Competitiveness

jamesd96

5-Year Member
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Dec 17, 2011
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Compared to admission to the U.S. Naval Academy, about how competitive is an NROTC scholarship to a civilian university? Thank you.
 
I am new to this forum. #1 son was turned down for NROTC scholarship. His stats were at the highest level. However, he was was relatively slow to apply. He did a gap year in Taiwan, already accepted to several schools, and applied for AROTC 4yr from Taiwan. He couldn't have submitted his app any sooner. He got it. He is the only out of stater at his big state school who received a scholarship. I got impression that the university's engineering dept wanted him pretty badly.

To make a long story longer, there are many moving parts. Each branch uses ROTC to train its future officers. One of many reasons to offer scholarships is to try and produce a variety of skill sets to meet their future manpower needs. Time also counts. If they can fill the spots in December, you'll be out of luck if your app isn't in until Jan.

Assuming you are completely qualified, you will still be subject to luck of the draw. There could be a huge group of candiates wanting to study exactly what you want to study at the schools you designate, giving you much more competition. I think this may have been what happened first go round with the NROTC. My son designated Ga tech (nothing but Engineers) and Cal Berkely, the most sought after public in the US.

In my son's case, he designated yet another school for AROTC. His academic advisor advised him against ROTC, believing that Chem Eng and ROTC would be too much work. She's right, but he is did it anyway. I assume all Engineering applicants at his school are getting that same advice. Therefore, one would assume that there wouldn't be that many engineers applying there for ROTC scholarships, giving him less competition.

I know this sounds confusing. My best advise is to use this forum to ask questions and be as specific as possible about your situation. Reveal as much as you can about what you really want to study, what kind of schools your looking at, public or private, in or out of state, etc. I think you'll find some excellent advice.
 
Think about it this way.

95% of USNA applicants will apply for ROTC as Plan B, however 95% of ROTC candidates will not apply to USNA as their Plan B. That means the pool for ROTC is as large if not larger than the original pool for USNA (notice I put applicant, not candidate for USNA because there is a difference).

Out of the 3 ROTC branches, NROTC has always been known as the most competitive.

Old adage, you have 100% chance of not getting a scholarship if you don't apply. Good luck.
 
His academic advisor advised him against ROTC, believing that Chem Eng and ROTC would be too much work. She's right, but he is did it anyway.
Well, I don't blame his academic advisor for *warning* about the workload of Engineering + ROTC, but advising against it? That's odd. Purely self interest as the advisor is only concerned about engineering, not your son's career path in military service. Why do you think she's right in that assessment?

- Yes, ROTC takes up a minimum of 10 hours per week, and up to 14 hours, depending on the Battalion.

- Yes, that much out of classroom work requires good time management skills. Yes, many ROTC/NROTC engineering majors require 4.3/4.5/4.7/5 years to graduate, but the ROTC program accomodates that assuming the cadet/mid is in good standing and it's all laid out ahead of time.

Congratulations to your son.
 
Compared to admission to the U.S. Naval Academy, about how competitive is an NROTC scholarship to a civilian university? Thank you.
I agree with PIMA... setting aside the Nomination process (which is its own significant hurdle), my take is that for the Engineering or Science/Math major student, a 4 Year NROTC scholarship and an acceptance to the USNA are about equally difficult. However, for a non-STEM major, I believe an NROTC scholarship is actually much more difficult to obtain than an acceptance to Annapolis. Only 15% or NROTC 4 yr. scholarships may be awarded to a non-STEM major...I believe that totals, last year, to 270 scholarship offers.

http://www1.netc.navy.mil/nstc/nstc...gement Strategy for Academic Yr 2011-2012.pdf
 
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Well, I don't blame his academic advisor for *warning* about the workload of Engineering + ROTC, but advising against it? That's odd. Purely self interest as the advisor is only concerned about engineering, not your son's career path in military service. Why do you think she's right in that assessment?

Dunn, they don't have a "tounge in cheek" emoticon.:biggrin: In fairness to his advisor, I think she was more concerned about burn out. It can happen to the best of them.

About two/three weeks ago, my MS I called me at around noon. I asked him how he was doing and he said he a kind of tired. I asked why. He said that he got up as usual at 5:30 MWF for a 7 mi. ruck march, followed by a physics exam and an organic chemistry exam...and he hadn't even had lunch. That's what I mean by too much.

Fortunately, he loooooooves ROTC. PT and weekend camps are a great stress reliever. He has learned to take cat naps on demand.

I am actually more concerned about his junior year. Expectations will be higher from both ROTC and Eng. I fully expect ROTC to be supportive, maybe by giving him an extra semester since MS burns almost all of his electives.

Which reminds me of another suggeston I would make to any cadet or prospective cadet. Use the human resources of the battalion: commanders, instructors, fellow cadets. The senior folks have seen it all and most of them have had to work through the stresses that the cadet is dealing with.
 
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