ROTC or OCS for a Flight Spot

[Gatordev]

If you are NPQ can you walk away from the contract?

"It depends."

After your freshman year (someone please correct me if I'm remembering incorrectly), you sign your contract of obligation. If, along the way, you become NPQ from the Navy, you're out, no questions asked. If you become NPQ from aviation, then you're still "in-play" and will place you into a compatible designator (SWO, RL, etc). If you don't want that and quit, expect that the Navy will want some payback.

After you commission, the Navy owns you (for a while), so they'll send you where they need to to meet your commitment.

 

[Arnold1234]

"It depends."

After your freshman year (someone please correct me if I'm remembering incorrectly), you sign your contract of obligation. If, along the way, you become NPQ from the Navy, you're out, no questions asked. If you become NPQ from aviation, then you're still "in-play" and will place you into a compatible designator (SWO, RL, etc). If you don't want that and quit, expect that the Navy will want some payback.

After you commission, the Navy owns you (for a while), so they'll send you where they need to to meet your commitment.

Thank you so much for the help!

One more question,
Can't you enroll in ROTC as a class? I know I would still have to pay for college however; would it be smarter then waiting until after college?

 

[ea6bflyr]

"It depends."

After your freshman year (someone please correct me if I'm remembering incorrectly), you sign your contract of obligation.

Beginning of Sophomore year.

 

[ea6bflyr]

One other thing to consider: I don't know too many OCS pilot slots that were had with a 2.8 GPA. I know of several NROTC graduates that received pilot spots with less than a 2.8 GPA.

Learning point: OCS Pilot spots can be very competitive.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Thank you so much for the help!

One more question,
Can't you enroll in ROTC as a class? I know I would still have to pay for college however; would it be smarter then waiting until after college?

You can enroll in the actual classes and not be a midshipman, but why would you? The only exception we had at my ROTC unit was the naval history class which got regular students an elective history class, but the rest of them would be pretty useless otherwise if you weren't in the battalion.

 

[azguy]

You can enroll in the actual classes and not be a midshipman, but why would you? The only exception we had at my ROTC unit was the naval history class which got regular students an elective history class, but the rest of them would be pretty useless otherwise if you weren't in the battalion.

He's asking if you can enroll with no commitment.

You can, it's called college program. But again, you're putting in the effort with no scholarship. What's the point? If you're that competitive, take the scholarship...

 

[SynixMan]

As an LT who still has 50k in student loans, I'd highly suggest you get the NROTC scholarship if you can. There's no loan repayment program for Officers. If you're rich or go to a cheap school, well, then, do BDCP...

 

[exNavyOffRec]

One other thing to consider: I don't know too many OCS pilot slots that were had with a 2.8 GPA. I know of several NROTC graduates that received pilot spots with less than a 2.8 GPA.

Learning point: OCS Pilot spots can be very competitive.

I have seen many with sub 3.0 GPA go pilot from OCS, but they had ASTB scores of 8 and 9, seen several apply for pilot and not get picked with GPA's greater than 3.0 but they had ASTB scores of 5 and 6

Pilot boards for OCS can be very forgiving as far as GPA when a person has good ASTB scores.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

As an LT who still has 50k in student loans, I'd highly suggest you get the NROTC scholarship if you can. There's no loan repayment program for Officers. If you're rich or go to a cheap school, well, then, do BDCP...

BDCP has pretty much been dead for several years.

 

[ea6bflyr]

I have seen many with sub 3.0 GPA go pilot from OCS, but they had ASTB scores of 8 and 9, seen several apply for pilot and not get picked with GPA's greater than 3.0 but they had ASTB scores of 5 and 6

Pilot boards for OCS can be very forgiving as far as GPA when a person has good ASTB scores.

But not the norm. Just saying that OCS is a bit more competitive than NROTC.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

But not the norm. Just saying that OCS is a bit more competitive than NROTC.

kinda, it varies depending on the designator, where NROTC will help out a guy if he has a low GPA and low ASTB odds are he will still get to go pilot, on OCS side probably not.

 

[Arnold1234]

He's asking if you can enroll with no commitment.

You can, it's called college program. But again, you're putting in the effort with no scholarship. What's the point? If you're that competitive, take the scholarship...

In case if I do not get the scholarship I would still like to do ROTC because that seems like the best way to go to reach my dreams and become a pilot. Is AFROTC the same as NROTC? Meaning, "NROTC will help out a guy if he has a low GPA and low ASTB odds are he will still get to go pilot, on OTS side probably not."

 

[Arnold1234]

You can enroll in the actual classes and not be a midshipman, but why would you? The only exception we had at my ROTC unit was the naval history class which got regular students an elective history class, but the rest of them would be pretty useless otherwise if you weren't in the battalion.

Being enrolled in the class, could I be apart of the battalion?

 

[Eric-97]

Thank you to everyone for your information! Everyone has been more than helpful. It looks like ROTC is the way to go to achieve earning a flight spot even if I do not get a scholarship. OCS sounds extremely competitive and ROTC students have a higher rate of obtaining a spot (please correct me if anyone disagrees).

 

[Eric-97]

BDCP has pretty much been dead for several years.

Why did BDCP end?