Naval Officer path for non-STEM majors

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benMendel06

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Nov 6, 2019
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DS is planning on taking NROTC and with the goal of commissioning as a surface warfare officer. Read through the NROTC sites and looked at the requirements for Naval Science at NROTC programs. He's planning on applying to college engineering programs. However, he is a natural at History and English. Math and science are subjects he has to work hard out. Only B last year was in Pre-Calc. Is taking AP Physics C and AP Calculus AB this semester, but is getting his brains beat out. I suppose it is a good character building exercise, and will confirm or deny if he wants to study engineering in college.
My question is if he decides to study history in college, while completing a year of Calculus and Physics in college, can he commission in surface warfare and have a career as a line officer? He is not interested in becoming a foreign affairs or intelligence specialist. Also, if you do not have a STEM degree, how limited are your career options in the Navy?
 
This link maybe helpful to you:


The Navy has a lot of big, medium and little tech as part of its everyday gear and warfare platforms. They want to be sure their officers are informed leaders and can not only lead people but fight their warfare platform smartly.

At a minimum, a NROTC midshipman majoring in history or English should be successful in the STEM courses mentioned in the link. That gives big Navy the confidence he can handle the technical aspects of his role.

Note how the competition for scholarships is described as it relates to major selection.

Once an officer is commissioned and gets to the Fleet, it’s all about operational performance at sea and competence as a leader; the major is far in the past.

The NROTC units at his schools of interest will have websites with all kinds of good info. This is where he should be researching and doing the legwork on the majors.
 
Many of my fellow midshipmen are not stem majors or are not even within tier one or tier two on the major list that you can find on the NROTC website. In the end your major does not really have a big impact on your service selection, but your GPA will play a huge role when you are choosing what community you would like to pursue. A tier 3 major, such as history, would be expected to have a high GPA compared to a tier one major and these are one of many aspects that the Navy considers when selecting for communities.

I myself am a Mathematics major soon to be a math and history double major. Naval Aviation is the community I would love to pursue upon commissioning and many of the first class who selected Naval Aviation this year were actually tier 3 majors. So to answer your question, you do not have to pursue a stem oriented major to get the career you want in the Navy. Actually, I would recommend doing something you love so that you push yourself harder to succeed. Also, STEM majors are incredibly difficult and you would have to focus a lot of time to succeeding in classes if you don't have that strong foundation.
 
Capt MJ said:
This link maybe helpful to you:


The Navy has a lot of big, medium and little tech as part of its everyday gear and warfare platforms. They want to be sure their officers are informed leaders and can not only lead people but fight their warfare platform smartly.

At a minimum, a NROTC midshipman majoring in history or English should be successful in the STEM courses mentioned in the link. That gives big Navy the confidence he can handle the technical aspects of his role.

Note how the competition for scholarships is described as it relates to major selection.

Once an officer is commissioned and gets to the Fleet, it’s all about operational performance at sea and competence as a leader; the major is far in the past.

The NROTC units at his schools of interest will have websites with all kinds of good info. This is where he should be researching and doing the legwork on the majors.
Click to expand...
CaptMJ,
Thanks for the answer!
 
HB2019 said:
Many of my fellow midshipmen are not stem majors or are not even within tier one or tier two on the major list that you can find on the NROTC website. In the end your major does not really have a big impact on your service selection, but your GPA will play a huge role when you are choosing what community you would like to pursue. A tier 3 major, such as history, would be expected to have a high GPA compared to a tier one major and these are one of many aspects that the Navy considers when selecting for communities.

I myself am a Mathematics major soon to be a math and history double major. Naval Aviation is the community I would love to pursue upon commissioning and many of the first class who selected Naval Aviation this year were actually tier 3 majors. So to answer your question, you do not have to pursue a stem oriented major to get the career you want in the Navy. Actually, I would recommend doing something you love so that you push yourself harder to succeed. Also, STEM majors are incredibly difficult and you would have to focus a lot of time to succeeding in classes if you don't have that strong foundation.
Click to expand...

HB2019,
Thanks for the answer, and best of luck!
 
I double majored in German Literature and European History. As you can probably tell from my user name it didn’t stop me from going Aviation.
 
UHBlackhawk said:
I double majored in German Literature and European History. As you can probably tell from my user name it didn’t stop me from going Aviation.
Click to expand...
Prussian/German authors like Clausewitz, von Moltke, and Guderian. Your majors tie everything together!
 
KirkcudbrightBorn said:
Prussian/German authors like Clausewitz, von Moltke, and Guderian. Your majors tie everything together!
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, my education was more Goethe, Schiller and Rilke. I did read Rommel’s book “Infantarie greift an” in the original German.
One of my major regrets was not interviewing WWII vets when I studied in Germany for six months. A major opportunity lost. I was such an idiot.
Rilke did come in handy in Iraq.
“Riding, Riding, Riding, through the day,
through the night, through the day.
Riding, riding, riding. And courage has grown so tired, and longing so great. There are no more mountains, hardly a tree. Nothing dares to stand up.
Foreign huts squat thirstily at muddied wells.
Nowhere a tower. And always the same picture.”
Those lines ran through my head so, so many times.
 
UHBlackhawk said:
Unfortunately, my education was more Goethe, Schiller and Rilke. I did read Rommel’s book “Infantarie greift an” in the original German.
One of my major regrets was not interviewing WWII vets when I studied in Germany for six months. A major opportunity lost. I was such an idiot.
Rilke did come in handy in Iraq.
“Riding, Riding, Riding, through the day,
through the night, through the day.
Riding, riding, riding. And courage has grown so tired, and longing so great. There are no more mountains, hardly a tree. Nothing dares to stand up.
Foreign huts squat thirstily at muddied wells.
Nowhere a tower. And always the same picture.”
Those lines ran through my head so, so many times.
Click to expand...
"Wisdom is wasted on the old, and youth is wasted on the young."
 
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