTC overtone, I offered to pay for him to get his pilots license. He did not care for the military. I don't know, if you can do this anymore, but if your GPA, is high enough, at the beginning of your junior year, you can start you graduate work and earn your masters. That was the big reason, I wanted to DS to go there.

Good Luck, God Bless,

RGK
 
Yes Daytona Beach! Thank you I don't really know anyone who I can talk to who knows anything about the ROTC or campus in general there! I'm all the way up in NJ you see :/
 
While I can't really comment on NROTC life as I'm in AROTC, I thought I'd chime in, just in case prospective AROTC'ers happen to stumble upon this thread as well as NROTC live is pretty similar to that of AROTC.

The amount of free time you have really will come down to a few things. How much do you like to party? How good are you at time management? How good of grades do you want? How well do you understand the basics of your classes (for engineering, Calculus, Physics, etc.)? I'm most definitely not an engineering major, however, your first year or so most undergrads take similar courses.

There are days where I have very little to do besides actually attending PT, classes and any study hours. These days you have extra time to hang out with your friends, sleep, or whatever you please. On other days, when procrastination finally catches up to you, you have barely enough time to run to the cafeteria for food between study sessions. I'm currently on the latter schedule. I've decided to stay awake and write 2 papers and study for midterms instead of getting my beauty rest until around 0515 when it will be time run the beautiful hills of northwest Arkansas. 30+ hours later, I don't recommend this route.

Overall, if you are attending the average State U, you will have a good amount of free time some weeks and others you will be busy. It all depends on how well you stay on top of all of your classes.

P.S- In high school, I averaged 7 hours of sleep per night. I now average about 4.5 hours. (Don't be intimidated, this is not all because of ROTC)
 
. It all depends on how well you stay on top of all of your classes.

Is the key really. I had a FT job and baby at home when I did a FT degree. It
was relatively easy because I kept on top of my college work.
 
Slurve, schedule a meeting with the NROTC freshmen adviser for the battalion and school you are interested in attending. Ask the same questions and ask to meet with a engineering majors in the battalion. If top school is located far away, schedule a telephone/skype/txt/tweet/blog or whatever the cool communication is these days.
 
Would anyone recommend participating in a varsity sport their freshman year while participating in the NROTC College Program?
 
Possible, however with early AM PT 2-3 times per week, NROTC drill day, NROTC other activities, mandatory study hours, STEM class load plus Naval Science class it would be a challenge. With support of varsity coach and incredible time management skills during season team it could be done.

Have you discussed with NROTC unit. They will have the best answer.
 
I plan on discussing this option with an NROTC unit at one of my schools. I might just have to opt for intramural sports as that does sound like an intense workload, especially for a freshman.
 
Back
Top