Advice on whether I should move my NROTC scholarship?

I received an NROTC Tier 1 scholarship in early November. I did not apply ED to any of my 5 colleges because I am also applying to USNA. To place my NROTC scholarship, I picked a potential reach school (not an Ivy). Three of my other four colleges are public Big Tens, with one being my state school. I applied to all colleges regular decision. I understand I will likely not hear a decision from any of the schools until April.

Is there a possibility that by the time I hear about decisions from the 5 schools, the NROTC programs at each school could be closed for scholarship recipients? The situation I'm thinking about would be that my first choice is a "thanks, but no thanks" and I hear about that in April (I'm assuming in all this that I get a TWE from USNA). I get accepted to my State school but NROTC is all filled up. It is not a lay-up that my State school would accept me - it is pretty selective (although I seem to be above all of their scholastic stats). One of my older brothers, who had really good stats, was not admitted as a freshman (which shocked everyone - especially my parents). My other brother was accepted into the college of letters and sciences (not the engineering college) at State U and eventually was able to transfer over - that would not work for me because with a Tier 1, I have to take a STEM/engineering program.

Would the best strategy be to move my NROTC scholarship over to my State school now, before it fills up (it apparently does most years according to the NROTC officer I spoke with there)? If I do not get accepted to any of my 5 schools, will I lose my NROTC scholarship?

It's tough right now (I'm sure it's the same for others) - most of my friends as school with good grades/rank/ACTs went ED and have been accepted at great schools. In my IB diploma program, their are 20 other seniors and I found out on Friday that I'm the only one without at least one college acceptance. My guidance counselor said that a lot of colleges are selecting more applications from ED than ever before - more than she's ever seen.

You are correct that if you do not receive a scholarship from any of the 5 schools (assuming you did not apply to any other NROTC college), then you would lose the scholarship.

I would say you have 3 choices... or at least that's how I wold approach it.
1. Sit tight and see where you are accepted. You're taking risks whichever way you go so perhaps it's better to just wait it out. Also, you wouldn't have the potential of transferring your scholarship twice if you are not accepted at the school you transfer it to the first time. Would you be embarrassed if you moved it from your first choice now only to ask to move it back later?
2. Change it to the school where you have a reasonable chance of acceptance for a STEM degree.
3. Perhaps, ask yourself which school you would attend without a scholarship.. your plan C school, and transfer it to that. If you would be OK attending their without a scholarship, you ought to be OK attending there with the scholarship. BTW, you don't know about financial aid yet either which could impact this equation, which is why I would go with #1. They'll find a way for you to use a scholarship if at all possible.

It's a tough wait. You just have to be patient. DS waited until mid-April to get a negative reply. Fortunately plan B was ready to execute so he was fine. He enrolled in NROTC MO as a college programmer and won a scholarship the middle of his sophomore year. He's a Marine Officer today.

I can understand that this is a stressful situation for you. I would imagine that if you are applying to USNA, you are a well qualified student and are likely to be accepted to at least one of your listed schools, if not all of them. I would think the chances of all of the schools on your list filling up are slim and there should be at least one (probably more) school from your list where you are admitted and has space for a scholarship student in their unit. Hopefully you would be happy with any of the schools on your list. A previous poster on here, @NavyNOLA, was staff at the Tulane NROTC unit up until last year. He passed on that the Navy was granting fewer 4 year scholarships in favor of more two and three year scholarships, but not decreasing the scholarship slots at the individual units. So, at least in theory, units should be less likely to fill up. Hopefully you hear some good news before April, but I'd probably just sit tight and see how things play out.

Thanks for the advice.

I used to think I was a pretty good USNA candidate - you know, way back in 2018. I hope I still am. Lots of candidates are in the same boat as me - seeing people getting LOAs and the appointment thread starting to fill out. I know it's early still. But it's out of my hands now and there is nothing I can do about it anymore. In my mind, I'm telling myself that I'm TWE so I can focus on making sure I have a path forward. The NROTC scholarship is a real gift to me and I don't want to screw it up by reaching too far above my grasp. I'm kind of surprised at how competitive many of the Big Ten schools are. I went onto my school's Naviance for the schools I've picked and was surprised to see that several past students from my school with GPA/ACT similar to mine didn't get in (and mine are pretty good IMHO).

Hebo said:

In my mind, I'm telling myself that I'm TWE so I can focus on making sure I have a path forward.

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I currently have a similar mindset, but, @Hebo , don't sell yourself short! NROTC is a superb commissioning path, and both USNA and NROTC have the same outcome. Best of luck to you!

Hebo- delayed my response while confirming my information. The instruction that governed 'max' loading at NROTC units was cancelled. To directly answer your question - no, there is no longer a possibility that the NROTC program at any school you get into will be closed to scholarship recipients. And you are not tied to the order you originally listed on your application. If you do not get into #1, but get into #2-5, you can move your scholarship to any of those schools if you have changed your mind about which school you'd prefer #2. Good luck with the admissions decisions.

Thanks Go Dores! That is good to know.

Go Dores! said:

Hebo- delayed my response while confirming my information. The instruction that governed 'max' loading at NROTC units was cancelled. To directly answer your question - no, there is no longer a possibility that the NROTC program at any school you get into will be closed to scholarship recipients. And you are not tied to the order you originally listed on your application. If you do not get into #1, but get into #2-5, you can move your scholarship to any of those schools if you have changed your mind about which school you'd prefer #2. Good luck with the admissions decisions.

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Wow, that is a big change! I suspect this will mean certain schools will all of a sudden have some much larger NROTC program than they had in the past.

Gosh @Go Dores! - that is a significant change to the NROTC process. I can't imagine how that could work in practice. If you have any source or details you could share, I am sure this community would appreciate it.

I'll do my best to answer the last few posts. NSTCINST 1533.11 is available via google search. This is the cancelled instruction I referenced, but it reveals how the 'max' freshman load was calculated - important point here, there was never a guarantee of how many scholarship students a unit would receive, simply a max number that could be assigned. The starting point was 15 and based on a number of factors a unit could find its max at 35. Current accession numbers into the NROTC program make achieving max numbers at all units impossible. Only the most 'popular' units approached this number. A certain Catholic university in IN comes to mind.

Will this change have a major impact on unit loading? I guess time will tell, but I suspect it may not be that significant. These young men and women (scholarship recipients) still need to gain admissions to the very selective schools the OP mentioned (public Big 10).

Go Dores! said:

Hebo- delayed my response while confirming my information. The instruction that governed 'max' loading at NROTC units was cancelled. To directly answer your question - no, there is no longer a possibility that the NROTC program at any school you get into will be closed to scholarship recipients. And you are not tied to the order you originally listed on your application. If you do not get into #1, but get into #2-5, you can move your scholarship to any of those schools if you have changed your mind about which school you'd prefer #2. Good luck with the admissions decisions.

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Can you transfer your scholarship to a school that wasn’t in your top 5?

It’s difficult to wait until March/April for the regular decisions when many or most of your peers are settled now. If it helps to know: DS finished his app to NROTC in early fall but didn’t hear until mid-April, and the Tier 1 scholarship was tied to a school he didn’t get in. It was an easy process to get the scholarship transferred. Be thoughtful about whether you are over-thinking the situation because of the stressful nature of where you are in the timeline. If you applied to “reach” programs ... well, you should! You are obviously well qualified as you have received a very competitive scholarship! And Congratulations!

Oh... and I’d revisit the conversation at the state school given the above info/process change. And I’d really want to know: do the “filled” numbers include college programmers?

Go Dores! said:

I'll do my best to answer the last few posts. NSTCINST 1533.11 is available via google search. This is the cancelled instruction I referenced, but it reveals how the 'max' freshman load was calculated - important point here, there was never a guarantee of how many scholarship students a unit would receive, simply a max number that could be assigned. The starting point was 15 and based on a number of factors a unit could find its max at 35. Current accession numbers into the NROTC program make achieving max numbers at all units impossible. Only the most 'popular' units approached this number. A certain Catholic university in IN comes to mind.

Will this change have a major impact on unit loading? I guess time will tell, but I suspect it may not be that significant. These young men and women (scholarship recipients) still need to gain admissions to the very selective schools the OP mentioned (public Big 10).

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Thanks! That is interesting info. DS's NROTC scholarship letter said he was able to place his scholarship at any university that offered NROTC and explicitly said he was not limited to his original five. But I did not know that the limits to the number of scholarships at a particular university's NROTC was also relaxed.

ACatSLP said:

Go Dores! said:

Hebo- delayed my response while confirming my information. The instruction that governed 'max' loading at NROTC units was cancelled. To directly answer your question - no, there is no longer a possibility that the NROTC program at any school you get into will be closed to scholarship recipients. And you are not tied to the order you originally listed on your application. If you do not get into #1, but get into #2-5, you can move your scholarship to any of those schools if you have changed your mind about which school you'd prefer #2. Good luck with the admissions decisions.

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Can you transfer your scholarship to a school that wasn’t in your top 5?

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Yes, and at risk of stating the obvious, the school has to have an NROTC program or be a crosstown of a school with an NROTC program. Same process. Send an email to pnsc_nrotc.placement@navy.mil (this info can be found at the following link: http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/contact.html)

5centsmom said:

Oh... and I’d revisit the conversation at the state school given the above info/process change. And I’d really want to know: do the “filled” numbers include college programmers?

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College Program a completely separate beast. The number of College Programmers at any unit is at the sole discretion of the NROTC unit CO.

Great new info here. Thanks @Go Dores!
My own guess is it won't really change unit sizes much, if at all. Only a (relatively small) percentage of midshipmen start out on scholarship, or that's my general impression anyway.

A follow up question for @Go Dores! - When was the instruction cancelled? According to the 29 December 2017 NSTCNOTE 5215 the 1533.11A instruction was still in effect. I can't seem to find an updated 5215 but the Training Command website is still showing the instruction as active. (please note I am not challenging your position - I am just trying to familiarize myself with the source documents)

USMCGrunt said:

A follow up question for @Go Dores! - When was the instruction cancelled? According to the 29 December 2017 NSTCNOTE 5215 the 1533.11A instruction was still in effect. I can't seem to find an updated 5215 but the Training Command website is still showing the instruction as active. (please note I am not challenging your position - I am just trying to familiarize myself with the source documents)

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Nov 2018. And concur that NSTCNOTE5215 is out of date. You will see that 1533.11A is no longer listed under the Instructions tab of Directives.

One other thought on this; be sure to contact the admissions office at the universities where you are awaiting admissions decisions and let them know you have this scholarship. At some, but not all, universities, this may be a factor in your favor for admissions decisions.