NROTC -changing tiers/service selection/ attrition

crair70

5-Year Member
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Feb 7, 2011
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My DS received a tier I scholarship back in Nov. We just returned from a Q&A at his detachment and they mentioned that service selection is mostly weighted on GPA. Seems to me that students in more challenging majors like tier I are not rewarded by this method being that it is typically more difficult then other majors in tier II and III .

Wondering if those of you with experience know much about changing majors and tiers. What is is process like and any suggestions on ways to go about it? My DS is not planning on doing that at this time but if he is struggling it may need to be considered in order to protect his GPA and not ruin his chances of getting a service selection he desires. Trying to be proactive and preparing for worse case scenario.

Also I was concerned to hear that over 50% of those who begin the program freshman year tend to drop out. The sophomore class started with around 35 and now has about 15+/- and 12 of those are on scholarships. Does this seem typical? Not sure what to make of this data. The unit is small- less than 100 total with the most in freshman class and the numbers are between 15-22 for sophomore yr on. We were all mpressed with the detachment- seems like it is well run with lots of resources for the mids... Can't figure out why such a large attrition. Any guesses?
 
Also I was concerned to hear that over 50% of those who begin the program freshman year tend to drop out.
I am assuming that when college programmers learn that an in-college scholarship award is pretty rare, they either have to quit the program so that they can get a part time job to help pay for school, or decide that without any guarantee of receiving a non-scholarship Contract after sophomore year, they don't want to make the speculative time and effort investment.

As far as changing Tiers, the Navy has a hard written quota of 85% that must be Tier I or Tier II. I would imagine, with zero experience, that it isn't too tough to go from I -> II, but from I or II -> III would be almost impossible.
 
It does happen, but being allowed to change tiers is rare. 50% attrition freshman year sound high, but DSs unit lost 25-30%. A lot of that was during Freshman Orientation and a few of those had scholarships... So I don't think availability of in school scholarships is a big factor.
 
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