How to deny NROTC scholarship after being offered an appointment?

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Flax47

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Jan 23, 2019
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Hi, this is my first post on here. I was recently offered an appointment to USNA class of 2024, which I am accepting, but I’ve already accepted the NROTC scholarship, which doesn’t activate until the start of the fall semester. I tried asking someone in my former NROTC battalion, but he hasn’t gotten back to me, so I figured I’d give the forums a shot. Who do I contact about denying the scholarship after I’ve already accepted it? Thank you.
 
Congratulations on your Appointment! There should be some contact information in your NROTC portal. Due to the COVID crises it may be difficult to get someone on the phone. I suggest sending an email to the contact listed in your portal. This is a common occurrence so it should be a straightforward process. Good luck and Congratulations!
 
It is nice of you to want to tell them (and the proper thing to do), but my advice would be to hold onto that scholarship as long as you can before showing up to I-Day. The scholarship is still your Plan B, even though you have an Offer of Appointment in hand.
 
I'm going to have to disagree with THP on this one.

While I certainly understand the desire to have a safety net. I don't think its appropriate to hold the NROTC scholarship as Plan B. Once you have accepted Plan A, you should be all in, and holding the spot impacts other things. Big Navy counts on filling all its NROTC slots in it accession planning. (Sure, one person doesn't affect things, but what if all 1000 Class of '24 Midshipman are double counted? ). Further, this allows someone else the opportunity to get the scholarship. Finally, from a practical perspective, if something happens and a candidate is disqualified between now and I Day (or even after I day if holding on longer), it is unlikely a person would get qualfied before commencing college.
 
Okay. I'll buy that line of reasoning. My thinking was that ROTC scholarships were the same as Offers of Appointment (in that they are yours and nobody else could use them.) If turning down the scholarship paves the way for someone else to get one, then I'm with you, @Old Navy BGO. :)
 
From what I recall from our first son having to do this, he called his NROTC Captain. Who was very gracious. I'm not sure the logistics of when/if/how the scholarship was 'removed'. I seem to recall (don't quote me) that it wasn't assigned to someone else, but rather went into a 'pot' for college programmers.
 
My DS received an appointment to USAFA after he had already accepted his NROTC scholarship. He did not want to hold up the scholarship for someone else, so he completed the Scholarship Acceptance Questionnaire that was on his NROTC portal - it’s a very simple form where you can check the box that you are declining the scholarship and another box that says the reason is Appointment to USNA. He emailed it to address on form and received a congratulations on his appointment and request to also submit a hard copy of the questionnaire in the mail. Good luck and congratulations on your appointment!
 
Preserving options can be a good thing, especially given the uncertainty with COVID. That is a different wrinkle this year. If a prospective plebe gets sick a week or two prior to I-Day they likely would get turned away. But if they recover NROTC would likely still be on the table for August.
 
DS completed the questionnaire after he had already accepted scholarship and sent it to the email you provided. They also got back to him quickly to confirm declination was received and he got another request to mail in a hard copy of the form. Sounds like sending an email notifying them of declination is the easier way to go :)
 
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