Questions About Getting a Pilot Slot Out Of NROTC

[Joseph123]

I hope this is in the correct forum.

I have two questions regarding getting a pilot slot out of NROTC:

1. I'm sure this is a common question, but is it true that one has a better chance of getting a pilot slot coming out of NROTC rather than AROTC?

2. Would the fact that one is a College Program ROTC cadet/midshipman - that is, you have no scholarship - lower my chances of getting a pilot slot?

 

[TheBubba]

1. Depends on the needs of the service when you select.

2. Shouldn't.

 

[bunk22]

I don't have definitive answers but as for

#1 I think it changes with what is required. When I went through, it was tough to get a pilot slot through AFRTOC. Not quite as tough in NROTC at the time.

#2 It never made a difference when I went through NROTC.

 

[a-6intruder]

Perhaps one of the Air Force guys can weigh in, because when my son was looking at options last year (USNA, USAFA, NROTC), the USAFA guy told him he stood a hugely greater chance of selecting aircrew going USAFA than if he went AFROTC. His rationale was that USAFA is chartered to graduated people to get into the flying business ("rated") and if you are physically medically and academically qualified they must provide you a flying slot (pilot / nav / WSO / etc). Any left over slots to make manning numbers then flow down to the AFROTC and OCS.

There were several carefully scripted phrases he used. Like "over 98% of USAFA grads who want to fly will get to fly." That didn't necessarily mean they would be a pilot. It meant pilot, NAV, WSO, Battle Watch Officer (AWACS controller?), etc.

Urban legend was each AFROTC unit got one aircrew slot to keep hope alive, and everyone else had to fight over missile dude, computer geek, combat proctologist, MWR officer, etc. Would be curious to know the real story if anyone knows it.

Somewhat similarly, the USNA is chartered primarily to graduate people into the URL (aviation / SWO / Subs / SEAL / etc), but since they need to provide acceptable quotas for each specialty, they typically don't come close to filling all slots in a year group exclusively from USNA, so there are lots of slots available for NROTC and it then comes down to things like standard scores, GPA, major, school reputation, and your personal standing against your peers.

College program should not hurt your chances.

 

[MIDNJAC]

I know very little about the AF track to becoming a pilot, but I will say that all the AF guys in my API class had been AF Academy grads vs somewhere else. Could have been simple coincidence, take it for what it is worth. That said, I knew many more folks in NROTC (myself included) who got pilot slots, compared to our fellow class of AFROTC students. Clearly this could all change throughout your college career, so unfortunately any info you get now could be completely inaccurate by the time you select. At the moment, there is the definite possibility that if you did select into an AF pilot track, you could end up flying UAV's, where for the time being you are pretty much safe from that in Naval Aviation. Just some extra food for thought....

About the college program vs. scholarship thing, I doubt it makes much difference on selection day (as in the selection boards), but if you pick up a scholarship your chances of simply finishing the NROTC program and commissioning do go up. If you are college program, you need to be selected for advanced standing by the summer prior to your junior year to continue in NROTC. When this time came during my time in NROTC, for whatever reason, they didn't give any advanced standing slots out for the year. A couple of my classmates (who were previously CP) ended up picking up scholarships just in time, but there were a number of other classmates who got the boot. Had they come in as scholarship middies or at least picked up a scholarship prior to the end of sophomore year, my guess is that they would have finished the program. So it goes.....

 

[vulcanx]

Navy has a much higher chance of pilot in my opinion.

In fact, they are looking for people in NROTC to go pilot right now.

Just don't put nuke anywhere in your top 3.

EDIT: AFROTC from what I've heard bases 50% of your selection score on CO opinion and then 10% on things like flight hours, test scores, and other stuff, while Navy does 40% on ASTB and the rest surface score.

 

[NavAir42]

1. I should caviate this by saying that I went to the same school as MIDNJAC so my comparison between NROTC and AFROTC was for the same units that he saw, just a couple years before he did. I also happened to live with an AFROTC guy so we spent lots of time comparing and contrasting how each other's ROTC options. Our impression, three years ago, was that it was easier to get a pilot slot through NROTC than through AFROTC. It seemed like guys without engineering degrees, who weren't the top one, two, or three in their class were able to pick up pilot or NFO slots with relative ease out of NROTC. That didn't seem to be true for the AFROTC types. My business major roommate was essentially told by his CO that if he wasn't a science/engineering major he could kiss a pilot slot goodbye. He ended up still getting a nav slot and flies on AC-130s. By the same token it seemed like the majority of the AF types in Pensicola were academy vice ROTC, but I think the sample size was probably a little too small to make any real judgement about the differences. Truth be told I could be completely wrong about whether or not it's easier to get a pilot slot out of either ROTC source.

2. If you get picked up for advanced standing as a college program type, I don't think it will make any difference to the selection board. I only know two guys who've got a pilot slot after commissioning. That said, they're also the only two guys I've ever known who were college program types for all four years of college. By that logic maybe it helps your chances to stay college program

 

[NozeMan]

Being a college programmer shouldn't matter....but I'm not sure if there are lots of college programmers anymore. By the time I was a senior (graduated may 2006), they had stopped giving advanced standing. We had ONE guy in my group of seniors that graduated as a college programmer.

My point: work to get the NROTC scholarship, then get good grades.

 

[statesman]

1. I should caviate this by saying that I went to the same school as MIDNJAC so my comparison between NROTC and AFROTC was for the same units that he saw, just a couple years before he did. I also happened to live with an AFROTC guy so we spent lots of time comparing and contrasting how each other's ROTC options. Our impression, three years ago, was that it was easier to get a pilot slot through NROTC than through AFROTC. It seemed like guys without engineering degrees, who weren't the top one, two, or three in their class were able to pick up pilot or NFO slots with relative ease out of NROTC. That didn't seem to be true for the AFROTC types. My business major roommate was essentially told by his CO that if he wasn't a science/engineering major he could kiss a pilot slot goodbye. He ended up still getting a nav slot and flies on AC-130s. By the same token it seemed like the majority of the AF types in Pensicola were academy vice ROTC, but I think the sample size was probably a little too small to make any real judgement about the differences. Truth be told I could be completely wrong about whether or not it's easier to get a pilot slot out of either ROTC source.

2. If you get picked up for advanced standing as a college program type, I don't think it will make any difference to the selection board. I only know two guys who've got a pilot slot after commissioning. That said, they're also the only two guys I've ever known who were college program types for all four years of college. By that logic maybe it helps your chances to stay college program

You have to be either advanced standing or schollarship to commission (98% positive on this). We have been told that if you dont pick up advanced standing or schollarship by your Junior Year they dont allow you to continue with the program. So you wont graduate as a College Programer, you graduate as at least advanced standing.


The way I had always thought about the competativeness of AF v Navy flying spots is: USAFA / USNA have roughly the same enrollments, and AFROTC / NROTC have roughly the same enrollements with more variation than the service academies. That being said how many people want to go into the AF wanting to fly, and how many go into the Navy wanting to fly. My money would be on more people going into the AF with hopes of flying. In the Navy there are tons of people who have no interest in flying, (they may infact be brain damaged, but I digress). Although I have no numbers to back it up, my intuition tells me that Navy is the better option because the 4 to 30 other people you are commissioning with may have no asperations whatsoever for flight. Whereas in the AF its likely that every single person you graduated with at least tried out for flight.

 

[statesman]

Being a college programmer shouldn't matter....but I'm not sure if there are lots of college programmers anymore. By the time I was a senior (graduated may 2006), they had stopped giving advanced standing. We had ONE guy in my group of seniors that graduated as a college programmer.

My point: work to get the NROTC scholarship, then get good grades.

We were still having people get accepted to Advanced Standing in May of 2006. However I will say that aside from the folks that got picked up at that time, I haven't seen anyone else get picked up.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Perhaps one of the Air Force guys can weigh in, because when my son was looking at options last year (USNA, USAFA, NROTC), the USAFA guy told him he stood a hugely greater chance of selecting aircrew going USAFA than if he went AFROTC. His rationale was that USAFA is chartered to graduated people to get into the flying business ("rated") and if you are physically medically and academically qualified they must provide you a flying slot (pilot / nav / WSO / etc). Any left over slots to make manning numbers then flow down to the AFROTC and OCS.

There were several carefully scripted phrases he used. Like "over 98% of USAFA grads who want to fly will get to fly." That didn't necessarily mean they would be a pilot. It meant pilot, NAV, WSO, Battle Watch Officer (AWACS controller?), etc.

Urban legend was each AFROTC unit got one aircrew slot to keep hope alive, and everyone else had to fight over missile dude, computer geek, combat proctologist, MWR officer, etc. Would be curious to know the real story if anyone knows it.

Somewhat similarly, the USNA is chartered primarily to graduate people into the URL (aviation / SWO / Subs / SEAL / etc), but since they need to provide acceptable quotas for each specialty, they typically don't come close to filling all slots in a year group exclusively from USNA, so there are lots of slots available for NROTC and it then comes down to things like standard scores, GPA, major, school reputation, and your personal standing against your peers.

College program should not hurt your chances.

NROTC types don't get the leftovers in terms of pilot slots from USNA. Since both sources commission about the same numbers of people each year they are allocated roughly the same slots for designators. NROTC and USNA service selections are done completely separately and independently. It's not like USNA has first pick. Is that how it was in the past? If so, I'd be curious to know when that changed.

 

[MIDNJAC]

NROTC types don't get the leftovers in terms of pilot slots from USNA. Since both sources commission about the same numbers of people each year they are allocated roughly the same slots for designators. NROTC and USNA service selections are done completely separately and independently. It's not like USNA has first pick. Is that how it was in the past? If so, I'd be curious to know when that changed.

Concur, this is how it has been explained to me from every source I ever talked to while I was in NROTC (to include the old skipper).

 

[Lobster]

Just read through this quick...and I don't think this was said,

Make sure you don't choose a service just because you want to be a pilot, make sure you choose which branch of the military you want because you want to serve in that environment. Being an Officer should come first and the being a pilot. Something could always happen and you could be doing something else other than flying in either the air force or the navy. Just some food for thought, best of luck to you.

 

[a-6intruder]

NROTC types don't get the leftovers in terms of pilot slots from USNA. Since both sources commission about the same numbers of people each year they are allocated roughly the same slots for designators. NROTC and USNA service selections are done completely separately and independently. It's not like USNA has first pick. Is that how it was in the past? If so, I'd be curious to know when that changed.

That's my point, NROTC does not get leftovers because Navy sets a quota spread out fairly equitably among at least two commissioning sources (USNA and NROTC). USNA does this because they are chartered (poor choice of word, but you get the point) to commission Unrestricted Line Officers and have to feed all URL designators. If the Navy needed 1200 aviators to meet quota one year, and 1100 USNA guys were qualified and requested SNA, they all would not get it and only leave 100 for NROTC and none for OCS. I know, because several SWO friends who actually ended up lineal numbers ahead of me (which was not very high) that wanted pilot but they ran out of slots by the time they got to them.

USAFA's charter focuses primarily on commissioning officers who will become rated. Or so the rep told us, and everyone who is qualified "can" get a flying slot. So in the scenario above, AFROTC only gets what's left after USAFA selects.

Are you still stashed @ school? If so smack the real tall 4/c kid in the unit for me and tell him to call home once in awhile...

 

[NavAir42]

Are you still stashed @ school? If so smack the real tall 4/c kid in the unit for me and tell him to call home once in awhile...

And airwarriors reaches out to smack a midshipman....awesome.