University of Maryland NROTC

lucky8

Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2016
Messages
54
Hey,

I'm still waiting to hear back from umd, but that's where my scholarship is currently assigned. I'll likely be attending this coming fall.

I'm a bit nervous about the unit being so new. Is it really small? What's the culture like, is it similar to other more established programs? I don't really know what I want to find out, I'm just curious what its like with this fall being its first year.

Thanks
 
Yeah and I mean they have the juniors and seniors (when I get there) that will have been in the cross town program at gw so they know what's going on. Only weird thing I saw in the article was that umcp and umbc share a staff. Also, good point about the leadership opportunities.
 
It is not uncommon to share staff. The fact is it is more about the AD leadership. UMCP will have the Commander, while UMBC will have the XO that reports to the UMCP CoC. Personally I would not be concerned about this at all, if anything I would be unconcerned. The college and HQ NROTC have been working on together for almost 5 yrs to get NROTC on campus. My DS commissioned out of AFROTC at UMDCP back in 12. I recall when I would visit him on days that he had to wear his uniform there were many NROTC mids in uniform on campus, not as many as AFROTC or AROTC, but still not so little that you didn't see them everywhere.
~ At UMDCP AROTC is the largest det out of the 3, I do not know how many cadets in AROTC there. With that being said, for AFROTC UMDCP is classified as a large detachment (they have over 200 cadets). Both AROTC and AFROTC are the host units.

The positive that really comes from this impo is that if this det. is like GT you will have what is called GMC night. This exists for bonding purposes. Typically they will meet 1x a week from 6 - 9 at the det lounge. They order in pizza and just hang....watch movies, play xbox, etc. GT is about 30 mins away via Metro, thus you really had to think about going instead of the I am bored at 7 and just leave your dorm room at Easton and walking 5 mins. over to wherever they are located.
~ These nights are important from a UMDCP aspect because they do not room ROTC cadets/mids in a specific dorm like other colleges. UMDCP rooms all students depending on specific academic programs for the 1st yr. Scholars dorm with other scholars. Gemstone dorm with Gemstone and Honors dorm with other Honors. If not in those programs they spread you across the campus.
~~ After your freshmen yr there is no guarantee you will get on campus housing, even if you do than by attending those nights after school and outside of LLAB you create friendships and bonds. By the time my DS was a junior he lived off campus with friends that were in his unit.
 
It's going to be a small program with very limited upperclassmen for the first couple years of its existence. If that interests you, then pursue it. Would recommend speaking with a staff member there for more details.
 
Back
Top