How difficult is it to change from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 major while on a NROTC scholarship?

[Stingray]

Our son is applying for an NROTC scholarship this year to a Maritime Academy- He is trying to decide between Marine Systems Engineering (MSE) major (Tier 1) vs Marine Engineering Technology (MET) major (Tier 2 ). SUNY Maritime, MMA, & TAMU are on his list of colleges.
As a background, we spent 5 years overseas in Chile while he was in Elementary & Middle school and he attended a local Chilean school. Unfortunately, the first year's information at the school was lost due to language issues, and math was taught quite differently in the local school. This seems to have affected some algebraic math skills once we returned to the US. He struggled a bit the first year in the US high school, but seemed to have caught up by junior year. In this senior year, he was struggling a bit in Pre-Calculus earlier in the year, although he is cruising now. However, this has left him with a bit of anxiety regarding whether he will struggle with the math-centric MSE Engineering major in college.
2 of the colleges have recommended that he start with the MSE major and then drop into the MET major if he is struggling with math, and that it is quite common for students at the Maritime colleges to do so.

How difficult would it be for him if he gains the NROTC scholarship for the Tier 1 major and then decides a year in that he needs to switch to the Tier 2 major? Would he lose the NROTC scholarship?

 

[GWU PNS (emeritus)]

Shifting from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 major can be approved at the PNS level. It will depend on the respective unit but it happens somewhat frequently. The times when I have had reservations is when a person wants the shift because they struggle with calculus or physics. Those are required regardless of major.

Your best course of action is to check with the top choices to see how often they jave approved T1 to T2 shifts.

 

[USNA_STEM_Prof]

How difficult would it be for him if he gains the NROTC scholarship for the Tier 1 major and then decides a year in that he needs to switch to the Tier 2 major?

@GWU PNS hit it on the head and I'll reiterate, particularly with the above quote: define "need" in this case? If need means "genuinely unable to academically complete the curriculum otherwise," that's a different situation from "will have to sacrifice a tremendous amount of personal time and possibly get some Cs in completion of the tier 1 major."

In the end, lots of students do change majors and it'll come down to your son's particular circumstances and unit at the time.