At the risk of appearing obsequious, as usual Bruno hit the ball out of the park.
These are important discussions for you to have with yourself, with your family, and with people you know and trust.
As a ‘civilian’, who wasn’t in the military and who didn’t attend a SMC I have less “standing” than others to offer advice and counsel.
Texas A&M offers “in-state” tuition to out of state students in the Corps of Cadets. The cadets at A&M have a rigorous life but not to the extent of the cadets at VMI. There are advantanges and challenges to attending a large public university, and in being in a Corps while daily in the middle of a large non-cadet campus. There are also real advantages to attending a small and focused liberal arts school such as VMI or The Citadel. Scouts from my son’s troop have excelled at both VMI and The Citadel. Our daughter is at A&M and is a member of the Corps there. A&M offers all of the ROTC options (Army, Air Force, Navy, and Navy/Marine Option). Because it is a state school and given the demographic geography of Texas, many of the students are from 1.5-5 hours away and many freshman leave to go home on the weekend, even Corps members on non-restricted weekends. That said, there is plenty to do on a campus of 50,000 students on the weekends. A&M students, even freshman cadets, can have cars.
I think, but I don’t know, that the Texas Maritime Academy (part of Texas A&M at Galveston) also offers the instate tuition to out of state students. Call and ask. It has an NROTC program but not, as I recall, Navy/Marine Option. Students attending A&M Galveston who have a 2.5 GPA at the end of their freshman year are, as I understand it, guaranteed admission to the A&M College Station campus. The Galveston campus also gets thinned out on weekends.
As noted in earlier posts, my son and I visited SUNY Maritime for their open house on July 18. My son, who has also spent the night at VMI with some fellow Scouts, seemed particularly interested in SUNY. I know from research that California Maritime has a similar “in region” rate for cadets from some of the western states.
To summarize, I’d counsel you to pay attention to what Bruno said.