NROTC Scholarship (ISR) Award

[sc5]

DS was awarded NROTC Scholarship (ISR) this week. He did not apply to USNA, so we’re happy to get the news of his #1 objective so early in the game. We’ve been the beneficiaries of so much knowledge and information over the last few months, I thought I’d pass on what worked for him and got him a seat at the table:
Top 1% of large public high school. 4.3 gpa; ACT 33; SAT 1420; plenty of ECs, volunteering, and summer work. Three sport athlete every year of high school: football, basketball, track. A captain of all these teams except Jr year when only Srs are captains on Varsity (big school.) Will be Engineering major in college.

 

[Capt MJ]

Great news, and thank you for thinking to supply useful data points.

 

[Hopeful_Dad]

Congratulations to both your DS and your family.

We also received great news this morning, our DS received an ISR NROTC scholarship which he interviewed for yesterday. He is very grateful for that opportunity. NROTC is very high on his priority list. We did not expect this good news so soon, and are elated and removes a lot of stress.

Our DS stats are similar. Top 1% of rural public school, 3.95 unweighted. 1400 SAT. Full slate of ECs. Varsity Football, Captain multiple years. Summer and senior year employment. Boys State.

The last several months have been very busy. My DS has completed his apps to USNA, USMMA, USCGA, and has his ALO interview with USAFA soon which will complete that application. His nomination applications are complete and we are waiting to hear about interviews, hopefully soon. Common application is complete for his civilian schools, so that wait is also beginning.

As a proud father, I'm grateful for all the insights on this forum, and it has been extraordinarily helpful as we continue this journey. As a 24 year AF vet and pilot, the only downside is he has Navy as his number 1...

 

[justdoit19]

Congrats to both of you! Fantastic start to the day. I believe it’s a sign the Navy will WIN the football game today!!

 

[guydelarosa]

Congrats!! I'm on the same boat as your son (stats wise), and I think I would be competitive for the ISR. I was wondering who offered you son the ISR and when this occur. In other words, did he have his application board ready (AFT completed, interview, etc.) before he was offered the ISR. Also, who in particular award him the ISR, was it the interview or was it his officer recruiter?

 

[sc5]

Each region may be different in how they handle ISRs. I will say that DS's application was complete in August. He had first interview at the unit of a local university and second interview with a Regional Commander. His officer recruiter was very helpful in helping DS through the process.

 

[ProudDad17]

ISRs are awarded by the commander of each regional recruiting district. I believe each region has 5 to award each year. The process of how they are awarded may vary between regions. Some may have applications screened and make their selections before interviewing the candidate to confirm the award. Others may interview a number of candidates before selecting who to award the ISRs to. The bottom line is, your application must be complete and board ready before being considered for an ISR and there is no separate application for it. Selections are made from board ready applications in a recruiting district.

 

[Hopeful_Dad]

We had a similar experience to sc5. Our DS's application was complete in September. After our DS had his first interview in early Oct, his officer recruiter called him and told him they wanted him to interview with his Regional Commander for an ISR opportunity. We had no idea what ISR was, or what it meant until we did some research (lots of good info on this forum). His officer recruiter was outstanding and was very engaged; our DS had routine contact throughout the process. I don't think there is anything an applicant can do to apply for, or push for, an ISR look. Best advice I have is to put forth your best application, and be patient; which we realize is tough.

 

[Go Dores!]

@guydelarosa - The NROTC Immediate Scholarship Reservation (ISR) process is controlled by Navy Recruiting Command. Each Navy Recruiting District Commander gets a number of ISRs to award each cycle. The number remains fairly consistent - it was 110 total (nationwide) last year. With 26 recruiting districts, that's about 4 per. Since all districts are not geographically the same in terms of population size, there may be slight variations in that number (5 was mentioned above).

The authority to award the ISR rests solely with the Recruiting District Commander. Another post mentioned that the Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) national scholarship boards screen for ISR-quality packages. Not true. Once a District Commander has awarded an ISR, the national board simply validates the applicant/application meets the program entrance and SAT/ACT eligibility requirements posted on national website. The national board cannot overturn a Recruiting Commander's ISR award unless an eligibility requirement was missed.

As OP and ProudDad17 stated just above, each Navy Recruiting District may handle the ISR process differently. In their case, the District Commander conducted an interview (separate from the Officer Interview required of all applicants) of sc5's DS and awarded an ISR scholarship early in the process - to an impressive applicant with a completed package. Other District Commanders may wait until later in the cycle to see a larger pool of completed applications.

Does your application need to be completed? Let me ask you a question - why would the local Navy Recruiting District Commander pick an applicant for an ISR without a completed application?

 

[Therese_In_Denver]

@guydelarosa -
The authority to award the ISR rests solely with the Recruiting District Commander.

One caution to USNA hopeful candidates: the Recruiting District Commander can also rescind ISRs. My son was called in for what he was told was a "final" interview for ISR and was told to bring a parent. DS took off school, I took off work and it turned out to be ISR award. In front of a gathering of everyone in the office suite, Commander told DS he was one of the top 4 NROTC applicants in the 5 state region and handed him a huge posterboard check for $200,000. We signed some paperwork and went home to wait for nominations, appointments and college acceptances. The recruiter called a couple of weeks later, asking for a formal acceptance. DS asked what that meant. He told DS that he could either "take his chances" on USNA, or commit to NROTC. DS told him he needed to check with his BGO and others before making a huge decision like that and recruiter told him he had to give an answer in 72 hours. Based on BGO, USNA admissions officer and this forum, DS called the recruiter on Monday and said that he "accepted" the NROTC scholarship. But he would not say what the recruiter what the recruiter wanted to hear; he would not pass up USNA or USMA for NROTC. Three days later, DS was told that there had been a mistake and he did not have the ISR and his application was going back into the national pool. We were told later that this has something to do with the command hitting quota numbers. If they give the ISRs to kids who absolutely are going NROTC/prefer college over SA, there is no chance their numbers could "fall apart" if ISR awardees all get appointments. If we had understood this at the outset, DS would have asked to keep his NROTC application in the national pool. During the time a command is going through their ISR interviews and selection decision, the finalists' application is "pulled" out of the national pool.