JROTC vs ROTC

[wink]

Some of the cross towns are definitely questionable, if that suffices.

Beans clarified what was meant by his comment, and it wasn't what I thought. But yours brings me back full circle. I do not believe that the Navy would place NROTC, cross town or not, at a school that does not provide a high quality enough education to prepare students to serve as officers. NROTC programs are high visibility and not likely to be associated with schools that have poor reputations (Florida State and the Univ of Ariz excepted ). I am not sure what you mean by "questionable". Stanford is a cross town affiliate of UC Berkley. MIT's cross towns are Harvard and Tufts. I am sure some cross town affiliates are not as academically rigorous and the host school, but as I look at the list I see nearly all are equally challenging and many more highly rated. There are a few community colleges, but then again no one graduates from Pima Community College with a commission. All universities are on a sliding scale of academic rigor (often times dependent on major) and other beneficial experiences. But we are not talking un-accredited schools or diploma mills.

 

[TexasTools]

Beans clarified what was meant by his comment, and it wasn't what I thought. But yours brings me back full circle. And more words.

I agree that there are many cross towns that provide an education that is just as prestigious, if not more.

Our cross town when I was in NROTC, however, was a pitiful excuse for a university, and the students that attended it agreed. They usually made up for it by taking upon themselves the bulk of the "gruntwork" of ROTC.

As a whole, I agree that almost all of the host schools are stellar institutions, but there are some schools associated with the program that the Navy probably doesn't want it's name attached to.

If I'm completely wrong and the cross town from my old unit is the only shitty school on that its entire list (and that may be, because I'm assuming my experience is an acceptable assumption), somebody from NETC missed something.

 

[wink]

...somebody from NETC missed something.

Is it possible NETC might have missed "something" because they were too focused on the diversity of the student body?

 

[A7Dave]

Hello, everyone.

I am currently a Senior in high school and I am considering applying for both a NROTC and AFROTC scholarship. However, I am a little hesitant due to my experience last year ( Junior year of high school ). My school had got a brand new JROTC program, and in its first year we had close to 200 members. Unfortunately, I decided not to do the program this year because I did not really enjoy it last year. Not because I did not like the idea of the military or the curriculum. In fact, I loved the instructors and they were the only reason I considered coming back for another year. I hated the class because of the students. There were some good guys that I got along with but most of the kids liked to pretend they were in the military, and thought they were the hardest people on campus. On top of that all they would ever talk about is how they were going to be SEALs but when we PT'd they couldn't run a mile without walking. I'm not trying to sound like I'm the best thing since sliced bread, but I would have enjoyed the class more if the people were more down to earth.

My main reason for writing this is because I'd like to know what I may be getting myself into. I want to believe that ROTC is different than JROTC, but I have never even been on a college campus. If anyone could help me out I would really appreciate it.

Congratulations, your eyes are open to the world. About the only thing shared by ROTC and JROTC is the name. Few JROTC kids end up in college ROTC. I do think that JROTC (and Sea Cadets) provide some great opportunities these day besides just marching around and looking like a Third World Dictator. So, don't disparage your time in JROTC. You learned a few things.

One thing you've already learned is what a blow hard is. When I showed up for orientation at ROTC, the pseudo hard core guys stood out immediately. Morons - your bus is leaving. And most of them did leave. Dropped their scholarship and left the program. The one guy I remember who tried to be Mr. Marine from day one did graduate with us, but did his minimum service tour and became a pasty faced civilian after four years.

Your NROTC class will be a completely different lot. It is a competitive selection, not show a pulse and get to attend. Don't worry about not doing JROTC this year. If you want to get a ROTC scholarship, you've got better things to do, like study for the SAT/ACT. Keep up your academics and community involvement/sports/leadership activity. You want to give a good show for your application package.

Keep the questions coming.

 

[Amory]

I do not believe that the Navy would place NROTC, cross town or not, at a school that does not provide a high quality enough education to prepare students to serve as officers.

One of our cross-town schools is bad to the point of almost losing their accreditation several times. A very large majority of the students from this school do not commission - in fact I can only think of 2 in the past 3 years. But I guess it costs the Navy next to nothing to pay the tuition, so people still pick up scholarship there.

 

[Beans]

In other words, not all colleges are created equal?