<p>Trying to help give my son some insight and guidance on the NROTC Unit at PENN ST... Please feedback the good, bad, and ugly. </p>
<p>Also need some feedback on the EE program. </p>
<p>Not getting into chance me yet just trying to get infor for him to compare with some other schools of thought.</p>
<p>Villanova
U of Maryland
UNC Chapel Hill (Tough to get into from out of state)
Boston University
George Washington
Virginia Military Institute
PENN ST.
UPENN</p>
<p>I can’t give you very much information but our son did have an NROTC scholarship to Penn State and kept it until the beginning of his second year. He was very happy in the program for the most part and only dropped the scholarship b/c he wanted to change his major to a tier 3 from a tier 2. (Very hard to get permission for that, especially for a “WASP”-sorry but that’s true.) If you officially put in the paperwork asking for a tier change and it is denied then you are obligated to pay back the first year, too-wasn’t worth the risk as “feelers” were put out and the “vibe” wasn’t looking positive. Anyway, S is a senior now. He had a good ROTC class and they did early morning PT a few days a week, did some volunteer service, marched in the homecoming parade. For their Naval Science class they usually had some pretty good officers come in and speak. Our son has kept in touch with a few of the guys and also some of the staff. He was also invited to come to any of the Naval Science lectures he was interested in. There was a CO change towards the end of his freshman year. The new CO was a bit more lax than the first one. S actually preferred the first CO b/c thought the new one was too lax-LOL. The only thing S really didn’t like was the mandatory study hours under the first CO–b/c too many kids just goofed off so after you put in your mandatory study hours you actually had to go find a quiet place to really study! S has a good friend who did the Marine Option at Villanova (he’s a senior) and he’s been very happy there, too.</p>
<p>Forgot one very important thing–don’t think this was unique to Penn State, more an overall Navy problem…Money was tight so most kids weren’t able to go on the summer cruises and start seeing the Navy in action 
They tried to take kids who were least familiar with with “Navy life”–ours is son, grandson of Navy and grew up around it so has seen a lot already. Still, I think that was a big disappointment. I don’t know if things turned around in that department-this was Summer '10.</p>
<p>Thank you for the insight BeachMom21… We will be making the track for a school visits. My son read a book on a LT Seal (hockey player) that went through the PENN St. NROTC. Sadly he was KIA, hence the book written by another on that was on his seal team, the guy was from Texas. Lone Survivor is the book, I’m reading it now as an ex-Navy guy my heart is still in it.</p>
<p>Mine also loves the Navy SEALs 
A few of the guys at Penn State were able to go SEALs at graduation and a few weren’t–it’s a hard option for anyone, anywhere. Believe it or not, the ones who didn’t get SEALs (as officer’s) dropped their scholarships right before graduation and went SEALs as enlisted men so they’d get their chance. Believe this was class of '10–I know one of the three made it all the way through on his first try not sure about the other two. I was good friends with Richard Marcinko’s daughter in high school–mid 80’s-swam with Richard in his backyard pool–and all the time had NO CLUE who he was–LOL! </p>
<p>Penn State has always been known to have a solid NROTC. A few of their guys were on subs with my husband. One VERY IMPORTANT thing I should have also mentioned is that the slots for rotc at PSU fill up quickly. When our son went up in February for the Engineering Open House there were already kids who had the ROTC scholarships but the slots at PSU were filled. Good luck to your son!</p>
<p>When we go to PSU I’ll have him make a point of it to stop by the unit so he can meet and greet and so they have a face to a name in the event it all works out for him. We visited the campus with our other son who made it into the school of engineering but decided on our own in-state school. He also went NROTC and made it; however, things outside his or our reach put a stop on it. It’s my understanding that this happened to a lot of kids last year, I guess it had to do with the budget cut. It’s okay there is another option he is going to go for. It’s not the NROTC but it ends up being the same scholarship fund just no NROTC interaction, he would go to OCS when he is finished with his degree. We shall see what happens with that!</p>