Can I leverage my NROTC scholarship for college admissions?

Hebo

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Can anyone recommend how I might leverage my NROTC scholarship to help me get admitted to a college? (Or whether I should). In my essays, I mentioned that I have an NROTC scholarship and talked about how I feel that I would be an asset to the student body by representing an important point of view - i.e. military service. Don't know if that dog will hunt (even though I do sincerely believe this).

Should I contact the individual NROTC commanders and express my interest? By email? letter? phone? I've only been able to visit one school/NROTC unit (my state school). The others are out-of-state and it will be difficult (not impossible but difficult) to visit the others, given my spring schedule/sports commitments, family finances for travel etc. But if that is what it takes, I will do it.

I did some searching to try to find out if NROTC units have any pull with admissions - seems like it's a mixed bag. BTW I am regular decision for all of my apps. Right now, I have my scholarship placed at a significant reach (i.e. <10% acceptance) non-Ivy.

Also: Should I let the NROTC unit commander know that my first choice is USNA?
 
I’m certainly no expert, but with my DS, I talked to one Admissions Counselor and he told me that the school was “blind” to any scholarships received.
 
Can anyone recommend how I might leverage my NROTC scholarship to help me get admitted to a college? (Or whether I should). In my essays, I mentioned that I have an NROTC scholarship and talked about how I feel that I would be an asset to the student body by representing an important point of view - i.e. military service. Don't know if that dog will hunt (even though I do sincerely believe this).

Should I contact the individual NROTC commanders and express my interest? By email? letter? phone? I've only been able to visit one school/NROTC unit (my state school). The others are out-of-state and it will be difficult (not impossible but difficult) to visit the others, given my spring schedule/sports commitments, family finances for travel etc. But if that is what it takes, I will do it.

I did some searching to try to find out if NROTC units have any pull with admissions - seems like it's a mixed bag. BTW I am regular decision for all of my apps. Right now, I have my scholarship placed at a significant reach (i.e. <10% acceptance) non-Ivy.

Also: Should I let the NROTC unit commander know that my first choice is USNA?
My DS is going through this process as well. He received both NROTC and AROTC scholarships and we were hoping this would help him in particular with two reach schools on his list. He applied early action (non-binding) to both of those schools. He was admitted to one and deferred at the other (which like the school you mention has a very low acceptance rate). He has spoken with the ROTC officer in charge at that school and was told they do let the admissions office know which applicants received scholarships but that it is not decisive. At that particular school he told my DS that 30 kids received the scholarship and currently have it placed there and of those, 16 were rejected, 6 accepted and 8 deferred. Bottom line, it is a great resume booster but I do not think the scholarship itself will get you into a highly selective college. Best of luck!!
 
It all varies with the school. It sounds like you already let the college know via your essays. It doesn't hurt to call the PNS at the unit and let them know you're interested if you are not appointed to USNA. I don't know how hard they'll swing whatever bat they have knowing it's not your first choice, but being above board is the right thing to do.
 
Couple of Q:
1. Will it make any difference to inform the admission office of the NROTC scholarship?
2. Which one to contact for such, detachment officer or college admission office?
3. Can the detachment officer verify and know the scholarship if it is "Pending waiver Submission/Review" in DoDMERG?, i.e. awarded by pending for DoDMERG review
 
This is what I did: After receiving 4-year ROTC scholarships for the Army, Navy, and Air Force, I mentioned this in the "Additional Information" section of my college applications (Common App). I then contacted the Army, Navy, and ROTC units by email for every single school I applied to and asked if they could inform the admissions office of my scholarship. In most cases, the ROTC units send a list of "scholarship awardees" names to the admissions office, which probably gives you slight leverage. Sometimes, they offered to set up an appointment to call me and give me more information about their detachment, which I gladly took up. I was accepted to an Ivy and Georgia Tech via early action—no clue if ROTC was a big leverage or not, considering I'm also a super competitive applicant (top 2% of my class), but I'm sure it didn't hurt when the admissions officers were reading my application. Afterwards, the ROTC units personally congratulated me for my acceptances, which makes me think the detachments DID have a slight of hand, but who knows? :)

I subtly mentioned my desired career in the military in my essays, but this was only a sentence or two and most of my essays focused on my personal aspects.
 
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