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Side load scholarships for rising 3/C Midn

schwaack

schwaack

New Member
Hello Everyone,

I am currently a 4/C Midn at Virginia Military Institute, and have recently finished out my first semester with a 3.7 GPA (Psychology Major), scored decent on my PRT (76 push ups, 108 sit ups, 9:44 run), and am wondering where I stand in terms of scholarship opportunities.

I know it has been said many times before, but my question is specifically geared towards my major, rather than my "chances". How bad is a Tier 3 major going to hurt me when my packet is reviewed at the end of the year, and will my grades and PT scores make up for it?
 
PEPfromage

PEPfromage

Nursing the gout.
pilot
This is a great question to pose to your NROTC class adviser.

He/she should be able to tell you the data for the last couple of years on what percent of side load scholarships went to tier 1, 2, and 3 majors after their first year. That being said, it will be historic, and not a predictor of this coming year's board.

As recently as 2014, side load scholarships for rising 3/C MIDN were quite hard to come by, and you were not competitive with a tier 3 major. That said, your adviser will be able to offer more current information, and I recommend talking to them for data.
 
schwaack

schwaack

New Member
PEPfromage said:
This is a great question to pose to your NROTC class adviser.

He/she should be able to tell you the data for the last couple of years on what percent of side load scholarships went to tier 1, 2, and 3 majors after their first year. That being said, it will be historic, and not a predictor of this coming year's board.

As recently as 2014, side load scholarships for rising 3/C MIDN were quite hard to come by, and you were not competitive with a tier 3 major. That said, your adviser will be able to offer more current information, and I recommend talking to them for data.
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Thank you for the response. I have spoken with my LT, he said I had a pretty good chance, despite my major, but I felt as if he just didn't want to tell me I'm screwed. From you're experience, is Tier 3 pretty much a death sentence, even with a high GPA?
 
PEPfromage

PEPfromage

Nursing the gout.
pilot
schwaack said:
Thank you for the response. I have spoken with my LT, he said I had a pretty good chance, despite my major, but I felt as if he just didn't want to tell me I'm screwed. From you're experience, is Tier 3 pretty much a death sentence, even with a high GPA?
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Politely ask your class adviser if Officer Development provided a breakdown to the unit on what tier majors received what forms of scholarship last year.

Maybe this will make more sense if you look at it from the Navy's perspective. You will have posted one semester's worth of grades, maybe two when they look at college program MIDN for scholarships this spring. You have a major that they evaluate to be in their third of three categories for desirability. Now pretend you are in control of taxpayer money. Would you give it to you now, or would you wait another year, look at your calculus and possibly physics grades, and see how it is looking then? I knew a lot of future doctors freshmen year in college. I knew a lot less of them after they took organic chemistry sophomore year. The point there being, a lot changes between freshmen and sophomore year.

Your tier 3 major does not mean you would not make a great officer. It simply means that financially, you are a bigger risk than that tier 1 major with a good GPA.
 
AllAmerican75

AllAmerican75

FUBIJAR
None
Contributor
schwaack said:
Ball Bustin' Bravo!
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I'm glad the spirit of Ball Bustin' lives on. The Administration and the PC police almost killed it while I was there because it was "too offensive." Best of luck with the scholarship/commission, the NROTC department has a long history of screwing people over. But don't fret, even if you don't get picked up, there's always OCS and it isn't half as bad as VMI.
 
Chud

Chud

New Member
None
schwaack said:
Thank you for the response. I have spoken with my LT, he said I had a pretty good chance, despite my major, but I felt as if he just didn't want to tell me I'm screwed. From you're experience, is Tier 3 pretty much a death sentence, even with a high GPA?
Click to expand...
I don't know a single NROTC instructor, LT or otherwise, that will tell you something that is not the case just to make you feel better. The opportunities for side load scholarships has been pretty good for Tier III majors as the Tier I and II goals have been met. Do your best this semester and keep you GPA, aptitude and PRT score high. You are 4/c so if it doesn't work out this year, there is still the 2 year and Advanced standing boards to work with.
 
Flash

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
AllAmerican75 said:
I'm glad the spirit of Ball Bustin' lives on. The Administration and the PC police almost killed it while I was there because it was "too offensive." Best of luck with the scholarship/commission, the NROTC department has a long history of screwing people over. But don't fret, even if you don't get picked up, there's always OCS and it isn't half as bad as VMI.
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Really?! How?
 
AllAmerican75

AllAmerican75

FUBIJAR
None
Contributor
Flash said:
Really?! How?
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NROTC departments in general or just the one at VMI? I can only speak for the one at VMI. Essentially, all four years of my cadetship I saw them turn away multiple talented people due to their desire to maintain a 100% scholarship rate so they refused to offer anyone a normal College Program scholarship. They also further mismanaged personnel rosters and the like leading them to getting into some hot water my 1st Class year because, though they were one of the largest NROTC departments in the nation, they didn't document it on paper which led to issues with funding. Add in the fact that the majority of the instructors were on terminal and working on their transition out of the Navy and it made for a terrible mix of apathy and incompetence.

Hopefully, it's changed but myself and a number of my friends and associates across 5 different years have a bad taste in our mouths from the experience. I also know that PERS-41 has a hard time filling that billet, because the two or three times I've seen it pop up on shore slates, it's popped up again on the hot fill list a month or two later; so I'm skeptical of the quality of officer heading to the unit.
 
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