NMMI as prep for Citadel, VMI, TAMU?

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inajn

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Hello,
This is my first post. I have been searching the forums/ web for quite some time but haven't quite got my answer yet.

My son is finishing his junior in high school. He wants to serve as a Marine Corp Officer. He really wants to attend a military school, feels like that is the environment he would thrive and fit in to.

He has a GPA of 3.3 (3.5 weighted).
He is a Sea Scout (Branch of BSA)-working toward quartermaster.
PSAT 1040 (in a SAT prep program now and will keep taking the test)
Varsity Football for two years (Senior year will be third year)
Varsity Volleyball 1 year
Volunteer work about 70 hours



He is going to apply to VMI, Citadel, TAMU, Norwich, but I have my doubts he will be competitive enough so we were thinking of a plan B. He really doesn't want to attend college unless he can be involved in a military school or corp of cadets/NROTC (he is apapplying now for marine option) We thought maybe a junior college would be a good idea if he doesn't get in his freshman year to help him build some skills and try again his sophomore year. We were looking at NMMI. I see that his SAT is in range, but they only let in a small percentage of applicants. I can't really figure out why. Is it because it is a prep program for one of the major service academies so there aren't enough spots? Does he even have a chance at NMMI and then transfer over to a four year degree program at a place like VMI or Citadel? I see that a lot of people prep at NMMI for USNA, but do they ever do that for a school like VMI or Citadel?

It sounds like NMMI would be what he needs though to help him in his struggles with learning time management to get him to the next level and make him a stronger candidate. He likes the idea of a military school, and also he would like to try to play football in college and thought this school may consider him.

Any advice on where to aim? Is any of this sound remotely realistic? Or is that a completely ridiculous plan B?
Thanks so much for considering my question.
 
Consider a branch school of TAMU? Do well and can transfer to College Station as a sophomore....or consider their Blinn College to transfer in as well...
Just an idea...
 
Since he's a junior, he has the rest of junior year and the summer to study for the SAT/ACT to take in the fall. This is plenty time to get into the range that the SMC or even the Service Academies require. As a side note - if VMI is his indeed his first choice, they have a binding early decision program that drastically increases chances of acceptance.
Khan Academy has a very useful SAT prep online website that is free and helps tremendously with your scores. In addition to this Collegeboard supplies a few free REAL SAT practice exams on their website. If both of these resources are used efficently, your score should be well within the range you need.

As far as fitness goes, this is plenty time to make sure he's ready for the Branch ROTC fitness test and the Academy of his choice in general. I would recommend checking out some of Stew Smith books or Mountain Tacticle Institute for training routines -- free versions of most of these are available on Reddit (/r/militaryfitness subreddit) you can PM me for the links.

I am planning on attending either VMI or West Point (currently on the national wait list RIP) this fall. I was in horrible fitness shape around the middle Junior year when I started to prepare for the fitness tests. I went from not being able to run a mile to running a low 5-minute mile and maxing out most of the other CFA events. I'm assuming your son isn't as out of shape as I was. If he genuinely wants to pursue a career as an officer, I'm sure he can get to where he needs to in this upcoming year.
Good luck!
 
He should get in to Norwich. There is a calculator on their website to figure out how much merit scholarship his statistics would be worth.
 
I think he's doing ok and would most likely have a good shot at any SMC. You could also apply to any Marine ROTC school. A good friend of mine went to a state school and is now a highly decorated retired Marine Lt. Col. If your son wants to be an officer there are a lot of options that are varied and each has their own merits. My son is on his way to VMI but I would have been fine with an ROTC program at a non-SMC as well, he wanted a more disciplined environment. If you want to read something that will really open your eyes to the possibilities Colin Powell's autobiography is really good and has a unique take on the military.
 
Thank you all for your great advice. I will look into every comment. Colin Powell's autobiography sounds very interesting, I will check that out from the library. He does have one of Stew Smith's books and it is great. Branch of TAMU is an interesting idea we never thought of. It sounds like Norwich is a solid option. We will check out that calculator. I really appreciate it. I will encourage him in his applications to the SMC that he is hoping for for sure. Still looking for an answer to whether or not NMMI is a good stepping stone if he doesn't get into one of the SMC. Any thoughts? State school is an option of course, but he prefers a military school for the added structure discipline, and experience. So that is why we thought NMMI might be a good option, keep him in that environment to help him work on some more skills. Thank you! I hope to hear more thoughts as well. So grateful there are so many possible routes.
 
I would not discount VMI for him. If he takes the SAT more than once you might be surprised at the improvement. My son raised is score 110 points the second time around. His GPA was not stellar either, but he played sports, went to to Boys State, etc... to add to his application. But I think a more important factor, for VMI anyway, was that we demonstrated interest. The first time we visited we arranged for an interview with admissions (when he was a junior) and then he did one of their overnights in the Fall of senior year. I think these things helped him get an appointment despite a disastrous and ill-advised summer Spanish 3 class that torpedoed his GPA. I’m not familiar with NMMI but if he truly wants the military School environment and the SMCs don’t work out then that would probably be a good option.
 
DS will be a sponsored prep at NMMI this next year. Granted the registration process hasn't even started yet but we have had questions and made calls and emails and found the folks at NMMI to be very accommodating.
 
Greetings:

I wish you and your child the very best as you begin this journey. All of the Senior Military Schools (SMCs) have spend the night programs. I did not attend a SMC but my children went to A&M through the Corps. My son's best friend from high school graduates from VMI in a few weeks. I have the opportunity to work with graduates from West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs, The Citadel, and many ROTC programs. I am a former police officer in Roswell and I've known NMMI graduates. There are many paths to the top of the mountain.

If financial circumstances permit, try to visit the schools he is interested in. You can also learn a lot from Youtube. All of the schools have a presence on multiple social media sites. All of the SMCs have their strong points and their differences and no one school is right for everyone.

I belive that there is a little discussed back-door to TAMU. That is TAMU Galveston (TAMUG). That institution has a different relationship with the College Station campus than do the A&Ms around the state. If your child has a 2.5 at the end of the first year the child can automatically transfer to the College Station campus. The advantage of TAMUG is that it is home to the Texas Maritime Academy and has its own Corps. The first year of Navy ROTC is the same, so he'd be right on track. Now TAMUG is a small mostly commuter school. TAMUG graduates get the same Aggie ring as the College Station graduates, which is not true of other A&Ms around the state. The cadets at the TAMUG usually attend at least one home football game at the College Station campus in uniform.

Apply early, like as soon as possible. The Texas public universities all use Apply Texas. Regardless of which school, apply early. Work on that this summer. Figure out what is financially possible for you and your child.

As you peek around the site you'll see several discussions about the differences between the SMCs. The student bodies at TAMU and Virginia Tech are much bigger than say the Citadel and VMI but the Corps themselves are smaller.

To my mind, the most important thing is for the child to feel like they are at home in a school. By that I mean, a place they feel comfortable (not that life in a SMC or a school like NMMI will be comfortable all the time). I guess a better way to put it is a place where they can see themselves. Think about the academics first, as you can be the most squared away cadet but if you flunk out it means nothing. I found that if you put in something like "freshman profile Virginia Military Institute" or something like that into a search engine you can often find the collegedata.org site. I liked that site as it gave objective numbers about SAT, ACT, GPA etc for the schools and used the same information for each school.

If one does transfer into VMI or Citadel I believe they will do the whole freshman experience (RAT or KNOB) regardless of how many credit hours they have with them.

Talk to the admissions staffs at the institutions (at TAMU and Virginia Tech that is completely different than the Corps staff at those institutions). Talk to the Corps folks as well at A&M or other institutions. Think of University of North Georgia. I suspect you can always do the PLC with the Marine Corps while at UNG.

Again, good luck.
inajn said:
Hello,
This is my first post. I have been searching the forums/ web for quite some time but haven't quite got my answer yet.

My son is finishing his junior in high school. He wants to serve as a Marine Corp Officer. He really wants to attend a military school, feels like that is the environment he would thrive and fit in to.

He has a GPA of 3.3 (3.5 weighted).
He is a Sea Scout (Branch of BSA)-working toward quartermaster.
PSAT 1040 (in a SAT prep program now and will keep taking the test)
Varsity Football for two years (Senior year will be third year)
Varsity Volleyball 1 year
Volunteer work about 70 hours



He is going to apply to VMI, Citadel, TAMU, Norwich, but I have my doubts he will be competitive enough so we were thinking of a plan B. He really doesn't want to attend college unless he can be involved in a military school or corp of cadets/NROTC (he is apapplying now for marine option) We thought maybe a junior college would be a good idea if he doesn't get in his freshman year to help him build some skills and try again his sophomore year. We were looking at NMMI. I see that his SAT is in range, but they only let in a small percentage of applicants. I can't really figure out why. Is it because it is a prep program for one of the major service academies so there aren't enough spots? Does he even have a chance at NMMI and then transfer over to a four year degree program at a place like VMI or Citadel? I see that a lot of people prep at NMMI for USNA, but do they ever do that for a school like VMI or Citadel?

It sounds like NMMI would be what he needs though to help him in his struggles with learning time management to get him to the next level and make him a stronger candidate. He likes the idea of a military school, and also he would like to try to play football in college and thought this school may consider him.

Any advice on where to aim? Is any of this sound remotely realistic? Or is that a completely ridiculous plan B?
Thanks so much for considering my question.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you Lawman32RPD, that is very useful information. I will share all of this with my son and we will definitely look into TAMUG. That is good to know for his NROTC application, I heard you can get in-state for NROTC with TAMU. I just found that NMMI offers 150% in-state tuition for western state residents which would help tremendously with cost of college and possible transfer. So we are looking closely into that and are thinking of a visit since it is close. We will try to get out on the East for a visit. I will look into Northern Georgia as well. You are right, lots of ways to get to the top I am finding. Thanks again!
 
Sadly, I think (you will want to confirm with the school), that is no long true for TAMU. It used to be that if a student got a $1,000 school scholarship at TAMU you got in-state tuition. There were usually enough Corps based and funded scholarships that out-of-state students who were cadets got a $1,000 scholarship, and that gave them in-state rates - regardless of whether or not they were "contracted" (meaning, getting an ROTC funded scholarship for tuition and fees). I believe that TAMU revised that policy, raising the floor to $4,000. I don't know how, or if, the TAMU Corps has been able to react to that. I believe, don't know, but believe UNG does offer in-state tuition to cadets. For TAMU Corps life type questions, you are probably better off asking the Corps questions. You can reach them at http://corps.tamu.edu/ and go to the contact page. All I know about UNG is what I’ve read here. Again, every school has a social media presence.

For all intents and purposes, The Citadel and VMI are 100 % military schools – certainly for the day undergraduates at The Citadel, and for everyone at VMI. That is different from, say TAMU or Virginia Tech. So admissions at TAMU has zip to do with the Corps. Of the more than 50,000 undergraduates at TAMU only around 2,500 +/- are in the Corps – but they are easy to see, they are the ones in uniform. So unlike, say VMI, at A&M the Corps kid will be up early, have some PT, march in formation to breakfast with the Corps, and be in uniform for class while sitting next someone in the pajamas who got up just in time for their 11am class. That isn’t going to happen at VMI or The Citadel.

There are pluses and minuses to everything, a little ying in every yang. You know your family circumstances and you know your child.

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=759

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1567

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1461

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1606

You will find all kinds of information about every school, college confidential, lots of other sites. Really, find the school you and the child are comfortable with and the rest will largely take care of itself.
 
My son did campus visits to TAMU, VA Tech, and the Citadel, with overnight visits at TAMU & the Citadel. He loved them all. The overnight visits were very enlightening and I'm glad he got to do them. He go to attend classes and everything. It was great! So I agree if you can do visits, please do them.
 
When I attended The Citadel in the late 70s we had several cadets who had transferred from NMMI, Marion Military in Alabama has also sent many alumni. Transferring from a military school will certainly make the transition to an SMC easier.
 
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