Help With School Selection

madgriff

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Aug 4, 2015
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I'll be starting my application for the NROTC scholarship soon, and for that particular scholarship they have you list your top five colleges in order of preference. I've narrowed it down to five, but I'm having trouble deciding what order to put them in. I don't want to go too safe and get accepted to a great school but not get the scholarship to it, nor do I want to make my first preference a reach school, get the scholarship, but not get accepted to the school and possibly lose it.

My five schools are as follows:

Reach Schools (About and 8% acceptance rate for both)
  • MIT-I prefer this one and is my first choice in general because I've lived in the Boston area my entire life and I really do like it here.
  • CalTech

These other schools I'm fairly confident I can get into
  • University of Texas, Austin is my first choice on this list because the Austin environment really appeals to me and it is a very good engineering school.
  • Boston University
  • Georgia Tech
I'm definitely going to end my high school career with a GPA of above 3.5, but I'm fairly confident it will be more, and I performed well on the PSATs which gives me confidence for the SAT's. I'm involved in two clubs, one of which I started, plus Civil Air Patrol and 4 years of Mixed Martial Arts. I have many community service hours, but will continue to add on to that, and I'm a member of the National Honors Society.

If I got accepted into every college I wanted to, my list would be:
1. MIT
2. CalTech
3. UT
4. BU
5. Georgia Tech

Taking into account the highly competitive nature of some of these schools my working list for the application is:
1. UT
2. MIT
3. BU
4. CalTech
5. Georgia Tech

I'm really having trouble deciding if this is a good order, and any help or advice from past experiences would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this.
 
You can always change the order later. My son's first choice was Northwestern. When he did not get accepted, he changed up his list. A week later (probably just a coincidence) he received his NROTC scholarship to his new number one.
 
I'd be interested to see opinions on this one since DS put his most competitive, Holy Cross at #1. He is in at #4 Old Dominion
 
I saw you mentioned MIT's acceptance rate but you should really be comparing yourself to their average student profile to determine your chances... frequently a reach is beyond reach. Which of these schools have you visited? Seems like that should be part of your decision process where possible as should distance from home (travel costs).
 
MIT Naval ROTC classes are held at BU anyway (I think), so that might be easier (but an MIT degree - wow!)

I think BU offers free room & board for ROTC scholarship students, but if you're from the Boston area be forewarned that BU is filled with New Yawkwers.

Have you considered Tutfs in nearby Medford? Five minutes north of Boston. If you're applying to MIT why not Harvard? One minute walk across the river from Brighton (Boston). Harvard Square. Cambridge cafes, theaters, etc. Kenmore Square (Red Sox) ten minutes away via the T.
 
My son was told during his NROTC interview to have an instate college in the top 3 of the 5. He looked at the many of the same as you but chose not to apply to those because they were a very reach school and he has high stats. He did not want the instate school at all. He did change the order of the schools once but always kept Purdue #1. His top choice was awarded to him, Purdue. He is majoring in AE, has his private pilots and wants to try out for the flight team. This is plan B as he awaits for the USAFA and USNA decisions and has 3 nominations.

Many of the colleges you listed have very selective criteria and your GPA of 3.5 or a bit above should technically be higher to be considered at such selective schools. How hard was the load you took and do you take AP classes? I would say think long and hard at that because if you chose MIT as your #1 school and NROTC offers you a scholarship to MIT and you didn't get accepted to MIT you have a useless scholarship that you can wait list for another school and hopefully get in. Along with that when I spoke to NROTC at Georgia Tech, Purdue and Cal Tech a few years back to help groom my son towards his career and life goals as an officer, they came right out and said we would rather see AP classes in physics, chemistry, calculus etc and a 3.8GPA than someone who took a regular load and a few honors classes and had a 4.0 GPA and ranked #1 in their class. The other was leadership and volunteering mix- this is huge along with involvement in sports and varsity lettering. My son is also in CAP since he was 12 and has achieved his Billy Mitchell. Try to strive for ranks and also hold leadership positions such as flight officer etc but dont weigh a lot on CAP, mix it up with school leadership and community volunteering. NROTC looks for well rounded individuals. The NROTC interview is a huge portion I was told by several schools such as the ones you mentioned. They want to see how you handle yourself versus what you have on paper so seek a few mentor out who will test you, train you and practice with you. Research possible questions and know it will be tough. One question asked of my son by his BGO was Have you ever cheated? Dont lie, I can tell when someone lies. I didn't see that one coming when he told me after wards. My son gave an honest and great answer. He said everyone has cheated at some point, that he cheated himself when he first started on the high school swim team by cheating out laps during practice but in the end realized he was cheating himself and his team. I was honestly floored by his awesome and honest answer.

Good luck, call some of the NROTC units, ask questions or visit them on campus if you can to see if they feel like a fit too. Sometimes they just dont feel right in person and that is how he ended up changing his list.
 
You are applying for a NROTC scholarship late as they have already had 6 of the 13 boards. As already stated your gpa is a bit low for MIT and for some of the others that you listed. UT follows the state law on limiting out of staters to I think 3% of incoming class. Good luck and dont delay much longer on your NROTC application. Next board is 11-14 JAN and you will miss that one too.
 
You are applying for a NROTC scholarship late as they have already had 6 of the 13 boards. As already stated your gpa is a bit low for MIT and for some of the others that you listed. UT follows the state law on limiting out of staters to I think 3% of incoming class. Good luck and dont delay much longer on your NROTC application. Next board is 11-14 JAN and you will miss that one too.
You are certainly correct if OP is a senior. I believe though that OP is a junior given that only PSAT has been taken so far. I believe he or she is prepping for the applications to open in April. If that's the case then OP is right where he ought to be... sorting through which colleges. Just didn't want OP, who I suspect is unfamiliar with the process to panic.
 
As is always recommended in these threads, choose schools you can afford in case you were to lose your scholarship due to an injury, for example, that would medically DQ you. The Army ROTC process required an in-state school be listed. My son listed three, and was awarded to all three with the AROTC. Not sure if Navy works the same, but they consider your OML score, along with their budget, and the schools you list. So if your reach schools are also more expensive, you may want to consider that in part of your equation for preference.
 
As is always recommended in these threads, choose schools you can afford in case you were to lose your scholarship due to an injury, for example, that would medically DQ you. The Army ROTC process required an in-state school be listed. My son listed three, and was awarded to all three with the AROTC. Not sure if Navy works the same, but they consider your OML score, along with their budget, and the schools you list. So if your reach schools are also more expensive, you may want to consider that in part of your equation for preference.
NROTC awards the school and it is to only one in your line up of the 5. After that you can wait list/change it to one of the others on your list of 5 if you are awarded a NROTC scholarship and it wasn't to the school you wanted of the 5..
 
UT follows the state law on limiting out of staters to I think 3% of incoming class.

The percentage of OOS students comprising an incoming class at the University of Texas at Austin is actually just a bit higher -- 7% last year-- but it is not necessarily capped that low due entirely to state law. While they are mandated to accept all in-state applicants who are in the top 7% (or so, varies annually) of their high school class, they are able to cap the percentage of in-state freshmen at 75% of the class if they so choose. That being said, the overall acceptance rate for OOS applicants is only 32%, and it can be considerably lower for some of the more competitive majors such as engineering (DS was thankfully just accepted to the UT School of Engineering as an OOS applicant but we were definitely concerned about his chances due to those statistics).
 
I'll be starting my application for the NROTC scholarship soon, and for that particular scholarship they have you list your top five colleges in order of preference. I've narrowed it down to five, but I'm having trouble deciding what order to put them in. I don't want to go too safe and get accepted to a great school but not get the scholarship to it, nor do I want to make my first preference a reach school, get the scholarship, but not get accepted to the school and possibly lose it.

My five schools are as follows:

Reach Schools (About and 8% acceptance rate for both)
  • MIT-I prefer this one and is my first choice in general because I've lived in the Boston area my entire life and I really do like it here.
  • CalTech

These other schools I'm fairly confident I can get into
  • University of Texas, Austin is my first choice on this list because the Austin environment really appeals to me and it is a very good engineering school.
  • Boston University
  • Georgia Tech
I'm definitely going to end my high school career with a GPA of above 3.5, but I'm fairly confident it will be more, and I performed well on the PSATs which gives me confidence for the SAT's. I'm involved in two clubs, one of which I started, plus Civil Air Patrol and 4 years of Mixed Martial Arts. I have many community service hours, but will continue to add on to that, and I'm a member of the National Honors Society.

If I got accepted into every college I wanted to, my list would be:
1. MIT
2. CalTech
3. UT
4. BU
5. Georgia Tech

Taking into account the highly competitive nature of some of these schools my working list for the application is:
1. UT
2. MIT
3. BU
4. CalTech
5. Georgia Tech

I'm really having trouble deciding if this is a good order, and any help or advice from past experiences would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this.
Hi, there are many factors to get into top schools and USNA, are you female, minority, first to go college, hardship, legacy??? Just improve your GPA, score high SAT, have leadership position, take AP/honors, play varsity sport (captain) etc.... Btw: don't know if true but statiscally you might have better chance at CalTech vs MIT cuz your location?? Ex. had two friends yrs back, one got into Harvard from Hawaii and one didn't (she lived suburbs of Boston with top schools) have to say the Boston friend was much smarter:)
 
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