Question about NROTC MOS and Engineering

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bhimom

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Jun 21, 2018
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Hello. My DS is 4 year scholarship NROTC in first year. He has heard from some other Tier 1 awardees that they are switching major to PolySci in order to have best chance of getting first choice which is aviation. "PolySci and Fly".
Is this the case? DS is doing well in MechE but as he moves ahead I think it will be challenging to keep all As and Bs.
Do they give any weight to the major when ranking for slots upon commissioning? thanks.
 
bhimom said:
Hello. My DS is 4 year scholarship NROTC in first year. He has heard from some other Tier 1 awardees that they are switching major to PolySci in order to have best chance of getting first choice which is aviation. "PolySci and Fly".
Is this the case? DS is doing well in MechE but as he moves ahead I think it will be challenging to keep all As and Bs.
Do they give any weight to the major when ranking for slots upon commissioning? thanks.
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If he's talking to Navy Options then they will need permission to change their major. If they are currently Tier 1 or 2 scholarship awardees, they will not likely be granted permission. Or they will be given permission but lose their scholarship.

Some Navy Options apply to switch to Marine Options and must be granted permission by a national board, The Marines don't care what your major is. Again, they may lose the scholarship in the process. Some Navy options in DS's unit switched to Marines and changed their major to Criminal Justice.

Of course if they Marine options they still need permission to change major. As long as they can still graduate on time it will most likely be granted. Again, the Marines don't really care what your major is.

Your DS should discuss options (and make clear he's just considering things) with his adviser in the unit, so he can understand all the requirements and possible ramifications. He doesn't want to go off half cocked on this.
 
As a scholarship mid it's not as simple as switching from MechE (tier 1 major) to PoliSci (tier 3 major). This would need approval that is not guaranteed. The Navy awards 85% of scholarships to tier 1 &2 majors in order to meet Navy commissioning goals of technical majors. If you search posts by @Go Dores!, he recently posted those goals. I believe some consideration is given for difficulty of major, but he should check with unit staff to be sure. Also keep in mind, GPA is only one piece of the puzzle. It's not like all the highest GPAs go aviation. There are also his FitReps, medical qualification, performance on the ASTB, PFT scores that are taken into consideration.
 
Thanks. He is not considering switching ---he loves his STEM world and Engineering. But others are and they made it seem like '"no big deal". I am glad to have your opinions to ease his concern. He is a hardworker and has his sights set on Aviation.
 
bhimom said:
Thanks. He is not considering switching ---he loves his STEM world and Engineering. But others are and they made it seem like '"no big deal". I am glad to have your opinions to ease his concern. He is a hardworker and has his sights set on Aviation.
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Good for him. Hard workers go far and after commissioning they become what my son calls "Spring Butt Lts". If there's a problem they spring up out of their chair to solve it!
 
kinnem said:
Good for him. Hard workers go far and after commissioning they become what my son calls "Spring Butt Lts". If there's a problem they spring up out of their chair to solve it!
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that EXACTLY describes my son. have a great day!
 
bhimom said:
Hello. My DS is 4 year scholarship NROTC in first year. He has heard from some other Tier 1 awardees that they are switching major to PolySci in order to have best chance of getting first choice which is aviation. "PolySci and Fly".
Is this the case? DS is doing well in MechE but as he moves ahead I think it will be challenging to keep all As and Bs.
Do they give any weight to the major when ranking for slots upon commissioning? thanks.
Click to expand...
I am a tier 3 political science major, who just service selected as NFO. I would NOT recommend switching from tier 1 to tier 3.... I don’t know who gave him that advice. In my unit OVERWHELMINGLY the amount of people who get Pilot are tier 1/2. I would say 95%. While it is true that “poli Sci and fly“ is popular, it seems more of a coincidence not a correlation. Yes, lots of political science majors go pilot, but even more tier 1 and tier 2 do.
 
FastFood44 said:
I am a tier 3 political science major, who just service selected as NFO. I would NOT recommend switching from tier 1 to tier 3.... I don’t know who gave him that advice. In my unit OVERWHELMINGLY the amount of people who get Pilot are tier 1/2. I would say 95%. While it is true that “poli Sci and fly“ is popular, it seems more of a coincidence not a correlation. Yes, lots of political science majors go pilot, but even more tier 1 and tier 2 do.
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Would you say that Tier 2 guys/gals are less prominent than Tier 1 in getting selected for pilot?
 
@bhimom - for additional background, a good place to start is reading para 4-45 and 4-46 of the Regulations for Officer Development. These two paragraphs cover the requirements for selection to aviation as well as the service assignment process in general. Yes, academic major is part of the service assignment package.


Additionally, look at NSTCNOTE1500 which covers FY accessions. This is the latest one posted on their website, but numbers are not going to change significantly year over year.


Note that of the OPNAV (the Chief of Naval Operations staff) goals for NROTC, aviation (pilot + NFO) is 308 slots out of 785. Next highest is SWO at 209.

The exceptional young men and women in our NROTC programs are working very hard and understandably want to be selected for their first choice. They can do that by being the best midshipman/college student possible - grades, physical fitness, midshipman aptitude, and for aviator wannabees....ASTB. ASTB is a huge discriminator, and rightfully so. And even if they do everything 'right', every year there is an aspiring aviator (or a few) who are disappointed they were not selected. In some cases, they were so 'good' that the nukes got them.

And lastly, please remember that this is service assignment. I'm old enough to remember when this was called service selection. Name changed to remind all that the needs of the Navy come first and this is hammered to the mids along the course of their 4 years in the program [para 4-46.2].
 
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