November NROTC board results known?

Ah. My son is Aerospace and also has michigan on his list. Had MIT but dropped it. Now has purdue, georgia tech, penn state, florida, and michigan. Based on NROTC reputations as much as the Aero programs. I wish he'd stuck with MIT. They send him stuff regularly so I think he'd have had a decent chance of getting in but the more he learned the less he liked.


Good Luck!

What did he find out about MIT that he didn't like? Was it the school or the unit? Always looking to learn as much as we can - good and bad!!
 
What did he find out about MIT that he didn't like? Was it the school or the unit? Always looking to learn as much as we can - good and bad!!

I don't want to badmouth anything, especially since I don't know anything first hand - I think it's just not 'his style' upon further review. My daughter's best friend from high school goes to MIT so they IM about it in general. I know he researched the units on line, asked the regional coordinator questions, researched how successfull units were at getting kids into the pilot training, how good and organized their ROTC units were in general, how many kids start each year vs how many they end up with, how serious their physical fitness programs were (he wants good ones that are mandatory a couple of times a week), etc. NROTC has to get kids into programs like nuke and if you want to go aviation that can sometimes be a problem, or at least it's being told to him that it's at least a perception of a problem with some units. That's the kind of stuff he's researching.
 
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My point was that once UM begins to notify students that they were accepted into the university then more students would begin to commit to the UM NROTC program. If you are an out-of-state applicant it is tough to be certain that you will be admitted to UM. Thus I think many (my son included) probably put down a more definite acceptance as their first choice on the college list with the knowledge that if/when they are accepted to UM they can "hopefully" transfer the scholarship. The bottom line is that I think those UM NROTC slots will begin to fill rapidly once UM begins (mid December) to notify students that they have been accepted.
 
My son has also applied to Michigan as his first choice for NROTC scholarship. (perhaps great minds think alike?) There has been no change to his status in months so we too are waiting and waiting.
Congrats to all of you who have heard back already!
 
My point was that once UM begins to notify students that they were accepted into the university then more students would begin to commit to the UM NROTC program. If you are an out-of-state applicant it is tough to be certain that you will be admitted to UM. Thus I think many (my son included) probably put down a more definite acceptance as their first choice on the college list with the knowledge that if/when they are accepted to UM they can "hopefully" transfer the scholarship. The bottom line is that I think those UM NROTC slots will begin to fill rapidly once UM begins (mid December) to notify students that they have been accepted.

My gut feeling was the same as what you're saying but they insisted to him that they usually didn't fill until late Spring. I actually made him call back to clarify the numbers, etc. because I was more than a bit worried about it too!

Just curious why you say it's tougher to be accepted to UM from out of state? Not challenging, just wondering if the stats show that. I hadn't heard that before - we moved here from Michigan 4 years ago and many of my older son's friends (in state) went there - many of whom I know my next son's stats are better than, so I was kind of taking it for granted that he'd get in there. But I wasn't aware it was harder to get into if you were out of state! Personally I would have thought they would have taken as many out of state candidates (and their 4-5 times as much tuition) as they could!
 
NROTC has to get kids into programs like nuke and if you want to go aviation that can sometimes be a problem, or at least it's being told to him that it's at least a perception of a problem with some units. That's the kind of stuff he's researching.

Thank you very much for all the information (tactfully said! :wink: ). I told my son and he said when he talked to the Captain (Navy) there that he'd told him that it was rare they had anyone go into anything other than Nuclear/Subs or SWO - he said they had someone go aviation "every couple years" so it sounds like your son's perception is right on the money! Although it does sound like my son is looking at the right school for his interests at least!
 
Thank you very much for all the information (tactfully said! :wink: ). I told my son and he said when he talked to the Captain (Navy) there that he'd told him that it was rare they had anyone go into anything other than Nuclear/Subs or SWO - he said they had someone go aviation "every couple years" so it sounds like your son's perception is right on the money! Although it does sound like my son is looking at the right school for his interests at least!

Some of these key points would make great sticky threads and be useful. My son and I spent hours looking at the different ROTC websites and anything else we could google up such as looking at youtube video from kids in the different units, etc.

What's the size of the freshman class vs senior class over a multiyear period for all the ROTC units.

What percent of kids appply to each branch and what percent are succesfull in their first choice.

How often do the engineers get to take 5 years vs. 4 to complete their engineering major (they don't like to advertise too much it's possible but you technically can if you and your school's academic advisor create a plan that shows you need more than just 4 years). If you are in a honors program it's not that unusual for the civilian kids to need 5 years so they can also do a lot of outside classroom work with their peers and professors on national competitions and research and such. Also, turns out GPA is a big deal in the national competition for competitive branches like aviation. Trying to suffer through 4 years of hard engineer and compete with someone with a business degree who just wants to get an awesome GPA and have time to volunteer for lots of ROTC activities (like honor guard) to build up brownie points for the final commanders letter or recommendation/evaluation to get into flight school is a downer...

How many scholarship kids are in each unit by year and what are the graduating majors.

There were a lot of questions like that which we didn't even know were important to think about until we started talking to people currently plugged into the process from one angle or another. ROTC has changed since I was in the military so my info was dated too. With the age of the internet and centralalized selection boards for everything, the kids are now competiting nationally for everything, as we are all aware of now all too well.

LONG GONE are the days where I just walked into a local universities RIOTC unit, had an interview with the DET commander and staff and walked out with an offer from them for a full out of state scholarship and a pilot/technical slot. I knew before I signed I was on a pilot training track.
 
luckymacy said:
researched how successfull units were at getting kids into the pilot training
not sure the ratio is much different from the Academy. I'm guessing (somebody please chime in here who actually knows) that only 5% - 7% of the Naval Academy Firsties are awarded Naval Aviator billets. Not sure why anyone would expect that NROTC would have billets for any more than that, and possible less in that the Naval Academy entrance requirements are generally more rigorous than those of more than half the NROTC units out there.

Bottom line is that any Academy or NROTC officer candidate whose "dream is to be a naval aviator" better be aware of the 90-95% chance they will not become an aviator. Those that are awarded are of course those who score the highest on the various specific tests for Aviation (one of the components is exactly like the SAT test), have very high gpa, and secured support from command. In other words be rated in the top 5% at the Academy or in the Unit of NROTC.
 
not sure the ratio is much different from the Academy. I'm guessing (somebody please chime in here who actually knows) that only 5% - 7% of the Naval Academy Firsties are awarded Naval Aviator billets. Not sure why anyone would expect that NROTC would have billets for any more than that, and possible less in that the Naval Academy entrance requirements are generally more rigorous than those of more than half the NROTC units out there.

Bottom line is that any Academy or NROTC officer candidate whose "dream is to be a naval aviator" better be aware of the 90-95% chance they will not become an aviator. Those that are awarded are of course those who score the highest on the various specific tests for Aviation (one of the components is exactly like the SAT test), have very high gpa, and secured support from command. In other words be rated in the top 5% at the Academy or in the Unit of NROTC.

No, that's complete jibberish, wrong. Shouldn't speculate when the info is pretty readily available. In fact we have a friend that goes to USNA now. I think last year's class had something like 240 Navy tracked kids get aviation slots and another 100 marine corps tracked kids get aviation slots so it turned out to be about 33%. Not sure how many wanted aviation slots though that didn't get them. I wouldn't be surprised if insiders had a good idea about that number too.

The ROTC numbers you guess are gibberish too. The ROTC units don't have a quota for each school, it's nationally competitive. Talk to a regional coordinator about the reputation each unit has for aviation and if they know their stuff they'll tell you the schools that have strong success and those that are weak and it often correlates to schools that have Aviator ROTC commanders that can write very effective recommendations vs the ones that don't have aviation experience trying to do the same type of rating. Penn State bragged to us last fall about something in the 90 percent of their kids that wanted aviation getting in. Far Cry from 5% for penn state but maybe not a far cry for maybe a michigan or mit.
 
you beat me to it. I asked today about this. It seems there are four types of billets for aviation:

- naval pilot
- naval navigator, back seat, whatever you call it
- marine pilot
- marine navigator, back seat, etc.

I'll know the exact numbers in about a month when I hook up with a firstie at Annapolis.

Without knowing exact numbers yet, I'm going to guess that about 100 fill billets for the first of the four categories... naval pilot.
 
Is it just me or is the suspense with these NROTC boards driving you all crazy too????:scratch:

I'm ASSuming they are meeting again this week but all this hush, hush, is just making me sooooo anxious. I know some people have heard back with positive results but this waiting game is getting old! Anyone else out there feeling the same?
 
Is it just me or is the suspense with these NROTC boards driving you all crazy too????:scratch:

I'm ASSuming they are meeting again this week but all this hush, hush, is just making me sooooo anxious. I know some people have heard back with positive results but this waiting game is getting old! Anyone else out there feeling the same?

yep. our regional isn't returning phone calls or emails and i think they would be if they had something positive to say therefore i get the feeling they are in the dark too or are frustrated with actual events vs. baseline scheduled events. anyone hear any scuttlebutt what the amounts of $$$$ ROTC programs recieved this year for scholarships vs prior recent years? I heard the AFROTC amounts were going to be less than in previous years (I don't want to say who and get in trouble) and therefore this process was going to be obviously extra competitive this upcoming school year.
 
Is it just me or is the suspense with these NROTC boards driving you all crazy too????:scratch:

I'm ASSuming they are meeting again this week but all this hush, hush, is just making me sooooo anxious. I know some people have heard back with positive results but this waiting game is getting old! Anyone else out there feeling the same?

I heard the board was going to be either this week or next and yes the stress is begining to build:eek:. The only thing we have heard is from a PMS, from one of the schools my DS listed in his top 5, stating he didn't make it this round. Weird thing is we have never had contact with this person before or since:confused:.
 
The only thing we have heard is from a PMS, from one of the schools my DS listed in his top 5, stating he didn't make it this round. Weird thing is we have never had contact with this person before or since:confused:.

The same thing happened to me except it was my regional coordinator who told me in an email. As of October 27th, I was told my application missed the first board, was then reviewed for the first time at the second board but was not selected for a scholarship.

Since I hadn't heard anything in over a month, I emailed the coordinator again to see if I could get any more information. He said he didn't know when the next review board met and that maybe I can hope to hear back around Christmas time, however, he did tell me that I was NOT passed over again by a second board.

You can interpret this is any way you want but it still doesn't answer when any of us can expect to hear back.

Maybe it's possible that there wasn't a November board?
 
Maybe it's possible that there wasn't a November board?
Or an August board? My personal opinion is that the Navy is embarrassed about how disorganized they are and tries to conceal their issues by keeping as much secret as possible. Evidently this information is also not shared with the local recruiters as they seem to know as little as the candidates. Anyway....they (NROTC) will have to give some people some scholarships eventually if they hope to meet their commissioning goals. Some people have already received theirs and more will follow. In the mean time...just take a deep breath and wait...some more........:cool:
 
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I just talked to a NROTC campus rep who told me the Navy doesn't have a series of set board dates like the Marines and Air Force do. Their det commander has flown down twice to review candidate packages. They are reviewed 'blindly' meaning names and school choices are not known to the reviewers. One interesting tidbit is that they haven't picked many yet and won't anymore until January when the process will pick up quickly and this person advised that starting in mid January you can start to check the site 2 times a day including in the evenings and you will start to see a lot of action. This person also said that each school can only have 25 max scholarship students but often before April the school's list can have over 50 or 60 scholarship kids then all of a sudden drop to below 25 after April because the board is very aware of who has enrolled to service academys and their chances of getting in and sure enough those same kids are late selections to Academies and drop off the ROTC rolls. Also, the website will be the first place anyone outside the board will learn of a positive decision including us and if the website hasn't changed by now then you aren't going to be considered again until January when they board activity picks back up. That's what I got out of the conversation anway...
 
aglages said:
Evidently this information is also not shared with the local recruiters as they seem to know as little as the candidates.
that has been our experience. I've also read that on this board from multiple posters. I get the idea that NROTC is a fairly low priority for recruiters whose main job is to recruit enlisted.
 
luckymacy, thank you. That is significant intel.

I am inferring from your information that the calendar year 2010 scholarship awards were only those of the highest priority to the Navy (i.e. Type I and Nursing, and those with high enough stats to get into, say MIT), and that the normal process for Navy Option will not begin until January for Type II and Type III ... effectively a three and a half month delay in comparison to the historic pattern.

Now watch us all be wrong and three weeks from now we'll see a bunch of posts about Type II scholarships awarded in this week's Board :)
 
dunninla, not even if you are competitive for MIT would you have necessarly been awarded by now so no, not all Type I's have been given out. I don't know what their logic is to date. Folks who know aren't saying...
 
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