HS Sophomore Looking at his options

[Brett Diedrich]

I've just started my sophomore year of high-school and am already beginning to look at colleges, and the possibility of the military.

Currently I am enrolled in an engineering preparatory academy which is a certified PLTW school, I've been taking all honors/AP classes and have a 3.4 GPA which I'm working on getting it even higher.

Outside of school I am on the swim team, so by the time I graduate I will have three years of that and am also on the school's FRC robotics team. I also am working on my fixed-wing PPL and will solo May of next year.

Recently I found out about the Navy ROTC program, however after the lurking around here and wherever else Google has lead me I still have a few questions.

1. Can I be guaranteed to be a Naval Aviator before I make the actual commitment?
2. What are the chances that I will be able to become a fighter pilot vs becoming a heli or heavy pilot?

The following are the colleges I plan to apply for an EE major:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A large number of graduates from my engineering prep. academy have been accepted here)
• UC-Berkeley
• Milwaukee School of Engineering (very close to my hometown)
• Stanford University

What have you heard about the following school's NROTC programs, and maybe suggestions on other place to look?

 

[CommodoreMid]

To answer your questions briefly:

1) Nope. Needs of the Navy and performance drive your service selection. If you suck as a midshipman/student, odds of you getting what you want at service selection drop significantly. If you aren't cool with possibly ending up a NFO, SWO, or sub guy then NROTC isn't for you and you should look at OCS.

2) Again, needs of the Navy and your performance in flight school. If the week you graduate all they need are P-8 pilots or helo pilots, guess what you're doing. Also, if you're at the bottom of your class, guess what.

 

[Brett Diedrich]

To answer your questions briefly:

1) Nope. Needs of the Navy and performance drive your service selection. If you suck as a midshipman/student, odds of you getting what you want at service selection drop significantly. If you aren't cool with possibly ending up a NFO, SWO, or sub guy then NROTC isn't for you and you should look at OCS.

2) Again, needs of the Navy and your performance in flight school. If the week you graduate all they need are P-8 pilots or helo pilots, guess what you're doing. Also, if you're at the bottom of your class, guess what.

1) So OCS is something that is taken after college, and you can then be guaranteed to be a Naval Aviator?

2) Yea that's kind of what I thought, so essentially the top in the class get first pick from the available openings?

 

[PhrogLoop]

1) So OCS is something that is taken after college, and you can then be guaranteed to be a Naval Aviator?

2) Yea that's kind of what I thought, so essentially the top in the class get first pick from the available openings?

1 and 2) Brett, just about everyone on this board was in your shoes once, so we welcome you with open arms. Before we go too far down the rabbit hole of your very valid questions, I'd like to recommend the search function of this website and its many excellent forums. A little time spent there will help narrow the focus of your questions so we can ultimately get to the most important one: "What percentage get jets?" Before we go there, I will let you know that is a famous inside joke on this site because of how often it has been asked. We are glad to have you and hope to see you in the Fleet in 6 years!!!

 

[Brett Diedrich]

1 and 2) Brett, just about everyone on this board was in your shoes once, so we welcome you with open arms. Before we go too far down the rabbit hole of your very valid questions, I'd like to recommend the search function of this website and its many excellent forums. A little time spent there will help narrow the focus of your questions so we can ultimately get to the most important one: "What percentage get jets?" Before we go there, I will let you know that is a famous inside joke on this site because of how often it has been asked. We are glad to have you and hope to see you in the Fleet in 6 years!!!

Yea I'll take some more time to read up on somethings now that I know NROTC probably isn't what I want to do, but instead OCS. Thanks for the warm welcoming on here too!

 

[hlg6016]

Don't count out NROTC, if approached with a positive attitude it will benefit you in more ways than one.
Take care of your health and stay in shape, And stay out of trouble!

 

[ltedge46]

OCS, or Officer Candidate School, is a 3 month training program for officer candidates who already have a college degree. You have to finish college, apply, qualify and get selected to go. You apply for specific programs (pilot, SWO, supply etc) and that is written into your contract.
NROTC is a great way to get the Navy to pay some/all of your college expense but your designator is not guaranteed.

 

[Gatordev]

But really, has anyone seen any evidence that guys with decent grades in a STEM major who don't have crappy rep in ROTC not get aviation? I know there's occassional nuke drafts, but otherwise, are people actually seeing avaition being that selective lately? It hasn't been in the past, and we continue to need new accessions to the fleet for NAVAIR.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Not that I know of and it would be interesting to see the overall data for service selection of what % gets first choice, etc, but my point is that you have to be cool in some level with not getting aviation if you go NROTC. If you get the NAMI whammy at your pre commissioning physical, you're screwed. Yes, that could happen after commissioning as well, but far less likely than the DQ as a midshipman.

 

[Gatordev]

Not that I know of and it would be interesting to see the overall data for service selection of what % gets first choice, etc, but my point is that you have to be cool in some level with not getting aviation if you go NROTC. If you get the NAMI whammy at your pre commissioning physical, you're screwed. Yes, that could happen after commissioning as well, but far less likely than the DQ as a midshipman.

Very true, but that could happen even if you're an OCS dude. I'm just saying that NROTC probably isn't the gamble that it's being made out to be, with the extra benefit of getting your tuition paid for.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Fair enough. To the OP, I'd say at this point in your life look at NROTC and other commissioning programs (Navy or otherwise) and figure out your priorities. The plus side of NROTC is you get exposure to different parts of the Navy that you won't see if you do OCS before you commission and can make some judgment calls there. You could do CORTRAMID, get a ride in a T-6, and discover you absolutely hate being in a small cockpit wearing an O-2 mask. You could service select aviation and be like Ricky Bobby and wanna go fast! but then when you're a stashed Ensign you get a new ROTC instructor who teaches you all about the VP community and per diem glory and then want to go P-8. That's how I ended up going P-3s (and now P-8). Point is you're young and being dead set on naval aviation at this point is completely awesome, but I'd say do a lot of research and get in depth on the pros/cons of different career options, Navy or otherwise. If you figure you still want to go jets after all that, awesome, and do whatever you need to do to make that happen. Just recognize the pros/cons of the choices you make to get to that place.

 

[Brett Diedrich]

First I'd like to say thank you to all the others who posted above.

Fair enough. To the OP, I'd say at this point in your life look at NROTC and other commissioning programs (Navy or otherwise) and figure out your priorities. The plus side of NROTC is you get exposure to different parts of the Navy that you won't see if you do OCS before you commission and can make some judgment calls there. You could do CORTRAMID, get a ride in a T-6, and discover you absolutely hate being in a small cockpit wearing an O-2 mask. You could service select aviation and be like Ricky Bobby and wanna go fast! but then when you're a stashed Ensign you get a new ROTC instructor who teaches you all about the VP community and per diem glory and then want to go P-8. That's how I ended up going P-3s (and now P-8). Point is you're young and being dead set on naval aviation at this point is completely awesome, but I'd say do a lot of research and get in depth on the pros/cons of different career options, Navy or otherwise. If you figure you still want to go jets after all that, awesome, and do whatever you need to do to make that happen. Just recognize the pros/cons of the choices you make to get to that place.

Don't know how comparable to it is, but all of the training for my PPL I have done in a C152; don't think a cockpit can get too much smaller than that.

I understand that my mind set is probably going to change a lot over the next 2+ years, heck I may decide I would rather be an aerospace engineer or something similar and continue flying as a hobby. Going to continue lurking the forums here and exploring the vast amount of other career opportunities available.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

1. Do well in school, as well as be involved in other activities, but don't sacrifice your grades.
2. If you are willing to serve in ANY designator then go for a NROTC scholarship, having college paid for is a good deal.
3. If you are only going to be happy flying then do good in college and apply to OCS.

 

[Mr Spenz]

First I'd like to say thank you to all the others who posted above.



Don't know how comparable to it is, but all of the training for my PPL I have done in a C152; don't think a cockpit can get too much smaller than that.

I understand that my mind set is probably going to change a lot over the next 2+ years, heck I may decide I would rather be an aerospace engineer or something similar and continue flying as a hobby. Going to continue lurking the forums here and exploring the vast amount of other career opportunities available.

Um a lot smaller. C152 has a lot of room compared to the T-6. Primary with the T-6 is to teach towards a single pilot attitude (i.e single seat fighter pilots).

 

[Brett Diedrich]

Um a lot smaller. C152 has a lot of room compared to the T-6. Primary with the T-6 is to teach towards a single pilot attitude (i.e single seat fighter pilots).

I've concluded I need to do more research now.