Hi All: DS is still waiting to hear about MO NROTC but he has been admitted to all these schools and, if he doesn't get the MO scholarship, he will have a choice of any of the four (plus the University of Washingon Seattle). He has visited all these schools overnight (except for A&M which we are going to April 8 for the Eagle Scout Scholarship event). I have seen Bruno's remarks about VMI. Would love to see recommendations, experiences, warnings and debate about which school. He loves history and international studies and will do Marine ROTC at any school he attends. Thanks.
I think all of the SMCs are excellent choices. I am not aware of any particular warnings, other than they are NOT party schools.
The main distinguishing features are: (1) geographic location, both in terms of weather (Norwich is colder in the winter, but cooler than SC in the fall) and alumni network concentrations (Norwich is heavy in the Northeast, because that's where it draws most of its applicants with roots in that region); and (2) whether civilians are on campus along with cadets (I think VMI and Citadel are exclusively military, while the others have civilians in the mix; Norwich probably has the least number of civilians compared to A&M, VT, etc.).
One other thing about Norwich: In recent years, it has expanded heavily into on-line graduate education. Currently, the number of graduate-level alums exceeds the number of undergraduate-level alums. In this respect, there may be a broader group of alums, although they aren't traditional Corps alums.
In terms of active-duty military opportunities, all SMCs are the same. In my Infantry battalion, we had 2LTs from each of the SMCs, ROTC, and USMA -- they were all on the same level. I expect the Marine Corps is the same.
I think when deciding which school to attend (assuming no MO scholarship pointing to a particular school), you should look at price (NOT the sticker price, but the FINAL price as stated in the Financial Aid offer letter), geography, and most important, "gut feeling" after having visited the school.