ALL NROTC National Scholarships are 4-year awards, even those awarded to college freshmen with less than 30 credits. In the case of college freshmen, it is up to the individual units to update the reporting system to reflect the students' actual graduation date. Officer Development relies on the units to ensure that college freshmen still graduate on time, even though they have in fact been awarded 4-year National scholarships. In rare cases, a college freshman who receives a National scholarship may actually still use the benefit for the next four years- this may occur if/when a change of major occurred and it will benefit the Navy, or in cases where a school transfer took place. In general though, college freshmen receiving National scholarships will still be expected to graduate on timeline.
Side load scholarships are not "National" scholarships. They are awarded in a national competition, but the term "National" only applies to the 4-year awards that are open to high school students/students with less than 30 credit hours. When the term National scholarship is used, it is referring only to the 4-year variety, Navy or Marine option, to include the likes of ASR, ISR, MSISR, etc.
