Thanks Hoops and Swag. Yes, he wants to be a Marine--like your boy Swag. (it breaks my heart but I kind of did this to him in my last job--I know that there are people on here who look at my picture and know exactly who I am, which is fine. Not that I would not be super proud--but really, I am a mom, I know something about each of the services...it is a harder life but not mine to pick.) I think deep in his heart so he likes USNA because it pushes the decision point down the road whereas we were both shocked this fall when he opened the ROTC portal and saw that you cannot apply to NROTC and NROTC MO at the same time. I was like, "PICK! "--and he thought for a week and picked NROTC because so few MO scholarships are awarded (and it isn't that he needs the scholarship, he has the Sgt Fry/GI Bill--he just wants the commitment.) So, still waiting...
DrMom, my husbands grandfather retired as a Chief in the Navy. He passed away before my son had a chance to know him. My husbands father was a pilot in the Air force. He went on to fly commercial and retired years ago. Other than that we don't have military experience. As I mentioned, this is my first to go to college. Our fist rejection letter was from the Marine Corps when he was 13 years old. It thanked him for his interest but said he was not old enough...we still have the letter and laugh about it to this day. My husband and I had no idea he had applied online...at 13! As a "mom", I spent a lot of time talking about the negative aspects of military service...I really didn't know what I was talking about. After all, we just want out kids to be safe.
Regarding the NROTC MO Scholarship...I have heard there are few of them to give out in comparison to the other branches. I obviously had no say in the matter. My husband tried to encourage him to apply to USMA as well as an AROTC Scholarship. At our visit to Citadel last year they made it clear that he should apply because there are more scholarships available. My son is stubborn and said that he did not "feel it". So here we are, all of his eggs are in one basket...maybe 2...