Moving NROTC to another school or wait?

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kris10

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Feb 9, 2018
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My DD was offered the NROTC scholarship to Villanova. That is her first choice school and she has already been in contact with the unit. Unfortunately, she was waitlisted at Villanova today. She has been accepted at her 2nd choice school, University of Maryland.
We have a few questions: should she hold off on transferring her scholarship or wait to find out if she gets into Villanova (which could be after May 1st)? Should she let admissions know about her scholarship? Would the NROTC unit class advisor be able to advise her on this also?
 
Well, it might be worth a call to the PNS. Some units have some sway with admissions.... don't know if Villanova is one of them. You might also contact admissions directly, let them know about the scholarship, and see if you can get some sense (ask for stats) about her coming off the wait-list. In the meantime, after some initial calls, I would start the transfer process in parallel with this. If things change she could try to transfer back. The contact for transfers might also shed some light on how to proceed. Don't guess... work the system.
 
kris10 said:
My DD was offered the NROTC scholarship to Villanova. That is her first choice school and she has already been in contact with the unit. Unfortunately, she was waitlisted at Villanova today. She has been accepted at her 2nd choice school, University of Maryland.
We have a few questions: should she hold off on transferring her scholarship or wait to find out if she gets into Villanova (which could be after May 1st)? Should she let admissions know about her scholarship? Would the NROTC unit class advisor be able to advise her on this also?
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Yes, I think you should have her call Villanova NROTC unit immediately. My son was in the same situation a few years back with a different catholic university and the commanding officer asked him to wait to see if he could clear the wait list. I'm sure the officer meeting with admissions helped move the process along. We did have to wait until May before admissions would let him know if he was in or not. That was a LONG month. We actually ended up putting a deposit down on more than one university (with the blessing of the high school counselor) given the complicated situation of having admission at one school and scholarship assigned to the waitlisted school.
Good luck!
 
You may also want to call the battalion at the university of Maryland and see if the unit has filled up in the past. They will not be able to predict the future, but historic performance may be an indicator of what will happen. Find out how many students they have in each class. If you look at Maryland's NROTC website, on the home page there is a photo of the commissioning class. It has 13 including 2 MO. You have to assume at all are in the photo and they did not have something weird happen where they lost 1/2 their class, but 13 per class is relatively small. 25 would be a large class. That can give you a feel for how much risk you are taking leaving the scholarship at Villanova.
 
@5Day that's a good idea, but don't kid yourself about losing half the class being weird. DSs class started with 45 and 15 commissioned.
 
westcoastmom said:
kris10 said:
My DD was offered the NROTC scholarship to Villanova. That is her first choice school and she has already been in contact with the unit. Unfortunately, she was waitlisted at Villanova today. She has been accepted at her 2nd choice school, University of Maryland.
We have a few questions: should she hold off on transferring her scholarship or wait to find out if she gets into Villanova (which could be after May 1st)? Should she let admissions know about her scholarship? Would the NROTC unit class advisor be able to advise her on this also?
Click to expand...

Yes, I think you should have her call Villanova NROTC unit immediately. My son was in the same situation a few years back with a different catholic university and the commanding officer asked him to wait to see if he could clear the wait list. I'm sure the officer meeting with admissions helped move the process along. We did have to wait until May before admissions would let him know if he was in or not. That was a LONG month. We actually ended up putting a deposit down on more than one university (with the blessing of the high school counselor) given the complicated situation of having admission at one school and scholarship assigned to the waitlisted school.
Good luck!
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I agree that she should contact NOVA's NROTC unit ASAP and have a frank discussion with them to find out if they can help with admissions. Additionally, ask them if she were to transfer the scholarship to Maryland and then later be admitted to NOVA, if they think there would still be a spot left there. It's an extremely popular NROTC unit. Find out from Maryland's NROTC unit if they normally fill up or if she could transfer the scholarship later in the summer to MD if she keeps the scholarship assigned to NOVA but did not does not get in off their waitlist. The 2017/2018 Common Data Set for NOVA showed the number of applicants who were offered to be on the waitlist as 6276, with the number who accepted a spot on the waitlist at 2545, and finally the number admitted from that waitlist as 211.
 
5Day said:
You may also want to call the battalion at the university of Maryland and see if the unit has filled up in the past. They will not be able to predict the future, but historic performance may be an indicator of what will happen. Find out how many students they have in each class. If you look at Maryland's NROTC website, on the home page there is a photo of the commissioning class. It has 13 including 2 MO. You have to assume at all are in the photo and they did not have something weird happen where they lost 1/2 their class, but 13 per class is relatively small. 25 would be a large class. That can give you a feel for how much risk you are taking leaving the scholarship at Villanova.
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UMD's program is relatively new and I believe that may have been the first or second graduating class. If you look a few years down the line, the numbers are much higher - don't quote me, but I believe 50-60.
 
We have a similar situation with Pitt. My son is on the wait list for fall, but a guaranteed spot for spring. He is waiting it out. One way or another, he will be in pitt by spring. I am not crazy about the waiting idea, but its really where he wants to go. Hopefully after May 1, he will have the spot for the fall.
 
5Day said:
You may also want to call the battalion at the university of Maryland and see if the unit has filled up in the past. They will not be able to predict the future, but historic performance may be an indicator of what will happen. Find out how many students they have in each class. If you look at Maryland's NROTC website, on the home page there is a photo of the commissioning class. It has 13 including 2 MO. You have to assume at all are in the photo and they did not have something weird happen where they lost 1/2 their class, but 13 per class is relatively small. 25 would be a large class. That can give you a feel for how much risk you are taking leaving the scholarship at Villanova.
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@kris10 - @5Day gives good advice. Another note on U Md NROTC - that is a newer unit, having formerly been a cross-town partner for Georgetown (or GW I think?) and they just started their own unit last year so they may be looking to grow.
 
I second/third/etc. the above: call the admissions office and let them know that you received the scholarship, got into NROTC at Villanova, and that Villanova is your #! choice! Emphasize this last point. Then ask if they might have an idea when you'll find out because you're under a time crunch since NROTC units at you second choice could easily fill up. They won't understand that NROTC units fill up so this info might get you a speedier decision. But the knowledge that you're son is a waitlisted student with a full tuition package in his pocket could spur some decisions.
Some schools play games with the waitlist, like waitlist applicants who look like they'd qualify for a more selective school, or even waitlist some to see if they get a call to confirm that the school is their #1 choice (they're hesitant to offer a spot to someone who might weigh Villanova and other choices).
And if you get NROTC working the back end for - well, this can't hurt, all it can do is help.
Good luck!
 
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