Questions about NROTC Scholarship Process

BlackIce

BlackIce

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Joined
Sep 28, 2017
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Hi all, been lurking for a few months here looking through threads whenever I have a few questions about the process of becoming an officer in the armed forces, thought I would drop some questions about of my own about NROTC since I've been seeing a lot of terms that make me somewhat nervous and that aren't explained well.

First of all, I'm probably already late to the game, and was wondering which schools in particular are competetitve for NROTC scholarships. I have Texas A&M as my first choice and a few others on there which are long shots, like Yale and Rice, so I threw Embry Riddle on since it had much lower admission requirements... although I then read on their website NROTC is highly competitive there and most scholarships are filled by early selection boards. My main goal is to be an officer in the navy, and while I would like to attend a decent school, I don't want to fill my 5 choices with schools that I'd be hard-pressed to get a scholarship to.

Second, who do I contact as my recruiter / coordinator, or furthermore, who even are these people? My local navy recruiting station? Will I get assigned one once I complete the application like how it works with USNA pre-apps? Some clarification towards these lines would help a lot.

And third, is a CFA required before my application will be looked at by a board? I noticed that it talked about submitting these scores to my recruiting station and such, so I'm not sure if that is part of the preliminary application process. My physical scores would probably be my biggest weakness, which is why I want to try to train as much as possible before I get a run in, but am wondering if waiting too long will jeopardize my chances altogether. Compared to academics, how much of a factor are physical scores in being rewarded a scholarship? Academically I am very strong, but my 7:00 mile and 45 or so pushups might drag me down a bit.

Also this forum is pretty neat, amazing to see so many people volunteering their free time to help young people reach for their dreams!
 
I can't answer all your questions but I'll take a shot at those I can answer.

First, just to make sure you understand, the scholarship and your getting admitted to the college are two separate processes. It's your job to get admitted to the schools. NROTC provides no help there. Also, the boards decide whether to award you a scholarship. Determining which school that is gets handled by a different group. If there are scholarship spots available at your favorite school then they'll award the scholarship there. If it's full, then they'll lok at your second choice school, etc. etc.

JMPO, it's OK to have a reach school or two but you should also be looking at colleges you have a good chance to get accepted to and probably one your guaranteed to get acceptance to. Also, keep in mind that you mind decide NROTC is not for you (believe me, it happens) so you probably want to focus on schools you can afford without the scholarship, just in case. There is also the problem of injuries or being dropped from the program for some reason.

I'll leave the remainder of your questions for others.
 
Once you start the application, you will get an email from your recruiter/coordinator within a few days with the AFA (Applicant Fitness Assessment) instructions and score sheet, along with a few other forms you need to sign. You are required to take the AFA and submit the scores (scan the image of the score sheet and email it as a PDF) to your recruiter/coordinator.
 
Embry-Riddle is a high quality highly competitive school. My DS was a NROTC scholarship MIDN there last year who received an appointment to USNA Class of 2021, the first from Embry-Riddle to make it, or so we were told. My DS said NROTC scholarship Mids at Embry-Riddle were predominantly engineering / STEM majors which are the most demanding programs there. (Not flight school students) . There are special scholarships from ERAU for NROTC scholarship Mids which add up to a fullride. Which really helps with the $48k tuition/fees/housing/meals costs. Please feel free to message me if you have specific questions.
 
DS put ERAU in his NROTC list, but we didn't realize until later that his major is at the Arizona Campus, which looks to have AF and not Navy. Is that how it works, Navy only available in Florida?
 
DesertCaliMom said:
DS put ERAU in his NROTC list, but we didn't realize until later that his major is at the Arizona Campus, which looks to have AF and not Navy. Is that how it works, Navy only available in Florida?
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It certainly looks that way from the NROTC Web pages. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to call ERAU to confirm.
 
Kinnem has solid advice above. And you're doing what was recommended to my son and daughter in putting the highly selective schools below the #1 choice (which should be a school you're confident of being accepted at, which it looks like you've done). My son put his more selective schools (Yale, Cal and Boston U) and my daughter (MIT, Harvard, and Cal) at 2, 3, and 4. When my son got into BU and my daughter got into MIT, they requested the schools be moved to #1 and it was easily done. Then they both chose Air Force where the ranking didn't matter. :)
As for contact info, you should be contacted once the app is completed.
And the physical is very important. The standards are online so you can see how you'd rate. My son was at the top end and my daughter at the lower end if that helps. But they were both in the accepted range.
 
Thanks for the replies, I've shuffled some ERAU and Yale out of my list and filled 3-5 with military colleges. If I get accepted to Rice I can always make that my number 1, so good to know I can change it later.
 
DS started his NROTC app this summer but then started focusing on his SA apps, other essays, and had to have surgery so now it says "expired" and he needs to contact recruiter. Will he be able to open it again or did he lose this opportunity?
 
BlackIce said:
Thanks for the replies, I've shuffled some ERAU and Yale out of my list and filled 3-5 with military colleges. If I get accepted to Rice I can always make that my number 1, so good to know I can change it later.
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That list is not all inclusive. You CAN apply to other NROTC schools, and if after you are awarded a scholarship you decide that another school is a better fit, you can ask for them to transfer the scholarship to that school if there is an opening. So, don't limit yourself to only those 5 schools if you feel there are others that may be a good fit for you or may have more attainable acceptance rate.
 
Adaly19 said:
Does anyone know which college NROTC units don’t usually fill up?
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Anecdotally, I would say it would be units at Universities with very selective admissions. When my DS visited the unit at University of Michigan before applying, he was told by the unit staff that they rarely fill their allocated scholarship spots, because the university admissions are so selective. If you want information on whether a particular unit tends to fill their slots, I would advise contacting that unit to ask them.
 
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