This is a slightly specific question, but I will be starting college at Oregon State this fall as a Scholarship NROTC midshipman. I've been looking at the course map for mechanical engineering that they've given and I noticed that most tri-mesters are in the 15-16 credit hour period (one being 17). From most my friends in college they've strongly advised not going over 15 especially for engineering for danger of falling behind and failing. I know that as a scholarship recipient, I have to go to the summer cruises (possibility to exempt all but the first class cruise) but it would be extremely beneficial to take summer classes to reduce the load. Does anyone know if it is possible to do both the cruise and take two or three classes in the same summer. I might have to try and exempt the first and/or second cruise to take classes, but any input on the the matter would be greatly appreciated.
NROTC Summer Classes w/ Cruise
- Thread starter Chadwick
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I don't think you can opt out of doing cruises, but I may be mistaken. You may be able to work in some summer classes but it will depends on the schedule of the cruise and the courses. You can try to request a cruise to work around some dates but there are no guarantees. My DS did that this summer (made a request to work around a job) but was unsuccessful.
Taking 16-17 hours a semester is not too onerous. It's when you get to 18-21 that things get tough. IMHO anyway.
USMCGrunt
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Chadwick: You won't be the first ME NROTC student at Oregon State. I am not sure how the trimester calendar works but you can get a lot of input from the midshipmen and Cadre staff at your school. They will have good guidance.
If you haven't been to orientation yet, I suspect you can bounce your questions and concerns off the cadre staff before you sign up for classes.
Also, you need to be conscious of how the scholarship works. Once again, I am not familiar with how trimesters work, but the Navy will only pay for 8 semesters in the traditional semester system so summer school would be at full cost. You wouldn't want to "waste" a semester payment on a light summer school courseload.