Navy Rotc Scholarship Chances

[geckhardt]

Hello,
I'm currently in my junior year, homeschooled and am interested in applying for the nrotc scholarship.
My stats are:
-680 math, 650 reading, 1330 2-part on SAT.
-Dual enrolled student at local community college, 8 classes, 7 As, 1 B, 3.87 gpa
-3.97 high school gpa including college courses, 4.0 without (Both gpa's unweighted)
-National honors society member, held offices each year (treasurer, public relations, and president).
-Member Ptk college honors society
-150+ hours of community service, much more to come
-2 years varsity baseball
-Sailing since age 7, multiple regattas
-Physical fitness instructor for preteens
-Assistant coach at baseball academy
-Baseball camp counselor
-Intern at pool cleaning company (billing, cleaning, repairs, training)
-played piano for 5 years
-teenpact leadership school graduate

I was wondering how being home schooled would affect my application? I plan on doing a tier 2 major (math, statistics, or quantitative economics). Also, when should I start the application, and what are my chances? The schools I plan on putting on the application are FSU, VMI, Citadel, NC State, and UNC-chapel hill.
Thank you.

 

[txpotato]

I cannot speak to the NROTC scholarship, but our oldest successfully applied for and received an Army ROTC scholarship after being home schooled his entire life. In general, I think it is becoming more common and colleges, scholarships, etc., look at applicants the same way - test scores, grades, leadership, athletics, etc. I'm sure your school choice will also play into it, although, as I said, I am unfamiliar with the NROTC process.

 

[Pima]

Home schooling is not an issue anymore, maybe a decade ago it was, but not now.

The rule of thumb is you want your application submitted by mid-July to meet the 1st boards. There is not only a limited amount of money for the scholarships, but a limited amount of slots allotted to each unit. You have some very competitive schools on your list when it comes to ROTC.

NCSU, VMI and Citadel are going to have a lot of applicants. I don't know about FSU and UNCCH. I would assume UNCCH is also competitive since most IS kids that apply to NCSU as a match/safety will apply to NCSU.

I am not saying you are not competitive, because you are. I am saying that the longer you wait to submit the less amount of money and slots will be available for when you board. The boards meet starting late Aug/early Sept. every 2 weeks. If you submit even in Oct., and you get board 1st of Nov., that means about 5 boards may have already released results.

 

[kinnem]

I endorse the above comments. I would add the best ways to improve your position is to improve your SAT scores and seek even more leadership positions if possible. My son's SAT scores were similar with several AP classes... GPA not as good as yours and he didn't have as much leadership but had more athletics. He did not win a Marine Option scholarship out of the gate. Instead he attended Univ. of South Carolina with a Woodrow scholarship from the school which brought costs close to in-state (we live in NC) and joined NROTC as a college programmer. He won an in-school (sideload) NROTC MO scholarship during his sophomore year.

Some other comments about your schools. UNCCH is very competitive for in-state applicants and even more so for out of state. DS, as in-state was rejected by UNCCH. It will probably be a reach school for you. NC State while not as competitive as UNCCH is still no cake walk. DS was waitlisted, and eventually accepted, but by then that boat had sailed.

I'm not saying you cannot be accepted by these schools, but to make the point that one thing to consider when applying to a college is to make sure that the profile of previous freshman classes is a good match to yours. Ultimately, of course, it's all your decision but I also found myself asking, as I read your post, why is he/she not also applying to Virginia Tech and University of South Carolina? They just both seemed like they might be within the spectrum of schools you would consider. There might be good reason to leave them off the list, but if you haven't researched them, I think it would be worth your time to do so this winter.

 

[Pima]

I do agree with kinnem that UNCCH is a reach. You really want to be in the mid 1400's for them even from an IS perspective, unless you have a hook. I.E. Diversity.

I also agree NCST is very competitive for IS because it is the academic middle tier. Thus, it is a safety for the high end, a match for the middle and a reach for the lower scale. Yet, NCST will still only have a limited amount of slots available and cannot assume that you will not accept.

VT is probably a match or low reach because you are OOS. Our DD is at VT (not ROTC), class of 14. Her stats were equivalent to yours, and IS. She applied ED and was deferred to RD. When she received the congrats letter, it stated that they had over 33K applicants for an incoming class of 4500. In the past 5 yrs are so, they have only taken @100 off the wait lists. A couple of yrs it was 0.

VT is a state college and by state law they will accept no more than 30% from OOS. They try to keep it at 25%.

I only state this to you so you realize even VT is not a cake walk, and since it is an SMC, they are competitive for sholarships. It will help you going ROTC from an admissions standpoint since that is considered a hook, but not necessarily the scholarships. IOWs checking the box joining the Corps gives you admission points.

I would also remind you that wherever you decide to go, have an adult conversation with the folks about paying for that college if after a yr. decide to leave ROTC. The 1st yr is a no harm no foul walk away. The sophomore yr., it is all in. If as a sophomore you no longer want to be in ROTC, that cost is on your dime.
~~~~ Expect at least a 7-10% increase per yr. If it is 22K IS now for 13/14, expect it to be at least 23.5K for 14/15. Add 3 more yrs. and you are looking at @30K by the time you graduate.
~ Our DS's college went from 28 to 41K in 4 yrs. DD's has gone from 16 to 23K in 3 yrs.

It is something people don't think about when they get the congrats letters, but every yr., there are several threads regarding being dis-enrolled and how they will now be able to afford the college, or worse yet, being handed a bill for 6 figures.