Scholarship Tiers and the Marine Corps

[mattbo217]

Hey All,
Easy question. I am kind of worried that the fact that my math scores are not excellent and I have to have a technical major in the Navy to be competitive. It's not that my math scores are bad, they are mid to high b's. I put engineering as my tier 1 major, and I think it is hurting my chances. I heard the Marine Corps option doesn't look at tiers, and I kind of wanted to do Marine Corps aviation anyway. My question is simply is it true that the Marines do not look at tiers? Thanks for all the help!

Cheers,
Mattbo

 

[Birdog8585]

Little lost on how the 'tier' nomenclature is playing a role here but as far as the Marine Corps goes, they really don't care what kind of degree you have. Technical or not, that's more for the Navy guys and how they compete for scholarships. Marine Scholarships are more based on PT, Grades, and other things depending where you are in your collegiate career - i.e. - just starting, freshman, soph, etc.

My intel is a little dated - like circa 2006ish but it should still hold true; I'll be corrected shortly if otherwise.

Oh yeah, the Marines are better.....OOOOOOO shit there went the thread.....no but seriously

 

[navy09]

...is it true that the Marines do not look at tiers?

Yes.

 

[sickboy]

What are tiers? I thought that was Air Force crap.

 

[Immy]

They're the Navy's preference for majors to get scholarships.


Tier 1 is Engineering
Tier 2 is Technical (Science/math not pertaining to engineering)
Tier 3 is everything else (Liberal Arts, etc.)



Tier 1 is strongly preferred, tier 2 is preferred and tier 3 is just kind of like ok...


At least that is my understanding...I may be wrong.

 

[navy09]

^ You got it. Navy ROTC has now changed policy (starting this year, I believe) so that 85% of all scholarships must be awarded to people with Tier 1 or 2 majors. There's a huge thread about it on this site.

 

[mattbo217]

^ Exactly, and that is why I think my math grade may be hurting me in relation to having to chose a tier one engineering degree of aeronautical engineering to be in that 85%. We all know how much math plays into engineering.

 

[Oakley568]

Well, there goes the whole "poly-sci to fly" mantra...but I did see that trend back when I commissioned in 2006, a lot of freshman were being told that "engineering and technical majors were preferred".

 

[JhwK08]

I'm a little confused at what you're worried about. You said you chose engineering as your major, which is tier 1. Your math grades from high school have more to do with how you do once you begin engineering classes, not choosing the major. If you don't feel comfortable with choosing engineering and are only doing it for scholarship sake, then I suggest you look at a new major. Almost everyone I know who chose engineering and didn't have a passion for it changed majors. (after getting sub 2.0s for several semesters)

I know a lot of people who got Cs and Bs in high school math classes who do fine in engineering, and a lot of people who got straight As and are struggling. It's more conceptual than anything else; imo, the math is the easy part.

Bottom line though - only choose engineering if it is what you really want to do and not because the navy wants you to. You will enjoy college 10x more this way.

 

[mattbo217]

Im worried that the navy will see my math score and compare to my major choice, and view me as a weak choice, and I had to do a tier one to get in that 85%.

 

[Immy]

Doing engineering just to get an NROTC scholarship is a bad idea IMO. It's an idea that I weighed and decided against.

I'm gonna major in something liberal arts (probably history) because it's what I want a a degree in if the Navy doesn't work out. Also, I'm far more interested in that than engineering. In fact, I have no interest at all in engineering.

I figure I'll ace my liberal arts major and get a scholarship anyways, or at least try my ass off.

If I don't, there's always OCS, but that's far down the road.

 

[JhwK08]

If you feel you can succeed in engineering and want to do it, then do it. Forget your math scores. The fact that you want to push yourself by doing engineering looks good in the navy's eyes, and like I said earlier engineering isn't all about math grades in high school.

As you pointed out, choosing a liberal arts major puts you in that 15%, so all you can do is put down engineering and hope for the best. Just relax and see what happens.