A couple questions about designating aviation out of NROTC. If I understand correctly, through BDCP you can apply for SNA more than once, with NROTC do you only get one chance? If I don't receive my first choice, does this mean I am out of chances to be an aviator or can I apply again? Also if I wanted to get PRK, how would this work with NROTC? I understand that I would have to fund it, but do I have to have it done before it is time to apply for aviation or do people commonly receive this after they graduate? Not sure how PRK works for mids in NROTC, especially with the new vision standards. Thanks for any input.
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NROTC to aviation
- Thread starter kris5505
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For NROTC, you only get one chance at service selection. You put in your dream sheet the first semester of your senior year and then pray for a couple of months that everything works out. If you dont get your first choice, the only option would be a lateral transfer at some point in your career from what you selected in your senior year. Those lat. transfers are not unheard of, but they are not the norm and are not handed out like candy.....not these days anyway.
With PRK you want to do it way b4 selection time, that way your probabtion/evaluation phase will not hinder the selection process. Also remember, you are an officer first and a (enter designator here) 2nd.
Another thing to remember... BDCP/OCS flight slots are designed to fill the gaps from NROTC and USNA. Not saying your chances are better in either.
Another thing to remember... BDCP/OCS flight slots are designed to fill the gaps from NROTC and USNA. Not saying your chances are better in either.
If you do well in ROTC, you will get your first choice of service selection. I have spoken to some people who didn't go to ROTC because they wanted to make sure they had a pilot slot. My advice: take the free education, do well, and you will get what you want.
P.S. My grades kinda sucked in college, and I still got pilot.
P.S. My grades kinda sucked in college, and I still got pilot.
Thanks for the responses. Just to clear this up, my first and foremost goal is to be an officer. If I don't get a pilot slot then I have many other interests in the navy. I just wasn't sure how the process worked. diverkr- Unfortunately I don't have the 4yr so it won't be a free education but I am still going to try my hardest to do well in NROTC and earn my commission. Hopefully by doing well I will get a pilot slot, although I'm not going to bet on it because I don't think it is ever a sure thing. All I know is I'm sure going to try.
diverkr said:
ah, not true....you should know by now that nothing is cut and dry in the Navy. I've heard horror stories of dudes rocking ROTC and the grades and still not getting a slot. It seems to be more about timing than anything else. Of course grades need to be desent to even be considered.
snizo
Supply Officer
I think for OCS vs ROTC decisions, the most important thing on here so far is what bch said.
As long as there are pilots in the navy, there will be slots for them out of ROTC and the academy. No one can say that about OCS since they only accept pilots (or nfos or bubbleheads, etc) if the demand for those types of officers can't be filled from ROTC & USNA first.
As long as there are pilots in the navy, there will be slots for them out of ROTC and the academy. No one can say that about OCS since they only accept pilots (or nfos or bubbleheads, etc) if the demand for those types of officers can't be filled from ROTC & USNA first.
Prashant Patel
Registered User
The navy works in weird ways sometimes. I put SNA as my first choice and ended up getting my second choice, NFO. A week after I found out that I was going NFO, they re-computed the numbers and decided they needed another 5 pilots, (this was before the big '04 crunch) and I was one of the lucky ones bumped up to SNA. It's been said before but it's all about the needs of the navy.
Method to the apparent madness
BUPERS looks to the outyears in estimating how many fleet seats (flying billets) they will need. The outyears are in the POM (Program Objectives Memorandum), not current year of budget execution or the next year but the six years after that. :sleep_125 If the composition of naval aviation remains stable over that same time period, i.e., a steady number of airwings with the number and type aircraft remaining stable, then they can predict each year how many pilots and NFOs they will need each year. Then they make estimates - best guesses - about retention because that impacts the inventory of bodies that can fill the seats. This is not easy because any given officer can resign after their obliserv is over. They then back-track through the flight school pipeline to determine how many must enter to get the output they need (after any attrition). In other words, the number of SNA/SNFOs entering into any fiscal year is a number with reflects those aforementioned outyears. The biggest variable is likely retention of senior LTs. A swing in this factor can have an immediate impact - immediate - on SNA/SNFO slots.
Then some sort of quota system is imposed on USNA & NROTC regarding SNA/SNFO slots after commissioning. Take a look at the total SNA/SNFO coming out of USNA vs NROTC (a harder number, probably, to find). OSC may be a source of "fast-fills" to any designator based upon needs in the fiscal year of commissioning after USNA & NROTC numbers are factored in.
If you can look down range to see major swings in retention (real hard to predict) or farther into the future (4-6 years) regarding the number of airwings (probably stable) or a change in type aircraft (like EA-6B to EA-18G; S-3 retirement; number of P-8s vs current number of P-3Cs) then you can get a sense of how the input of SNA/SNFOs might look like to the Bureau weenies carving up a given fiscal year of NROTC/USNA/OCS commissionings. They are trying to put numbers to a moving target. They get it right most of the time at the macro level; but not all the time. But Mids can't see that far down range typically and might tend to resign themselves to being treated like so much flotsam and jetsam at the mercy of BUPERS.
Your over-arching advice is tried and true. Do good, the rest will take care of itself.
paddle562 said:
BUPERS looks to the outyears in estimating how many fleet seats (flying billets) they will need. The outyears are in the POM (Program Objectives Memorandum), not current year of budget execution or the next year but the six years after that. :sleep_125 If the composition of naval aviation remains stable over that same time period, i.e., a steady number of airwings with the number and type aircraft remaining stable, then they can predict each year how many pilots and NFOs they will need each year. Then they make estimates - best guesses - about retention because that impacts the inventory of bodies that can fill the seats. This is not easy because any given officer can resign after their obliserv is over. They then back-track through the flight school pipeline to determine how many must enter to get the output they need (after any attrition). In other words, the number of SNA/SNFOs entering into any fiscal year is a number with reflects those aforementioned outyears. The biggest variable is likely retention of senior LTs. A swing in this factor can have an immediate impact - immediate - on SNA/SNFO slots.
Then some sort of quota system is imposed on USNA & NROTC regarding SNA/SNFO slots after commissioning. Take a look at the total SNA/SNFO coming out of USNA vs NROTC (a harder number, probably, to find). OSC may be a source of "fast-fills" to any designator based upon needs in the fiscal year of commissioning after USNA & NROTC numbers are factored in. If you can look down range to see major swings in retention (real hard to predict) or farther into the future (4-6 years) regarding the number of airwings (probably stable) or a change in type aircraft (like EA-6B to EA-18G; S-3 retirement; number of P-8s vs current number of P-3Cs) then you can get a sense of how the input of SNA/SNFOs might look like to the Bureau weenies carving up a given fiscal year of NROTC/USNA/OCS commissionings. They are trying to put numbers to a moving target. They get it right most of the time at the macro level; but not all the time. But Mids can't see that far down range typically and might tend to resign themselves to being treated like so much flotsam and jetsam at the mercy of BUPERS.
Your over-arching advice is tried and true. Do good, the rest will take care of itself.
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