NROTC BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEXT YEAR'S CYCLE (2023)

GWU PNS (emeritus)

GWU PNS (emeritus)

George Washington University Capital Battalion
Joined
Nov 4, 2021
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1,413
For our NROTC nation of potential selectees (and parents),

Please see the attached pdf file for the latest and greatest information for the NROTC application process. The season has just started. In the interest of getting a bit of a jump on the various questions that will inevitably arise.

One major change for next year is that current MIDN 4/C College Programmers will not be able to apply for the NROTC National Scholarships next season. After several discussions on this, the common consensus was that it's a bit unfair to have college personnel competing against essentially HS juniors or first semester HS seniors. Those individuals can still compete for 3 year sideload scholarships. They can also compete for the PNS nomination for USNA if desired.

Another change, or maybe we are just advertising this a bit more, but there will be a Candidate Midshipman Guidance Office (CMGO) --- if you want to sound really high speed and low drag, we pronounce that as "Sim-Go". Candidates with general questions on the application can send an email to the CMGO. ***** Do not ask them if you have been selected, how you get selected, or other questions not pertaining to the application process. *****

The question will always come up if you have to take the SAT or ACT. If your school isn't offering it, and it isn't offered nearby, and your guidance counselor or NJROTC instructor is willing to sign a letter stating so, then please see the section on minimum GPA required. I would offer that when people sit on the boards, you stand out a bit if you are one of the few who hasn't taken the SAT or ACT.

For anyone who checks the box that they are interested in an MSISR scholarship -------- YOU MUST BE INTERVIEWED BY AN NROTC CO (PNS) OR AN NTAG CO
There is Z-E_R_O flexibility on this.

The board dates are listed in the attachment. And at this point, everyone has stopped reading and clicking to see the board dates, so I'll end here. Just trying to keep everyone as up to date as I can from my little world here in the nation's Capital. :cool:
 

Attachments

  • Application Information 2022-2023 Cycle.pdf
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GWU PNS said:
The board dates are listed in the attachment. And at this point, everyone has stopped reading and clicking to see the board dates, so I'll end here. Just trying to keep everyone as up to date as I can from my little world here in the nation's Capital. :cool:
Click to expand...
Lol. Great information here!
 
Am I reading the selection criteria correctly that now the only Tier 3 scholarships that are going to be awarded are for LREC?

Tier 3 Academic Majors​

Students interested in pursuing Tier 3 academic majors (all other academic majors not listed in Tier 1 or Tier 2) should examine the opportunities available in the Navy’s Language Skills, Regional Expertise, and Cultural Awareness (LREC) Program. Annually, the Navy will offer this program to 20 - 30 students. Attainment of a specific level of language proficiency is not required by the Navy ROTC LREC program.

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LREC - TIER 3​

Regions/cultural areas and languages available for study are listed below. Selected languages and regional/cultural areas must be related.

Regional/Cultural Areas​

Africa
1. Sub-Sahara
2. North Africa
Central Asia
East Asia/China
Middle/Central/Latin America		Middle East
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Southwest Asia
Russia/Eastern Europe

Foreign Languages​

Arabic
Cambodian
Central Asian Lang.
Chinese
Dari
Farsi
French		Hebrew
Hindi
Indonesian
Japanese
Kurdish
Malay
Pashto		Persian
Portuguese
Russian
Serbo-Croatian
Somali
Spanish		Swahili
Tagalog
Thai
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese
 
ProudDad17 said:
Am I reading the selection criteria correctly that now the only Tier 3 scholarships that are going to be awarded are for LREC?

Tier 3 Academic Majors​

Students interested in pursuing Tier 3 academic majors (all other academic majors not listed in Tier 1 or Tier 2) should examine the opportunities available in the Navy’s Language Skills, Regional Expertise, and Cultural Awareness (LREC) Program. Annually, the Navy will offer this program to 20 - 30 students. Attainment of a specific level of language proficiency is not required by the Navy ROTC LREC program.

Back to Top

LREC - TIER 3​

Regions/cultural areas and languages available for study are listed below. Selected languages and regional/cultural areas must be related.

Regional/Cultural Areas​

Africa
1. Sub-Sahara
2. North Africa
Central Asia
East Asia/China
Middle/Central/Latin America		Middle East
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Southwest Asia
Russia/Eastern Europe

Foreign Languages​

Arabic
Cambodian
Central Asian Lang.
Chinese
Dari
Farsi
French		Hebrew
Hindi
Indonesian
Japanese
Kurdish
Malay
Pashto		Persian
Portuguese
Russian
Serbo-Croatian
Somali
Spanish		Swahili
Tagalog
Thai
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese
Click to expand...
I am trying to see where you pulled that from. Looks like the NSTC website, but not sure.
 
ProudDad17 said:
My apologies. I meant to post the link as well:

Click to expand...
Got it. So, I read this to mean there's about a 15% selection for those majoring in Tier 3 degrees. The LREC program helps improve your chances for selection. But to your point, there is a definite desire to increase our rate of technical degree selection, and I suspect when the Boards convene, a precept will be placed to drive us to that end.

There is also going to be more scrutiny for those who say they want a Tier 1, and then try to shift to Tier 2 or 3 upon entering college.
 
Thank you. That's what I thought it must be, but it seemed a bit confusing the way it was written. Although DS is well past this phase, I still like to keep up to date with the info.
 
One major change for next year is that current MIDN 4/C College Programmers will not be able to apply for the NROTC National Scholarships next season. After several discussions on this, the common consensus was that it's a bit unfair to have college personnel competing against essentially HS juniors or first semester HS seniors. Those individuals can still compete for 3 year sideload scholarships. They can also compete for the PNS nomination for USNA if desired.
Click to expand...

:eek3:

Damn! My kid snuck in under the radar on this one! Last class to get that!
 
GWU PNS said:
For our NROTC nation of potential selectees (and parents),

Please see the attached pdf file for the latest and greatest information for the NROTC application process. The season has just started. In the interest of getting a bit of a jump on the various questions that will inevitably arise.

One major change for next year is that current MIDN 4/C College Programmers will not be able to apply for the NROTC National Scholarships next season. After several discussions on this, the common consensus was that it's a bit unfair to have college personnel competing against essentially HS juniors or first semester HS seniors. Those individuals can still compete for 3 year sideload scholarships. They can also compete for the PNS nomination for USNA if desired.

Another change, or maybe we are just advertising this a bit more, but there will be a Candidate Midshipman Guidance Office (CMGO) --- if you want to sound really high speed and low drag, we pronounce that as "Sim-Go". Candidates with general questions on the application can send an email to the CMGO. ***** Do not ask them if you have been selected, how you get selected, or other questions not pertaining to the application process. *****

The question will always come up if you have to take the SAT or ACT. If your school isn't offering it, and it isn't offered nearby, and your guidance counselor or NJROTC instructor is willing to sign a letter stating so, then please see the section on minimum GPA required. I would offer that when people sit on the boards, you stand out a bit if you are one of the few who hasn't taken the SAT or ACT.

For anyone who checks the box that they are interested in an MSISR scholarship -------- YOU MUST BE INTERVIEWED BY AN NROTC CO (PNS) OR AN NTAG CO
There is Z-E_R_O flexibility on this.

The board dates are listed in the attachment. And at this point, everyone has stopped reading and clicking to see the board dates, so I'll end here. Just trying to keep everyone as up to date as I can from my little world here in the nation's Capital. :cool:
Click to expand...
Hi there - Thanks for all this info! My son (Junior in HS) is hoping to submit his application in next week or two. Hoping for early boards. Quick question about letters of recommendation - the application says you must submit letter of rec from math teacher. Academically, my son is awesome at math - he is in Honors Pre-Calc (grade 96) and will be in AP Calc next year. But in all his 3 years of HS, he has connected the least with his current math teacher. He's not a very engaged teacher and does a lot of on-line work. We are worried his letter of recommendation will be just meh. There are probably a dozen other teachers that know my son well and could write stellar LOR. Are we correct in reading that one LOR must be current math teacher? We were thinking of having the 2nd LOR be from a Scout counselor/leader but would we be better off with a 2nd teacher?

My son's other credentials:
Eagle Scout
AP scholar - will have taken 10 AP classes by graduation
Weighted GPA 4.381/unweighted 3.98
student government
Key Club
NHS member
Editor in Chief for Science Journal
Founder of Physics Club
SAT English 710/Math 680
ACT English 35 / Math 31 / Science 31 / Reading 30
Mother and Father Navy Veterans - not sure if helpful?
Tennis athlete (not varsity unfortunately) but will be Senior year

Thank you!
Heather (Former LT USN NC)
 
hopjop said:
Hi there - Thanks for all this info! My son (Junior in HS) is hoping to submit his application in next week or two. Hoping for early boards. Quick question about letters of recommendation - the application says you must submit letter of rec from math teacher. Academically, my son is awesome at math - he is in Honors Pre-Calc (grade 96) and will be in AP Calc next year. But in all his 3 years of HS, he has connected the least with his current math teacher. He's not a very engaged teacher and does a lot of on-line work. We are worried his letter of recommendation will be just meh. There are probably a dozen other teachers that know my son well and could write stellar LOR. Are we correct in reading that one LOR must be current math teacher? We were thinking of having the 2nd LOR be from a Scout counselor/leader but would we be better off with a 2nd teacher?

My son's other credentials:
Eagle Scout
AP scholar - will have taken 10 AP classes by graduation
Weighted GPA 4.381/unweighted 3.98
student government
Key Club
NHS member
Editor in Chief for Science Journal
Founder of Physics Club
SAT English 710/Math 680
ACT English 35 / Math 31 / Science 31 / Reading 30
Mother and Father Navy Veterans - not sure if helpful?
Tennis athlete (not varsity unfortunately) but will be Senior year

Thank you!
Heather (Former LT USN NC)
Click to expand...
I believe that the letter is more of his academic ability, more so than a letter of rec as to him. But I could be wrong. That makes a difference a lot of times if the teacher isn't having to write more of a personal note.
 
hopjop said:
Hi there - Thanks for all this info! My son (Junior in HS) is hoping to submit his application in next week or two. Hoping for early boards. Quick question about letters of recommendation - the application says you must submit letter of rec from math teacher. Academically, my son is awesome at math - he is in Honors Pre-Calc (grade 96) and will be in AP Calc next year. But in all his 3 years of HS, he has connected the least with his current math teacher. He's not a very engaged teacher and does a lot of on-line work. We are worried his letter of recommendation will be just meh. There are probably a dozen other teachers that know my son well and could write stellar LOR. Are we correct in reading that one LOR must be current math teacher? We were thinking of having the 2nd LOR be from a Scout counselor/leader but would we be better off with a 2nd teacher?

My son's other credentials:
Eagle Scout
AP scholar - will have taken 10 AP classes by graduation
Weighted GPA 4.381/unweighted 3.98
student government
Key Club
NHS member
Editor in Chief for Science Journal
Founder of Physics Club
SAT English 710/Math 680
ACT English 35 / Math 31 / Science 31 / Reading 30
Mother and Father Navy Veterans - not sure if helpful?
Tennis athlete (not varsity unfortunately) but will be Senior year

Thank you!
Heather (Former LT USN NC)
Click to expand...
The LOR from the Math teacher is a pretty hard requirement. With that being said, it could be possible to ask the school (principal or asst. principal) if the Math Teacher could be one from the past or not. The email requesting the LORs is sent from the recruiting officer and I "think" it goes to the Guidance Counselor, who forwards them. (I could have that wrong since it isn't an area I deal with).

The other thing that would help is during the next PTA meeting to have a direct engagement with this teacher to stress the importance of the LOR. While I never want to doubt anyone here in the esteemed forums, it's just too easy for someone to say......we don't like Mr. or Ms. So and So, and we know we'll get a great letter from this person, so let's just do that.

I know that isn't rock-solid advice, and some other folks in here may have better solutions that worked.

Lastly, the first NROTC board will be in October. There is a lot of time. Are you sure the SAT/ACT is as good as can be? Is athletic performance as good as can be? Any big events that could occur this summer that would look good on the application?

And while some people love using online sites' recommendations for essay answers, folks should be careful to avoid outright copy and paste. After the 3rd or 4th essay answer that sounds amazingly the same, we kinda sorta get the idea it isn't original work. :rolleyes:

But at the end of the day, you want to submit the absolute strongest package possible. They don't keep getting scored over and over. You get one look, one score, and it sits in the bank waiting for the rest of the boards.
 
jaglvr said:
I believe that the letter is more of his academic ability, more so than a letter of rec as to him. But I could be wrong. That makes a difference a lot of times if the teacher isn't having to write more of a personal note.
Click to expand...
This is true. Expectation from the Math teacher is, to be honest.....can DS work with numbers or struggle? Does he work well with teams or struggle? Etc
 
GWU PNS said:
The LOR from the Math teacher is a pretty hard requirement. With that being said, it could be possible to ask the school (principal or asst. principal) if the Math Teacher could be one from the past or not. The email requesting the LORs is sent from the recruiting officer and I "think" it goes to the Guidance Counselor, who forwards them. (I could have that wrong since it isn't an area I deal with).

The other thing that would help is during the next PTA meeting to have a direct engagement with this teacher to stress the importance of the LOR. While I never want to doubt anyone here in the esteemed forums, it's just too easy for someone to say......we don't like Mr. or Ms. So and So, and we know we'll get a great letter from this person, so let's just do that.

I know that isn't rock-solid advice, and some other folks in here may have better solutions that worked.

Lastly, the first NROTC board will be in October. There is a lot of time. Are you sure the SAT/ACT is as good as can be? Is athletic performance as good as can be? Any big events that could occur this summer that would look good on the application?

And while some people love using online sites' recommendations for essay answers, folks should be careful to avoid outright copy and paste. After the 3rd or 4th essay answer that sounds amazingly the same, we kinda sorta get the idea it isn't original work. :rolleyes:

But at the end of the day, you want to submit the absolute strongest package possible. They don't keep getting scored over and over. You get one look, one score, and it sits in the bank waiting for the rest of the boards.
Click to expand...
Very good point about waiting on better application but I thought earlier the better. What could be the latest the application is submitted in order to be considered for the first board? Also, does the DoDMERB exam come only after scholarship granted or is that part of the vetting process?

My son definitely wants to increase those SAT/ACT scores prior to college apps but thought they were pretty good for ROTC as the minimum required is far lower. Are you recommending he takes again before submitting application?

Nothing he can do to better his tennis status now as season is over. But, he did complete a highly selective BSA program last summer which he'll be able to speak about in his essay where he hiked 260 miles in 21 days - lots of leadership, orienteering, first aid, survival skills learned during that process that can also speak highly of his physical abilities - he's pretty fit.

He is doing a pretty impressive internship this summer with a national organization and is was thinking of applying to the Villanova NROTC summer seminar. Would those be good things to wait on before submitting application. Not even sure where those even fit on the application. There is not a lot of blank spaces to add random things like this.

Also, good idea about having meeting with is math teacher to explain what this letter is all about. Thanks!
 
hopjop said:
Also, does the DoDMERB exam come only after scholarship granted or is that part of the vetting process?
Click to expand...
So, for anything DoDMERB, the real authority is Mr. Mullen who camps out in the DoDMERB thread. Occasionally they let him out to wander across these other threads, but DoDMERB is best answered there. I can say that private medical information is never discussed, nor is it ever a factor, when reviewing applications. Whatever is residing in the member's DoDMERB or DoDMETS folders remains there.
 
I'm pretty sure the Math teacher rec is actually completing a questionnaire that he/she is sent. Same with English. I don't know if this would relieve any worries or not.

Your son should submit the best application he can as early as possible, Best is more important than early. Although one can update SAT/ACT scores after submission, I don't believe that the the system rewards him as much as if he had submitted those improved scores to begin with.

Generally speaking relatively few scholarships are issued from the first board. Those generally go to folks who can walk on water. Far more scholarships are issued from later boards as the applicant pool develops and they have a better idea of what they are working with. Again, best is better than early.

Just one mans two cents.
 
For math and English teachers, I believe that it is a character/leadership evaluation form; not a letter of rec. Have him look in the NETFOCUS and see if the form is available for download, so he can see what they are looking for from the teacher.
 
As far as timing, if the first bord is not until October this year, you should be fine if everything is submitted by mid to late August. This gives the package time to be reviewed and uploaded. As far as the ACT/SAT test scores, remember the minimums are just that, the bare minimum to get looked at. Although your DS is well above that, there is some room for improvement. I'll focus on the ACT, since I am more familiar with that. Although the 31 in math is strong, try to bring that up if possible, same with the science. Especially if your DS plans to apply as a tier 1 or tier 2 major. Unless things have changed in the past couple years, NROTC super scores, so focus test prep on those areas.
 
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