ROTC + International Relations Major

<p>So I've been trying really hard to find a school with a really good Navy/Marines Corps ROTC program and a really good International Relations program. Ideally, it would be some sort of cross between Embry Riddle and Tufts or Georgetown but I know that probably isn't possible. I would like to stay on the East Coast, preferably around the DC area but that isn't a must. Also, I'm not completely opposed to Air Force ROTC either... Does anyone know anything on this? A school that is strong in both of those programs?</p>

<p>Service and/or military academies not in the cards?</p>

<p>Places like Virginia Military Institute, yes. The Naval Academy? I can dream, but it won’t happen.</p>

<p>Just an FYI: 85 % of Navy ROTC scholarships go to tier I or II majors, Polisci/IR is Tier III so it will be MUCH more difficult to get a scholarship. A few people get around this by betting a B.S. in Econ (if offered) with IR or Polisci. the B.S. in Econ is considered Quantitative Econ and is Tier II.</p>

<p>If you are a Marine Option there is no tier system and your major doesn’t really matter.</p>

<p>I was in a similar situation when applying to schools in that I was looking for NROTC Units with top Econ, polisci, and language offerings.I was also looking for a decent math/stats program as well as a smaller student body (I applied to a fair amount of LACs as well, planning to go to OCS instead of doing ROTC if I took that route) so my decision was that much easier.</p>

<p>The University of Rochester has a top 15-20 ranked polisci department and the department offers an International Relations Major. They also have quite a lot of offerings in Arabic and Chinese. We also have arguably the best NROTC Unit on the east coast. </p>

<p>Other high quality schools schools with IR majors and top Polisci/IR departments on the east coast are: Harvard,UPenn, Duke, UVA, GWU, UNC, Boston University, and Georgia Tech. Cornell offers alot of courses in regional studies and Polisci government but no IR major, only a minor. Yale is apparently starting up an NROTC unit but it is very new and if I were you I’d hold off for now. There are some other highly ranked schools with NROTC programs that unfortunately don’t have the best offerings in languages/regional studies/international relations, though they all have polisci departments. These include Vanderbilt, Holy Cross, Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>Georgetown students have to commute to GWU everyday and Tufts students have to commute to Harvard everyday, but if this wouldn’t be too big of a hassle for you, those would be good options too. </p>

<p>I know very little about Embry Riddle other than students sometimes are able to integrate flight training into their curiculum, which sounds pretty cool. Not very well known academically. </p>

<p>I know very little about AFROTC, except for the fact they have an even more strictly relegated tier system and place high value on engineering majors.</p>

<p>EDIT: Just saw youre above post: If you really want to go to USNA, you might as well give it a shot and apply. I got waitlisted with a 34 superscored ACT, 1430/1600 SAT, 94 avg and some club leadership positions but for a lot of reasons I am glad I didn’t get in (you can PM me if you want to know specifics). I’ve seen kids with 1200 SATs and 86 avgs get in…its really a crapshoot. And if you are a recruited athlete/minority you can have even lower scores/grades/ECs…</p>

<p>Thanks, that was extremely helpful. Unfortunately I’m not like a lot of the kids on here who can get into any school they want. Average grades, average ECs. I was looking into Seton Hall University but honestly, the Army ROTC program was a big turn off for me.</p>

<p>Any other suggestions?</p>