NROTC MO SCHOLARSHIP INFO

[abbyad01]

I was a recipient of the 2019 nrotc marine option 4 year scholarship. I was awarded the scholarship during the second board review in March 2019. I was declined for the first board that takes place around late November - early December. This post will be for information that I wish I knew while applying for the scholarship and while I waited for results.


To begin, I am going to list my chronological order of events to how I got started with the scholarship. And a quick disclaimer: my stats mean absolutely nothing in terms of how the Corps will pick recipients !! The Corps has varying needs and takes into account every different aspect of every applicant, so do not get discouraged by my stats!

In April of 2018 a recruiter came to my school and told me about the nrotc scholarship. It wasn't until around early July that I really considered actually going for the scholarship. Right then I was sent to MEPS to swear into the DEP on July 24-25. I finished my scholarship application right around that time too (including the essays and teacher recommendations). I started attending PT with the rest of the DEP and took my first PFT. The first board came around in November and I didn't hear anything until early January- I did not get the scholarship. I then retook a PFT and got a much higher score. I then got two really important letters of recommendation- one from the mayor of my city and one from my high school principal. It wasn't until March 22 when I was notified that I had received the scholarship via a phone call from my recruiter.

Now I will give my direct statistics:

-18 year old female
-12/655 in my graduating class
-3.985 unweighted GPA
-1220 SAT/26 ACT
-Varsity letters in cross country, track, and swimming
-100 hours of community service hours
-Criminal justice club, sign language club, leo club, national honor society, honor roll
-1st PFT (i don't remember the score but it was something like 10 pull ups, 60 crunches, 24min 3 mile)
-2nd PFT was a 274 (11 pull ups, 87 crunches, 22:38min 3 mile run)

Now here is some random things about me and included in my scholarship:

-I never did ROTC in high school
-I am 5'4" and 120lbs
-I had letters of recommendation from the mayor of my city and my principal (I HIGHLY recommend doing this! This will definitely help your application!)
-My major is criminology
-I live in Ocala, FL and plan on attending University of North Florida in Jacksonville, FL.
-In my officer interviews I kind of stressed that I am not applying for the scholarship just for the money, its just a bonus for me being able to serve my country as an officer
-I was in dual enrollment in high school and I took 2 AP classes
-I was in the DEP (This most definitely helped my application process and my PFT scores! It also allows you to meet people in the Corps and get used to that environment)
- The scholarship board meets mid-November (for the first board) but results do not have a release date, they come out anytime from late November to early January. In 2017 the results came out before December 25, but in 2018 they came out around January 8th. The second board meets around February-April? I wasn't really sure about this one. I got my results on March 22 via phone call from my recruiter. The results for the scholarship are really a big waiting game. It gets very anxious but thats just how it is.

I can't really think of anything else at the moment. If you have any questions do not hesitate to message me!

Goodluck and Semper Fi!!

 

[NJROTC-CC]

Great stats. Did consider applying to USNA? You can always apply for next year.

 

[kinnem]

@abbyad01 I congratulate you on your accomplishments. Your second PFT score was great and no doubt helped you, and certainly doing PT with the poolees helped you achieve that.

That being said, you actually have no idea as to what caused you to be selected for the scholarship. It isn't necessarily true that the additional recommendations helped, especially since additional recommendations are normally discarded. I also would not encourage anyone to sign up for DEP unless they are interested in serving enlisted prior to attending college. If they are not selected for the scholarship it's goodbye hometown and college and hello Uncle Sam. Many have signed up for DEP and have not been selected for a scholarship.

Just my two cents. NROTC MO is terrific. I know you'll have fun doing it and will grow beyond what you imagined.

 

[USMCGrunt]

I agree with kinnem. You can't draw any conclusions with one data point.

Nice improvement on the PFT crunches and run time. I was surprised that a HS Varsity athlete on the cross-country and track teams (at a school with a graduating class of 655) had such a slow run time. But really impressed with the number of pull ups for a female.

 

[abbyad01]

Great stats. Did consider applying to USNA? You can always apply for next year.

Thanks! And I did consider it vaguely. I am going to see how my first year on the scholarship plays out. If I decide to switch schools than I can always put in a request. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[abbyad01]

@abbyad01 I congratulate you on your accomplishments. Your second PFT score was great and no doubt helped you, and certainly doing PT with the poolees helped you achieve that.

That being said, you actually have no idea as to what caused you to be selected for the scholarship. It isn't necessarily true that the additional recommendations helped, especially since additional recommendations are normally discarded. I also would not encourage anyone to sign up for DEP unless they are interested in serving enlisted prior to attending college. If they are not selected for the scholarship it's goodbye hometown and college and hello Uncle Sam. Many have signed up for DEP and have not been selected for a scholarship.

Just my two cents. NROTC MO is terrific. I know you'll have fun doing it and will grow beyond what you imagined.

Thank you very much! And I completely agree, I'm not sure what really got me chosen for the scholarship- but I am beyond grateful for whatever it was! And I see what you mean about the DEP, but personally I was going to go into the Marine Corps either way because it is what I really want. I would only recommend the DEP to people who have the same belief