<p>Trying to help give my son some insight and guidance on the NROTC Unit at UPENN... 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.</p>
<p>Sorry, had to roll this back to the top of the list.</p>
<p>I could use some information as well…</p>
<p>Kstrida,</p>
<p>What other NROTC schools are you looking at??</p>
<p>I’m looking at USC, Vanderbilt, Duke, Rice and Georgetown. I suspect Georgetown has the best Nrotc program but I probably wont get in because Georgetown is all about the Gpa and mine is weak (relatively speaking). USC has a ton of nrotc students so your son will arrive with a huge friend group. BUs nrotc webpage looks impressive.</p>
<p>If you are looking for schools with strong language programs, I have heard good things about Rice and obviously Georgetown is about the best in the country if not the planet.</p>
<p>Your looking at some very nice schools. My son is going deep with the Naval Academy and NROTC. We have been to BU…very nice. The choice is not mine; however, if he asks me, I would rec. the following order:</p>
<ol>
<li>Naval Academy - Planning a visit in Jan</li>
</ol>
<p>NROTC Choice:</p>
<ol>
<li>UNC Chapel Hill - Planning a visit in June</li>
<li>Villanova - Visited & going back again for another</li>
<li>BU - Visited</li>
<li>UPENN - Planning a visit in Jan</li>
<li>GW - Planning a visit in Jan</li>
</ol>
<p>My part is to only do a little research on my own, get as many sides to a schools story as I can, thinks about who my son is as a person, and give him the best guidance as I can without getting in his way. I don’t know if my actions are right or wrong but it is my thought that my son makes these decision on his own. Its his journey so he has to feel it. I’ll will only chime in if he asks or if I knoe without questions something is going wrong. Everything he has looked at to me is a fit no matter where he goes. I’m just very luck to have a sone who is a good kid, studies hard, works hard at his two sports, and stays out of trouble.</p>
<p>To date we agree on his No.1 which is the academy. In regard to the NROTC list I think he is leaning toward Villanova being his No.1, UPENN his No.2 and BU his No.3… Depending on what he finds out about UNC it could go No.2, he is still digging on GW. He started all of this a few months ago, he wants to be ready.</p>
<p>All this being said he is also working on his C & D options in the event that the Academy or NROTC does not accept him. The reality factor has to be a thought because you never know how it will end up.</p>
<p>Is he Marine option? Also, the NROTC community is pretty small at Penn, but they’re all really close. It’s definitely a huge time commitment, but if he’s looking at USNA, I don’t think that’ll be a big issue for him. However, a lot of students feel a little stretched thin given the academic caliber of this school. The NROTC program here is amazing, though.</p>
<p>Thank you for the feed ladyjacket42…</p>
<p>In regard to the first answer…no, he wants to be a Naval officer. He is no stranger to commitment in fact the entire concept works well for the type of person he is. I think UPENN will be his very long shot; however, if he gets the NROTC I know it will carry weight with a decision. He only has a 3.86 GPA, will have a total of 7 varsity letters when he grads (hope he does not get hurt) involved in just lots of stuff, leadership in three different areas and according to his advisor should score between I think it was a 190 and 210 on his PSAT. They saw his PSAT test but could not give a firm score. Again, I think UPENN would be a very long shot unless he scored a 2300 or 2400 on the SAT…slim odds but he is now taking a prep class to see if he can do better. I just cant take away a dream if he at least wants to apply, besides you just never know if they will like what they see.</p>
<p>If your son has a 3.9 with several varsity sports then it wont take a 2300 to get into Penn, unless he is going to a school with a lot of kids in that range or he took easy coursework. From what I understand, Penn cares more about ec’s, recs, and essays than almost any other top school so the varsity sports and nrotc will probably put him over the edge with a 2200. A 2300 is about at the 75th percentile of Penn accepted students and a 3.9 unweighted is average. Just make sure he works his tail off on the intangible parts of the app and he will get in. As for UNC I would tell him to cross it off his list. What the website doesn’t tell you is that UNC is incredibly biased toward in state students, so much so that he probably will have a better chance of getting into Penn. As for the naval academy, it just takes a special type of person to enjoy themself there and you’ll want to make sure your son is that type before he signs anything.</p>
<p>I realized I should elaborate on the last comment: If you want to make sure he will enjoy himself, show him the movie “Annapolis” with James Franco and then tell him at the end that its much tougher than they made it look in the movie. If he still wants to go than he is a good match for the NA. If not…</p>