Current MIDN 1/C...Ask me anything

dreamingnukes

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Jan 1, 2017
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Hey all!

This forum and thread really helped me out when I was researching about ROTC, and specifically NROTC. I have been through a lot in this program and have a fairly good idea of what is coming next for both the program and me upon commissioning. If you have any questions about anything NROTC related I will do my best to answer! Feel free to pm me too
 
The best part of NROTC is getting up early in the morning to PT. It gives a great start to the day. The worst part is getting up early in the morning to PT. The next best part is being a Marine Option in NROTC. :D

In all seriousness, whats great for one person is another person's poison. I suppose further responses might be helpful in giving you some things to think about.

My own real feeling is that it gives you a great start on life.
 
The next best part is being a Marine Option in NROTC. :D
Would you call it the next worst part too? :D
Never!!! :D
@kinnem , I'm a NROTC sophmore non-scholarship cadet who did not get placed in advanced standing because of my low Prt scores. I got 60's across the board, and they didn't let me continue NROTC (my GPA was 3.65, and I was in the Pershing Rifles (31 ACT) I have seen in previous posts that failing NROTC will affect your chances at Naval OCS.
So, since my second choice was AF OTS (this is where I want to go after my degree), will failing Navy rotc affect my application for Air Force ots? Thank you.

I really want to commision in any branch of the military (excluding army/marines)
 
@kinnem , I'm a NROTC sophmore non-scholarship cadet who did not get placed in advanced standing because of my low Prt scores. I got 60's across the board, and they didn't let me continue NROTC (my GPA was 3.65, and I was in the Pershing Rifles (31 ACT) I have seen in previous posts that failing NROTC will affect your chances at Naval OCS.
So, since my second choice was AF OTS (this is where I want to go after my degree), will failing Navy rotc affect my application for Air Force ots? Thank you.

I really want to commision in any branch of the military (excluding army/marines)

If you really want to commission, you will have to not only accept, but cheerfully and willingly embrace, the concept of a physical lifestyle, daily self-directed maintenance PT and performing well on scheduled physical fitness tests, during both commissioning path and the entire span of a uniformed career. Moderate to heavy exercise is part of a military lifestyle, regardless of service of commissioning path.

From the standpoint of the Air Force, who, like the other services, uses OTS/OCS to “shop” for the most promising candidates to fit their recruiting goals, why would they admit someone to OTS, an equally physical environment, who has proven they were below standard in another commissioning program?

What we don’t know about you is whether this is a matter of will or skill. Most healthy people in your age range, if they apply enough will, develop the skill to perform the required physical tests adequately. No one expects Olympic performance.

Given you have a negative factor in your NROTC discontinuation, AF OTS would have to see significant change in your ability to reliably meet or exceed physical fitness standards, and other sterling qualities and achievements as well, if they would at all consider overlooking previous shortcomings.

Read the article at the link below. What evidence of change do you plan to bring so you can succeed in yet another physically demanding environment?

OTS/OCS programs are not a breeze.

https://www.maxwell.af.mil/News/Fea...s-future-a-day-in-the-life-of-an-ots-trainee/


And this interview:
 
@kinnem , I'm a NROTC sophmore non-scholarship cadet who did not get placed in advanced standing because of my low Prt scores. I got 60's across the board, and they didn't let me continue NROTC (my GPA was 3.65, and I was in the Pershing Rifles (31 ACT) I have seen in previous posts that failing NROTC will affect your chances at Naval OCS.
So, since my second choice was AF OTS (this is where I want to go after my degree), will failing Navy rotc affect my application for Air Force ots? Thank you.

I really want to commision in any branch of the military (excluding army/marines)

This is so confusing. You were NROTC but did not get advanced standing, are pursuing AFROTC currently but are researching MARGRAD? But also mention that you are a senior in high school looking at USCGA yet an EE major at WPI? Did I get that all right?
 
So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper ( A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock) at a course over in the Himalayas.

So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.”

So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.
 
How much time does a freshman on NROTC scholarship have for other types of activities, for example, fraternity, men’s crew, school government, intramural sports? Thank you
 
You'll have time for some of those, not all of them. There are members here whose kids joined fraternities, played Div I sports, participated in school government etc. None did more than one or maybe two of them.
 
How much time does a freshman on NROTC scholarship have for other types of activities, for example, fraternity, men’s crew, school government, intramural sports? Thank you

When I was in school, many years ago, we had guys in the fraternities who were in NROTC and AFROTC. I was in a fraternity, but not in ROTC. Being in a fraternity does not necessarily involve a big time commitment after you are initiated. However a lot of time may be required as a pledge. Once you are initiated you can devote as much or as little time to the fraternity as you want. However, I would say that being part of a NROTC unit would give your DS all the camaraderie that he would get from a fraternity. ROTC is like a fraternity unto itself.

My advice would be that first semester freshmen should devote 100% of their time to studies and ROTC. After they settle in, they can see how much time they have for other activities. I would advise a freshman in ROTC NOT to pledge a fraternity first semester. That is a recipe for problems.
 
If you are thinking of joining a fraternity, you should consider it very carefully before pledging. There have been several threads on here about negative impacts mids/cadets have experienced as a result of pledging a fraternity. Most had to do with alcohol and/or drugs the pledge felt compelled to ingest during initiation. Not to say this is everyone's experience and I've seen posts on here of mids/cadets who have had very positive experiences doing ROTC and a fraternity.
 
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If you are thinking of joining a fraternity, you should consider it very carefully before pledging. There have been several threads on here about negative impacts mids/cadets have experienced as a result of pledging a fraternity. Most had to do with alcohol and/or drugs the pledge felt compelled to ingest during initiation. Not to say this is everyone's experience and I've seen posts on here of mids/cadets who have had very positive experiences doing ROTC and a fraternity.

The press gives more attention to the bad things associated with fraternities than the good. All the major national fraternities now have very strong anti-hazing and alcohol policies. I was a Sigma Chi, one of the biggest national fraternities. Even 40 years ago, no one in my fraternity forced any of us to drink to take drugs. If my DS wants to join a fraternity, I would trust him to use common sense about drinking and to try to avoid it or at least do it responsibly. My personal view, and not all my friends agree, is that learning to stand on your own and to resist temptations or pressure to conform to the crowd is part of growing up. Fortunately, my DS is in high school NJROTC now where it is "cool" to be squeaky clean and not smoke or drink. I would urge him to hang with the NROTC kids in college too. But if he wants to check out the fraternities, I will counsel him to be his own man and not conform to peer pressure and if he drinks, to do it responsibly, and to avoid all drugs absolutely.
 
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