Marines: NROTC or USNA

Jman2014

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
19
Hey everyone:
Im extremely interested in attending the naval academy and would be ok with going into the navy. However, my dream to be a marine corps officer. Which path, USNA or NROTC is betterfor this? Whats the number of midshipmen that become marines vs the number that wanted it but didnt get it? Do most midshipmen get their first choice? How competitive are marine option nrotc scholarships? Is one pathway betterthan the other? I have done a lot of research but just wanted some general advice. Thanks!
 
I can barely say anything about this, but from what I understand, once you get out into the fleet, no one really cares where you commissioned from, what matters is if you`re a good or bad officer. With NROTC, you can do NROTC-MO and be guaranteed the Corps, but with USNA, there`s always a chance that you`ll end up as a Navy officer (And when I say "end up" I mean that in the best possible way, not as if it`s bad to be a Navy officer). From what I understand, it`s definitely harder to become an officer in the Marines than it was 30 years ago at USNA, but if you work hard, do well, show interest, etc, than it`s not too tough.

According to USNA`s website, 272 Marine Officer (Air and Ground combined) were commissioned, and I think that`s up to date C/O 2012 information. I`m not sure though on how many wanted to be vs. how many were commissioned as.

That`s just some quick info, I`m sure others can give better information. hopefully Hurricane12 will chime in, she`s a recently commissioned 2nd LT who can tell you a lot more.
 
The trend at USNA favors USMC candidates, transitioning from about 15% being commissioned as Marines a handful of years back to about 25% last year. Always need tough men willing to give their all to take the beach. Thank God for these men and women!
 
Where have you been? Thought you had retired or some such.
 
Where have you been? Thought you had retired or some such.
Old sailors never die. We just fade away. And now it's time for this old salt to just fade away.:sadwavey::zip:


NOT!:wink:

At least not yet. jk! :shake:

Hoping everyone's had a thankful Thanksgiving! May we remember He who's being thanked remains the same today as in 1620! :thumb:

And the same Who creates and protects sailors and soldiers! :thumb:

And the same Who enables Navy to beat Army with great regularity!:confused::eek::jump1:

Go NAVY! Beat Army! :groupwave:
 
It's hard to work out who got Marines or wanted it/didn't get it. I'm not sure if there's official stats out there.

From my class, we had:
320 attend Leatherneck
~50 or so attend MAGTF (don't worry too much about what that is since 99% of the time it won't apply to you if you actually go Marines)
...For a total of 370, not including a few other odds and ends who went on SEAL or EOD cruises and decided it wasn't for them.

-272 selected USMC. Keep in mind that a lot of people go to Leatherneck and decide it's not their thing. Rumor mill was 50-60 people were not selected for USMC who put it first, but I don't know where those numbers are from.
-268 actually commissioned as 2ndLts (drops were due to medical)

For future classes (2013+) it sounds like they're trying to make the cut before even attending Leatherneck, so a lot of this might change. Supposedly, 2013 had fewer USMC applicants than spots for the first time in years. KEEP IN MIND this doesn't mean that the Marines will just say "Oh, you have a pulse? Welcome to the Corps!" My understanding is that if they don't have the number of mids going Marine Corps they want, then they just don't have the number of mids they want. They're not going to drop standards to meet the quota...I saw this last year with air contracts.

The "going Marine from USNA" pep talk: Don't let the uncertainty dissuade you. You can make it happen. Going USMC from USNA is very doable if you work hard and don't suck. The people I know who didn't get USMC who wanted it (with extremely few exceptions) only have themselves to blame.

I can't speak for the fleet, but at TBS all Lieutenants are equally worthless. No source has a significant advantage over any other. In one sense, the Academy kids have an advantage for having put up with things that don't make sense for four years, making things that don't make sense here so much more tolerable.
I was worried about being behind the OCS and NROTC guys as far as tactics or Marine Corps knowledge since I had brain dumped Leatherneck, but I don't feel behind at all. The material is new to most of us, even most of the priors, so we're on an even playing field.
A couple OCS guys half-kidding gave me and the other Academy kids flak the first couple weeks for being a boatschooler ("Oh, they just take care of one another and don't care about anyone else"....not true...) or "not being a real Marine" :)rolleyes:) but they're idiots and shut up pretty quickly once we actually started training. There's still some well-intentioned (mostly) ribbing between commissioning sources 2+ months in, but that's it.
The TBS culture is very different from the Academy: if you can adapt and use what you learned at USNA to help other people out and make things run smoother, then you will be successful. If you still try to act like a midshipman as a 2ndLt....you're going to have a bad time.
Bottom line: don't be a tool and you'll do great.
 
Thank you very much Hurricane12. Its nice to talk to someone that has been through the actual process. In terms of physical qualifications and rigor, it seems to me that the Marine Corps requires a higher standard of physical fitness from its midshipmen. Is this the case and to what extent?
 
Thank you very much Hurricane12. Its nice to talk to someone that has been through the actual process. In terms of physical qualifications and rigor, it seems to me that the Marine Corps requires a higher standard of physical fitness from its midshipmen. Is this the case and to what extent?

Here's the Navy's PRT Standards for males your age: http://www.navy-prt.com/malestandard/17-19.html

Here's the USMC PFT Standards for males your age: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marines/l/blfitmale.htm

You can see there is more emphasis on upper body strength (pullups vs pushups) and endurance (double the run distance at a little bit slower pace - 5:30/mi vs 6:00/mi for max scores).

However, that's for NROTC and AD. I don't know how this works out practically in the Academy since at least initially all go through the same training and I assume the same fitness testing.
 
Here's the Navy's PRT Standards for males your age: http://www.navy-prt.com/malestandard/17-19.html

USNA runs the Navy PRT twice a year. Minimums are 10:30 run, 65 situps, and 45 pushups for males. By that table, a "Good" would be failing at USNA. The Marine Corps PFT isn't an official biannual test like the Navy PRT, but it is taken for screeners and training and the like. Of course, you can always go out and run one on your own time as much as you want.
 
USNA runs the Navy PRT twice a year. Minimums are 10:30 run, 65 situps, and 45 pushups for males. By that table, a "Good" would be failing at USNA. The Marine Corps PFT isn't an official biannual test like the Navy PRT, but it is taken for screeners and training and the like. Of course, you can always go out and run one on your own time as much as you want.

Thanks nuensis. It's about what I figured except that the USNA mins are higher. That's a good thing.
 
Hurricane12 is spot on. Not much has changed at TBS as I can see. I was commissioned from USNA when our numbers were in the 17% range. We had 350 attend Leatherneck. We had 155 USMC Ground billets come commissioning time. The USNA staff knew what our numbers were and geared Leatherneck to be hard to ensure "natural attrition" occurred. To be honest Leatherneck was much harder physically and mentally than TBS was. They made it that way though to really push people. This led to ~185 requesting USMC Ground as their first pick for 155 billets. As you can see natural attrition worked. Those not selected pretty much did it to themselves. They had bad PRTs, attitudes, did horrible at Leatherneck, etc.

We checked into TBS 30 days prior to our company picking up. It was us and the prior enlisted commissioned MECEPers. At first they had their usual thoughts about what USNA guys would be like and within a few days we were all friends and they realized we were normal people. In fact they realized we knew the area pretty well, also knew the training areas because we had been at Leatherneck and could take the stupid games they play with you there better than anyone. In the end we all got along fine. The ROTC guys showed up the day before we picked up. It took them a little longer to adjust, but within a few weeks they were in the groove and everyone was on a level playing field.
 
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