Unique NROTC Question

Colleges and Universities A-Z Service Academy Parents
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<p>Thanks for explaining everything, littlegreenmom. You are exactly right. I guess that my advice to parents of juniors looking at NROTC is that they look at the NROTC units they are interested in just as closely as the colleges they are considering because there are differences. (This seems obvious to me now, but we were so focused on finding the ‘right’ school that NROTC was secondary - and we didn’t find out that he had a scholarship until late February). It is also important to understand the realities of the process - that the later your son/daughter receives his/her scholarship, that the fewer options they may have once it is awarded. Freshman slots in units fill up as the year goes on, so transfering the scholarship to another unit at a school your student has been accepted to may be difficult or impossible once March or April rolls around.</p>

<p>We can’t complain, though, because the Navy assigned my son to the unit he had placed #1 on his list. And while there will be challenges with this somewhat unique situation, he is attending college at one of his top choices. Had we done our homework sooner, he might be attending school somewhere else next year, but - then again - maybe not. Again, we can’t complain… We feel fortunate that he has this opportunity.</p>

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<p>S1732,</p>

<p>Through your experience, did you gain any insight into what criteria they use to pick three schools out of ten the applicants list? Do they choose least expensive schools? Do they choose schools that they think the candidate will get in? Do they choose schools whose ROTC units still have slots open to accept me? Getting into a top school is a **** shoot, so adding this uncertainly of ROTC scholarship is really making the whole thing more complicated and unpredictable…</p>

<p>I am wondering if by listing expensive colleges, the candidates are disadvantaged in getting scholarship. I also wonder if it is easier/harder to find an ROTC spot and scholarship in highly selective top schools (like Ivy and equivalent) vs. more middle ranged and good public schools.</p>

23

<p>My son chose the top two out of his five for the same battalion - one was a cross town affiliate school (they only offered him a choice of 1-5 when he applied) for the same battalion, and for his #1 school, it was the most expensive, private, LAC. </p>

<p>He also listed other schools that were backups. </p>

<p>I don’t know how much price comes into the equation. I believe your major, what school you are applying to, how many slots they have, what kind of competition you are up against, how your interview and testing goes, etc probably have as much to do with your selection as anything else.</p>

<p>You can always contact the battalion headquarters for each of the schools you are considering. Ask for an appointment if you are visiting the school. If you can’t, email and ask questions over the phone about how many slots are allotted each year. Ask them if they usually fill up, if it is possible to get in from a waiting list, how many are Naval or Marine Option, etc. I am sure you will have lots of questions.</p>

<p>One of the best things we did was have son visit the officer in charge of the NROTC program of his first choice school, well before he submitted his application. I don’t think it gave him an edge, but it gave him peace of mind that it was the right school for him, as well as the right ROTC program. He also stayed in touch with that officer over the next year. By the time he arrived on campus, he felt like he knew the Lt. and felt comfortable with the program. </p>

<p>We used the website to select colleges for him on his top five list. He didn’t even consider any schools that didn’t have NROTC. He was also considering applying to Annapolis, the Coast Guard Academy and at the same time of the NROTC began the application for Army ROTC. He dropped his Army ROTC application pretty soon after sending off the NROTC app, but strangely still continued to get tons of emails, phone calls, etc from them - even though he said “No thanks.”</p>

<p>Find out how many slots there are at each campus you are considering - that might help you make a decision about how likely you are to get in. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>hyeonjlee, I believe that each AROTC, AFROTC, and NROTC all operate differently in the way that they assign students to units. My son applied for an NROTC only, so I can only speak to our experience with NROTC. And you’re right…the process adds a whole new level of uncertainty to your child’s college application and selection process. </p>

<p>And littlegreenmom is right. It is important to ask the various units the questions that littlegreen mom lists (and any others you might have) so that your student can feel confident with his unit/college choices. </p>

<p>In NROTC, the student ranks five units that he/she would be happy to belong to and is assigned to one of them (most often one of the top 3). I believe that the assignment is based on student’s preference, the availability of freshman slots in the unit, and the need for the NROTC to balance the units. Once a student is notified of his/her scholarship and the unit where he/she is assigned, they can request a transfer to another unit. If there is room, the scholarship can be be transferred. That is what my son tried to do, but at this late date the units at the colleges he has been accepted to already have long waiting lists. (There are other options when this happens, but it gets complicated. You can PM me if you want more info!)</p>

<p>I believe that each year there are quite a few (somewhere I heard a number around 50 or so) NROTC Scholarship recipients who do have a unit to go to because #1 they weren’t accepted by the schools they listed or #2 they were late recipients of the scholarships and all of the units at the schools they were accepted to were full. NROTC works to find them places, but sometimes it apparently just doesn’t work out.</p>

<p>In my son’s case, he applied to both the host public school (a match) and a cross-town affiliate (a reach) in two cases so that he would still be able to utilize his NROTC scholarship if he were assigned to the unit, but didn’t get into the reach schools. In the end, my son will end up attending the cross-town affiliate and commuting a short distance (10-15 minutes) to the unit. </p>

<p>I think that it is really important to start this process just as soon as you can, too. The earlier that your student completes his/her application, the better off you are. If they are lucky enough to get the scholarship after the first or second review board in the fall, I believe that he or she would have a much easier time transferring the scholarship if that is what is desired.</p>

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<p>Spring semester of junior year is when my son worked on his application, and I think he had it turned in by the last day of the school year. You had to have the whole transcript ready to go - I think. So, mid-June, he turned it in. He had his DODMERB physical in August, an interview and testing in fall, and then waited…</p>

<p>Heard mid-February. There were earlier boards, and later boards. Get that application in as soon as possible. The earlier you get it in, the earlier kids seem to hear.</p>

<p>Also, double check those essays for typos, as well as the whole application - numerous times. Extra set of eyes really helps. My son looked through it, and I did. It wasn’t until my husband viewed it, that he caught a critical question answered with the wrong check box. It probably wouldn’t hurt anything, but being accurate is better than making a foolish error!</p>

<p>Also, needed at that time several recommendations, including specific teachers and I think an employer or other reference. Make sure that happens, the sooner the better. It is impossible to reach teachers during the summer, if you are in the process of applying right now, ask them to be recommenders. Ask those that are also sympathetic or understanding of what the job is…you don’t want someone giving you a bad recommendation because they are anti-military!</p>

<p>Keep copies of everything you turn in. Also keep track of people you talked to in the various school/ROTC offices, in case you need to follow up with them.</p>

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<p>My son completed his application late in October (after working through some confusion his teachers had about the online letter of recommendation process) and heard about his scholarship in late February. He didn’t have his DODMERB physical until until the last week in Feburary and then we had to (in a panic) work through some remedial issues. (Thank you to the DODMERB’s Mr. Mullen who is active on one of the military forums). We found out that he was medically qualified during the first week in April. I understand that the process of getting medically qualified can sometimes take months.</p>

<p>I believe that one of the differences between AROTC and NROTC is that the army has the applicant complete the physical as part of the application process whereas the NROTC has the student take the physical after the scholarship has been approved.</p>

<p>It also seems like there can be a big difference in the level of support a student receives from the NROTC recruiter. My son talked with a recruiter once on the telephone after he submitted his scholarship application online and then received a congratulatory email after he received word of the scholarship. That was it. So your mileage may vary.</p>

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<p>I wonder if my son had his physical early because he submitted the paperwork early - because his physical was done 6 months BEFORE he heard that he got the scholarship. </p>

<p>One more reason to try to get the stuff done ASAP!~</p>

<p>Most of the stuff seems to be student-driven, when it comes to recruiters. We had no end of phone calls from every recruiter for each branch of service - except even after getting the NROTC, the wires definitely seemed crossed. The Marines called about once a week for months…as did the National Guard, the Army, too. Not much from the NAVY, unless he initiated the calls. </p>

<p>We almost missed the chance to have the big check presented at Senior Awards Night. It turned out that the school secretary kind of dropped the ball, and only a conversation I had with her about whether my son would be honored in the program got her attention about it! They will generally send someone to present the check with the solemn presentation about what this award is for by an officer. It choked about everyone up in the auditorium. Quite a highlight.</p>

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<p>this is all very helpful! thank you so much.</p>

<p>In my son’s case, he is interested in Army ROTC. His original preference was N ROTC, but upon getting more information about their preference of engineering and science type majors, he changed his mind (he is a liberal arts type). I believe army lets you list 10 schools and then award scholarship to three, so it’s a bit more flexible.</p>

<p>Additional question to to littlegreenmom and S1732:</p>

<p>When you list 5 (in case of N ROTC) schools of your preference, if your top choices are all affiliated (joint programs), do you just list only the university that hosts the program, or do you list all schools even though they are all the same ROTC unit. For instance, my son is interested in DC area schools, and Georgetown Army ROTC also serves cadets from George Washington, American U, and Catholic U. Do I just list GT, or should I list all three of: GT, GWU, and AU (GT is a slight reach, GWU match, and AU is a safety).</p>

<p>Even if they require you to list them separately, wouldn’t it be better for him to list only GT so that he can use the list to put additional schools to increase his odds of having a school that admitted him and the ROTC that approved the scholarship for that school. IN this case, if he get the scholarship for GT, is rejected by GT but accepted by GWU or AU, he should have an easy time getting his scholarship transfered to GWU since he already has a spot on GT batalion based on the ROTC scholarship award. </p>

<p>All this is so complicated and confusion, and the fact that there is no thorough explanation of any of these even on their web site makes it doubly hard to navigate…</p>

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<p>My son listed both of the schools in the battalion he wanted, and then three other schools at other battalions. It is school specific, however - from what I understand. The scholarship isn’t transferable, unless you were accepted to one of the other schools listed on your top five - I think. That seems kind of risky. </p>

<p>I think son’s letter had three schools listed that he could attend, once he got the scholarship. I don’t remember him getting into all five that he requested. </p>

<p>You might increase your chances if you had 5 different schools, but I am not sure how well that works in theory. I think you might increase your son’s chances if he lists all three schools in the top five, and then for the next two schools, focus on ones that are good bets, as well. </p>

<p>Also, although many students started in the math/science engineering track, of my son’s class of NROTC kids, him and his roommate from last year are the only ones that stayed engineering in his class. The rest changed majors. Those kids are still in the program, just with other majors. It may hurt them a bit for some of the high tech billets, but the Navy and Army have lots of paths for careers. </p>

<p>It doesn’t hurt for your son to apply to both AROTC and NROTC. Increase his chances even further. Yes, it is more work. If I remember correctly, the Army ROTC application wasn’t nearly as complicated. I would urge him to apply to both programs, just in case.</p>

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<p>I believe that there were some changes in NROTC rules made between the time that littlegreenmom’s son went through the process during the 2007/2008 school year and this year. Our experience was:</p>

<p>Our son had to specify colleges or host colleges associated with five different units in the online application. The application would not let him specify both a host college and a cross-town affiliated with that same unit as separate choices. When he received his scholarship and was assigned to the unit, he could then attend any of the colleges he had been accepted to that were associated with the unit (even though the tuition cost to attend school at the private LAC was 3x that of the public university). As I mentioned in a previous post, son applied to more than one of the colleges associated with two of the units to increase his chances at being accepted to both the unit and a college associated with it. </p>

<p>I also understand that, beginning with the 2008/2009 class, 85% of the NROTC scholarships must be awarded to students with engineering (type 1) majors with the remaining 15% going to type 2 (science/math) and type 3 (everything else) majors. My son’s paperwork made it very clear that he would lose his scholarship if he changed his major to one outside of his tier. Fortunately for my son - another liberal arts type - he was awarded a type 3 scholarship. Hopefully, his choice of major will not limit his choices when it comes to opportunities later on.</p>

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<p>Hi… I came across this thread and thought it would be good to update some information about scholarships. This is based upon reviewing the Navy and Air Force websites and speaking with a couple of on-campus ROTC contacts –</p>

<p>1) NAVY ROTC – All Scholarships are 100% Tuition/Fees/Books, NOT Room and Board.
Scholarships are defined as Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3.</p>

<p>Type 1 is engineering, and 50% of all scholarships are reserved for Type 1
Type 2 is all other sciences, and 35% of all scholarships are reserved for Type 2
Type 3 is every other major, to which 15% of scholarships go… and within Type 3, specific non-science majors like Chinese, Arabic, Asian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, etc receive priority according to the needs of the service at that time.</p>

<p>A scholarship is granted by a review Board not associated with a target college or unit. After the scholarship is awarded, there is a process of matching the scholarship recipient to a unit… this obviously involves both acceptance to that University/College, and an open slot in that unit. Some schools like Tulane have about 90 slots, and some have closer to 200. University of San Diego I believe has over 150 at present… shared between USD host, and four other coorperative colleges nearby. It seems that most units are much smaller… anywhere from 10-30 cadets.</p>

<p>There apparently are a few, let’s say 4-6, schools whose administration has decided to support the ROTC program by awarding free room and board to its ROTC students… These I believe are Tulane, Holy Cross, and a few others that I haven’t identified yet. This support is from the individual school, and not from the military… </p>

<p>2) Air Force ROTC – scholarships are as follows:</p>

<p>Type 1: Engineering, 5% of slots reserved at 100% tuition/Fees/Books
Type 2: Other Science majors, 20% of slots reserved at 50% of tuition/fees/Books
Type 7: All other majors, 75% of slots reserved at 25% of tuition/fees/books</p>

<p>So, 95% of Air Force scholarships are either 50% or 25%, with engineers (aeronautical, aerospace, nuclear generally) being the rare full scholarship recipients.</p>

<p>Oh, and Navy active service commitment for most billets increased from 4 years to 5 years … I believe a year ago. For some billets like aviation, which requires several years of specialized training, the commitment is more like 10-12 years.</p>

<p>This can all get a little confusing, so it’s probably that I’ve made a couple of mistakes in compiling this…</p>

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<p>^^^
You have made a couple of errors.
1st. None of the ROTC scholarships pay 100% of books. Air Force pays $900 per year for books and the Navy pays $750.
2nd. The monthly stipends are different between the AF & Navy. The AF pays freshmen $300 per month while the Navy pays $250 to freshmen.
3rd. The Type 1 AF is correct (100% tuition) but the Type 2 & Type 7 do not pay a percentage of the tuition but have other restrictions / limits. It would be best for perspective AFROTC students to review the actual Air Force ROTC site for details.
4th. The increase in Navy commitment time (to five years) actually starts with contracted students beginning this year (Fall 2010). Some majors (as you mentioned) remain at 4 years…such as nursing.</p>

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<p>Dunninla,</p>

<p>Great info. I am the parent of an NROTC 3rd year student at Univ of San Diego - with engineering. </p>

<p>One thing that my son’s scholarship through his school covered was partial room and board. The NAVY doesn’t pay that part - but USD does. Not sure if they are offering this room and board grant with incoming scholarship students anymore, but it has really helped us out over the years.</p>

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<p>Littlegreenmom or anyone if LGM no longer following:
I’m a mom w/a Jr in HS and am very new to the college/scholarship process. And, our Jr is a 1st gen. College-bound so all of this is very confusing to us. But, over the next few months my #1 goal and time-consuming effort is to help our son with this process.
We have a question about the “cross-town affiliate” with regard to choosing up to 5 of the NROTC Scholarship listed colleges. So, can we choose any of these listed colleges (as long as they support his chosen path, Mech Eng) and mor importantly, what exactly does “cross-town affiliate” mean? </p>

<p>1) Lets say he chooses from the DC list:</p>

<pre><code> DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
George Washington University
Cross-Town Affiliate:
- Catholic University of America (RN Option only)
- Georgetown University (RN)
- Howard University (RN)
- University of Maryland at College Park
</code></pre>

<p>2) His 1st choice is UMD, 2nd choice GWU. Since UMD is only listed as a cross town affiliate, does this mean he can’t choose UMD? </p>

<p>3) So, if he chooses UMD, does that mean that there’s already a unit at UMD?
But if he chose GW, there is no unit there and he would have to be accepted into a unit at a cross-town affiliate, such as GU, HU or UMD?</p>

<ul>
<li>If anyone who has been thru the process would be so kind as to shadow, I would be ever-so grateful. Please private msg me. (We live in the Baltimore, MD area)</li>
</ul>

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<ol>
<li><p>No, he can choose one or both on his list if he so chooses. </p></li>
<li><p>No, cross-town means that the ROTC unit is at x college (in this case, it’s a GWU) and the cross-town affiliates are schools that send their Midshipman to the “host school” (GWU) to do their military science classes and all. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>So say #1 choice is UMD, and #2 choice is GWU, if he’s given the scholarship to GWU, then the unit is on campus there, but if he receives the scholarship to UMD, then he will commute to GWU for his military classes. The cross-affiliates are schools that go to the host school (in this case, GWU). </p>

<p>I hope that answers your question! :slight_smile: If you have anymore, please ask.</p>

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<p>Right…George Washington University is where the NROTC attachment is for that area.</p>

<p>There are no NROTC activities/classes of any kind at the crosstown affiliates. There is no “unit” at MD. The unit they report to is at GWU.</p>

<p>All NROTC events will take place at GWU. It is up to the midshipmen to get themselves to and from the affiliate schools to GWU (unless the school happens to run a bus system that would take them there.) All NROTC classes,PT’s (physical training usually at least twice a week starting promptly at 6am) and any extracurricular NROTC events will be at GWU. </p>

<p>My S had a NROTC scholarship to NC State. Besides the classes,PT’s and drilling, they ocassionaly heard guest speakers at night, had mandatory study halls one night per week, worked selling t-shirts at Wolfpack football games to earn money for the unit and sometimes had weekend competitions with Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.
The NCSU NROTC is larger than both UNC and Duke’s. My S loved NCSU. </p>

<p>It might be a good idea to contact the NROTC unit at GWU and inquire about how they run the affiliate system.</p>

<p>p.s. you are smart to get an early start on the NROTC scholarship. My S had his submitted by late Aug. and
and got the good news of the scholarship by end of Oct. Made senior year so much easier.</p>