@MylesCK There are two things that will work against your son. First, getting the officer interview done now vs in the summer when top applicants have it complete tells the review boards that either NROTC is not your son’s first choice or he procrastinated. Neither of these look good. If this year follows the previous pattern then there have already probably been two review boards. His application will be at the bottom of the pile vs those that came in by 9/1.
Second, he is trying to get the scholarship with a Tier 3 major. 85% of NROTC scholarships are required to go to Tier 1 and Tier 2 majors. This is non-negotiable. The Navy wants STEM majors. Once you receive a scholarship you cannot move to a Tier 3 major without losing the scholarship. I should also note that even Tier 3 majors have to take Calculus 1 & 2 and then a full year of Calculus bases Physics and achieve no worse than a C for each course. In most schools these are the classes full of Engineering majors. If your son has a very strong math background he will be fine but otherwise I’ve seen this requirement cause Tier 3 majors severe problems to the point of losing their scholarship.
If your son wants to be a Navy officer and does not receive the scholarship please look into him participating in NROTC via the college program and earning a partial scholarship that way. There is also OCS after graduation but those opportunites are very limited these days.
As far as the comment that there is an officer pecking order with Academy grads being at the top goes that is not reality these days.