<p>The Navy ROTC site shows that the status of my sons application is in the "final processing and selection phase." Yet, the Dodmerb site does not list NROTC as one of the agencies that has requested a medical review (Army ROTC and the service academies all are listed). Are we missing something?</p>
<p>Probably not - I <em>think</em> that NROTC makes the decision to award the scholarship then sends the name to DoDMERB. They don't want to pay for physicals if a scholarship isn't going to be awarded.</p>
<p>Army on the other hand, sends each qualified candidates name to DoDMERB before the scholarship offer is made - they are a much bigger program and have many more applicants to process.
It's good that your son applied to AROTC as well - he is ahead of the game.
If the NROTC board wants to award a scholarship then the physical is already on file at DoDMERB.
Good Luck!</p>
<p>Justamom is correct. The Navy does not schedule the physical until you are awarded the scholarship. The scholarship award is provisional based on you being certified by DODMERB as 100% medically qualified.</p>
<p>Thanks. That is a relief - his first choice is Navy and I was worried that he had missed something. Do you know when they start notification?</p>
<p>yes, S had his Dodmerb physical a couple of weeks after getting the scholarship notification. The NROTC board convenes several times over the course of the year to make selections. When did your S get his app. in?</p>
<p>simpse01, what did your son list as a major? Non-technical majors tend to get chosen at the later boards. That will be even more true this year as the Navy has mandated that 85% of scholarship recipients have a technical major.</p>
<p>My son, who submitted his NROTC application in late October, listed a tier-3 major on his application. Today he got a call from an officer in Pensacola who wanted to talk with him about strengthening his application by perhaps switching his major to a technical major. Unfortunately, son is not interested in a tier-1 engineering in any form, but some of the tier-2 options hold interest. Son will follow-up tomorrow.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if an applicant gets a scholarship with a tier 1 or tier 2 major and they decide at any point to change to a tier 3 major they will automatically lose their scholarship. Depending on when this happens they may have to either pay back the scholarship or enlist - Navy's choice. </p>
<p>The payback applies after day 1 of sophomore year.</p>
<p>Iron Maiden, yes....NROTC really makes students nail down their plans for a major with major consequences for changing yor mind. S hasn't been willing to commit to anything yet and has waffled between economics/global studies and the biological sciences for a long time. Making that type of commitment might not be the right thing for him right now.</p>
<p>My son listed for his major "Tier: 2 Major: ENGINEERING-RELATED TECHNOLOGIES. " In his comments, he indicated that he was interested in an engineering curriculum. He had what I thought was an excellent interview and write up - the overall evaluation ended with the statement - "Put him in Navy Blue! Our Navy will be better for his presence." His interview was towards the end of December, so I thought we would hear something by now.</p>
<p>What is different between Tier 1 & Tier 2? Should he change to Tier 1 to increase his chances? Is it too late?</p>
<p>My strong advice is to not have your child change majors just for the Navy. If they do they won't be happy and then they are stuck if they pickup the 4-year scholarship.</p>
<p>IMO the only reason to apply for the NROTC 4-year scholarship is that your child wants to be a Navy officer above all else. If he/she is applying just to pay for 4 years of tuition then 1) they will be very unhappy, and 2) in my experience they will drop out of the program quickly.</p>
<p>Keep the projected major on the application what the child wants because once they get the scholarship they are locked. If they don't get the 4-year scholarship they can join the NROTC unit at their school anyway as a College Programmer. They do the same things as the scholarship Midshipmen, they just don't get tuition, books, fees paid for or a monthly stipend. If their performance in the unit is strong and their grades are strong they have a good change at picking up a 3 or 2 year scholarship (depends on the unit of course).</p>
<p>If you mention this option to your child and get "no way" as an answer then that is telling. It means most likely that your child does not want to be a Navy officer, they just want the scholarship money. Find another path for them as they will probably not be successful in NROTC.</p>
<p>Just my opinion of course.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input, Iron Maiden. Cetainly things to think about.</p>
<p>He really really wants to be a Naval Officer. His first choice is USNA, but if he doesn't get that then he wants NROTC. As far as his major, I talked to him about it and on his college applications he did apply specifically for Chemical Engineering and has been accepted into that program at NC State. I don't think he realized the impact of making a more generic choice on his NROTC scholarship. So my question is - should he contact the officer he interviewed with and discuss making a change? Also, I do know that he told the interviewing officer that his first choice was USNA, would that impact his chances negatively? Again - the interviewing officer's write up was excellent and he did recommend son for Navy.</p>
<p>Thanks for your feedback.</p>
<p>I agree with Iron Maiden. A kid may want to be a "Navy Officer" but not realize just what the job is.
All USNA grads must commission to the Unrestricted line in the Navy. Most will be an SWO, Subs or Aviaton - three very technical fields. Some kids may want to go Seals but very few of the class will get this.</p>
<p>It stands to reason that if the job is highly technical the Navy wants technical majors. This may be kind of harsh but - if he doesn't want to major in a technical field he may not be happy spending 5 years on a ship or sub in a highly technical job.
Perhaps some re-evaluation of what he wants from the Navy is in order.</p>
<p>Simpse01 - yes your son should contact the officer with whom he interviewed and mentioning his USNA application won't impact him negatively.</p>
<p>BTW- USNA just instituted a new policy - 85% of each class must major in a technical field, if he goes there he may be required to pick a technical major.</p>
<p>Might Army actually be a better "fit"?</p>
<p>The UNSA policy regarding 85% technical majors in now in line with the same policy for NROTC.</p>
<p>thanks for your reply. He is highly technical and math-oriented. He's actually one of those kids that enjoys working on obscure calculus projects - not like his mom! :-) His mentor is a
Navy Captain (Retd) , and he is confident that Navy is where he wants to be. </p>
<p>We'll take your advice and update his major. This waiting is so hard...</p>
<p>As far as Army - his older sister is Army. I guess we will have a house divided on game day!</p>
<p>^
LOL. have fun with that ;)</p>