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NROTC at VMI vs a state college
- Thread starter pmoney33
- Start date
Agree with phil61526, there is so much more to the emersion in a Corps of Cadets culture than the ROTC program - which will generally follow the same training in military subjects as in non-SMC schools, except for physical training. You can expect much more physical training as a member of a Corps of Cadets than the required PT in a civilian school ROTC program. This can be helpful - in passing your qualifying physical readiness test. One other positive though is subjective. For many cadets who want to commission and do well in their ranking - attending an SMC will allow them to train and be motivated by many other cadets with a similar motivation. Obviously, this is not a blanket statement as most important is your personal motivation.
As previous replies stated, the experience of immersion in a Corps of Cadets is probably the biggest difference between attending a SMC vs. civilian school, and that experience could be a big help in your life as a future Marine. Even outside of ROTC, there are countless leadership opportunities and you are living a military lifestyle 24/7.
One difference specific to NROTC-MO is the size of the unit at a school like VMI. Check out the size of the NROTC-MO at the civilian state schools you are looking at and compare it to the size of the NROTC-MO at VMI. Typically the number of Marine Options at civilian schools is very small. The number of Marine Options at VMI is large enough that they can do some real meaningful training to prepare for things like PLC/OCS.
One difference specific to NROTC-MO is the size of the unit at a school like VMI. Check out the size of the NROTC-MO at the civilian state schools you are looking at and compare it to the size of the NROTC-MO at VMI. Typically the number of Marine Options at civilian schools is very small. The number of Marine Options at VMI is large enough that they can do some real meaningful training to prepare for things like PLC/OCS.
For some reason, the above was also supposed to read the following: since pshaner3 asked about NROTC at VMI vs a state college, I would echo what others said above regarding the VMI Corps of Cadets and size of the school. First, size—VMI is a small military college and you will be immersed in a strenuous military program from day 1. You will know your brother rats well and you will have already shared common experiences, challenges, etc. You will already know your MO teammates before you begin that phase of training.
Second, VMI is a Corps-only school. It’s different from any SMC in this regard. The NROTC-MO training will be secondary to what you will experience “on the hill” or back in barracks. Perhaps the biggest difference will be the 24/7 military life at VMI vs a state college. You will have bonded with your ROTC teammates through the VMI experience well before the ROTC training. Because of this, I have noticed that VMI grads are extremely close knit and definitely look out for each other... for life.
Hope that helps and sorry for not including that in previous post; operator error, no doubt!
Second, VMI is a Corps-only school. It’s different from any SMC in this regard. The NROTC-MO training will be secondary to what you will experience “on the hill” or back in barracks. Perhaps the biggest difference will be the 24/7 military life at VMI vs a state college. You will have bonded with your ROTC teammates through the VMI experience well before the ROTC training. Because of this, I have noticed that VMI grads are extremely close knit and definitely look out for each other... for life.
Hope that helps and sorry for not including that in previous post; operator error, no doubt!