Confusion for NROTC Officer Interview

Joined
Mar 15, 2017
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Good morning all. So, with my DD's NROTC 4-year scholarship application, she has a "scholarship coordinator" that is assigned to her (a CPO out of the closest NRD). The Chief communicated with DD a couple of weeks ago about doing an officer interview via phone or Skype, then it ended up not happening (from their end) and DD has been unable to get in touch with her since. I've seen a couple of threads about officer interviews AT the school's they are applying to. Would that be in addition to this interview her scholarship coordinator was trying to facilitate? Or in lieu of? And then, would DD try to interview with an officer at...each of (say) her top 2-3 schools? Or all 5? Or something? (her #2 through 5 are all significantly out of state, but #1 is a reasonable drive). Thoughts/input?
 
In our case, the Army interview was at a school. They sent the closest ones in an email, but he chose to go to his #1 pick for the interview. The Navy one was the same as yours. Coordinator set up a FaceTime (that failed) interview that eventually just turned into a phone call. If I remember correctly, it was weeks after we were told 48 hours that he was contacted.
 
I'm not an NROTC expert, but I would recommend your DD contact the recruiting officer at school #1 and see if they can do the interview.

Reasons:
  • Driveable distance
  • It is her most desired school and that will show better during the interview.
  • If she does well, it might help with admissions IF the officer has good connections with the college.
  • It might replace the skype interview, but it might not hurt to build a rapport with the #1 school NROTC officer.
  • It is a proactive way to move things along.
Hopefully, @NavyNOLA can chime in on this as he is an NROTC officer.
 
The Chief communicated with DD a couple of weeks ago about doing an officer interview via phone or Skype

This was how NROTC worked for DS last year. A Chief actually drove up from Detroit (150+ miles) to give him the PFA/T (don't remember the acronym) and DS had a Skype interview via the Chief's cell phone immediately following, sweaty tee shirt and all. As opposed to AFROTC and AROTC I was left with the feeling that an in-person interview was not the preferred method. Of course, I wasn't there. The car pulled up in the drive - DS was in a suit - the Chief asked him to change to running gear and they took off for the high school track. When they returned 60-90 minutes later, I asked how it went and got "Fine." Gotta love teenage boys... :yllol:
 
NRD recruiters are tasked with scheduling NROTC Navy option interviews. CNSTC's guidance is that interviews should be done by NROTC staff officers whenever possible, but sometimes it will end up being done by an officer at the local NRD. Both in-person and Skype interviews are used; I believe in-person is always preferable to Skype and would lean that way as a student if it was an option, but doing it via Skype is very common. Students also have the option of contacting an NROTC unit of their choice and asking them to conduct their officer interview, vice simply waiting for their recruiter to schedule it. Some schools are better at this than others. Your best bet would be to contact your #1 school and ask if their CO/XO would do it, or to arrange an in-person interview with any staff member at a local NROTC unit within driving distance. You'll likely need to provide a copy of your application in advance, plus potentially other items like your transcript if asked. It will vary unit to unit.
 
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