<p>I’m looking for some feedback on the ROTC and NROTC programs at Vandy. If you are involved or know someone who is do you consider them awesome uinits?</p>
<p>Is anyone Greek and in ROTC? or is that combination something that is hard to do. </p>
<p>Is the campus atmosphere supportive of ROTCers?</p>
<p>the vandy unit is considered one of the top in the nation. Im a sophomore mid and just got back from my summer cruise and have never felt so lucky. most units keep their kids from sports by having mandatory pt 4 times a week or required study hours every day until junior year. At vanderbilt, we train as a unit a few times a semester with a number of optional workouts for anyone and everyone but the committments never get in the way of your college experience. </p>
<p>Out of my class of 20ish, about 8 of us went greek and while pledging, rotc, sports and school was difficult, it was without a doubt manageable. Some of our unit staff, including our CO, were in fraternities and participation in club or varsity sports is encouraged. </p>
<p>On Thursdays when we are in uniform the campus shows a lot of appreciation. I never once was treated poorly and teachers show a lot of respect. any more questions and hit it up</p>
<p>Shiloh, you’ve probably already explored this, but in case you haven’t, here’s the Vanderbilt NROTC web page:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/nrotc/about.html[/url]”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/nrotc/about.html</a></p>
<p>Also, wizpatch, is there a decent number of women in the NROTC? How well are they perceived…?</p>
<p>Unfortunetely the website isnt very good so goodluck getting a real good idea of the unit from that. there have been some articles in the vanderbilt hustler about the rotc programs at vandy so you may want to google those.</p>
<p>To answer the question about women in our unit, i’de say they get the same amount of respect as the rest of the midshipmen. We have about 5 women in my class about maybe 20-30 in the entire unit. Im not positive about numbers but we are all really close and supportive. Last year we had a female Batallion Commander in the spring and she passed off the torch to another woman for the upcoming fall semester. The girls are able to go greek just like the guys and are just as active in the community.</p>
<p>Any more questions and ask away. The more people in our batallion the better and if you are ever in nashville make sure to stop by and talk to some of the staff because they really are helpful.</p>
<p>Wizpatch, I apologize in advance for bombarding you with questions, but I’m very very interested in vandy, esp. the whole rotc program…</p>
<ul>
<li>How does the whole applying for the ROTC scholarship work?
i.e. When I apply to Vanderbilt, is there somewhere to state so on the<br>
application or anything? Or is applying for ROTC completely separate from<br>
applying to Vanderbilt…?</li>
<li>How’s your financial situation working out for you? Is the scholarship as
amazing as it sounds [they basically pay for everything?]?</li>
<li>What is your typical weekly schedule?</li>
<li>Actually, it’d be fantastic if you could describe the process you went<br>
through for ROTC. Like, applying, getting in, training in the summer, etc…</li>
<li>And last but not least, as selfish as this question sounds, are women
allowed to keep their hair long…? :/</li>
</ul>
<p>Sorry, again, and thanks a million.</p>
<p>alright i will do my best here-obviously i have a lot of free time so dont judge me right now.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>How does the whole applying for the ROTC scholarship work?
When you apply for the ROTC scholarship, you fill out an application that is similar to a college ap. You fill out tons of personal info, give all your grades and scores and sat stuff. You fill out about three pretty painless essays about why you would like to serve and leadership qualities and you get two teachers to fill out recommendations. Also, you include your top five REALISTIC college choices, places you are willing to go and think you have a chance of being accepted into. One of your top three will have to be a public university as well I believe. They then take all the applications and start holding these meetings which sift through the aps and pick a certain amount of people every month or so. These boards will choose the candidates they like and then match the students college choices with openings in the various units. This system works pretty well because if they dont notice your amazingness the first time around, your application will be recycled for each scholarship board.
So when you get the scholarship, they then assign you to a school, hopefully your top choice
If you dont get into the school they assign you to or would prefer another school from your list with an NROTC program, there is a process to have the scholarship transferred to another school but Im not quite sure how that works.
This whole process is completely separate from applying to the actual school. There are ways to let Vanderbilt know you have received a scholarship or are applying that may help your admission but the Navy itself will not do anything to my knowledge. I sent a letter to the school since I found out early about receiving the scholarship and explained why I wanted to goto Vandy and do the NROTC. Maybe it helped, maybe it didnt, but somehow I got in to the school.</p></li>
<li><p>How’s your financial situation working out for you? Is the scholarship as
amazing as it sounds [they basically pay for everything?]?
Financially, it doesnt get any better than NROTC. My scholarship was valued at around $43,000 this year, paying for tuition, the activity fee, books, and a monthly stipend of like $250-400 depending on year. Vandy throws in $3000 a year to all ROTC scholarship students to help with room and board. Basically I pay around $6000 a year to the school for rooms and the meal plan. The stipend is enough to live off of for the most part and the Unit pays for tutors for math and science. Its been awesome.</p></li>
<li><p>What is your typical weekly schedule?
Your schedule is completely dependent on what nrotc activitites you get involved with. You can do intermurals, community service events like tutoring Nashville kids, and special physical training opportunities, to name a few options. Every semester you have a naval science class, usually its creditied by vandy. Thursdays is our lab day so you wear your uniform all days and have a three hour section of time where the entire battalion drills or has briefs or pts or does whatever the staff cares to plan. For me, I was a member of Semper Fi which was a group of marine options and some navy options who worked out from 6-7 on tues. and thurs. mornings. Then I had naval science at 8 on tues and thurs and our lab on thurs afternoon. A few times a semester there will be battalion pt events like dodgeball or soccer, required volunteer work like helping at the bookstore or working parking at football games. You will rarely be kept from getting involved in normal vandy activities due to Navy commitments but there are certainly some events which you must attend. In short, you will have a class that meets twice a week, the three hour lab, and various other painless activities that you will be asked to do every now and then.</p></li>
<li><p>Actually, it’d be fantastic if you could describe the process you went
through for ROTC. Like, applying, getting in, training in the summer, etc…
My situation was a little different from most. I wasnt positive I wanted to do NROTC but before I could submit my application was called down to Richmond, va to meet with some midatlantic recruiting people. They offered me the equivalent of like early decision where I agreed to accept the scholarship on the spot and kinda bypass the whole process of scholarship boards. I was lucky because I received the scholarship early and had more flexibility in applying to schools. Fast forward to the summer, I went to the Vandy NROTC indoctrination program which is a military orientation week full of some yelling, lots of classes, drilling, and pt. Lots of fun in rhetrospect
Freshman year went really well-I had a lot of success in rotc, joined a fraternity, started on the guys lacrosse team, and got decent grades. The older mids in the unit are all really supportive and the staff is amazing. Could not be luckier here. Im not from a military family and didnt know what I was getting into, but I decided to give it a shot and it has turned out really well. I just got back from my third class summer cruise (aka cortramid) where we spent a week with the aviation, surface and sub communities and a week with the marines
a ton of fun and really interesting stuff.</p></li>
<li><p>And last but not least, as selfish as this question sounds, are women
allowed to keep their hair long…? 
Totally not a selfish question, not everyone can pull of the GI Jane look. Girls are definitely allowed to keep their hair long but while in uniform I believe the rule is that it must be neatly kept above the collar with a bun or whatever you girls do I dont know over my head. Guys have to have regulation haircuts and clean shaves pretty much all the time and you gotta carry yourself around campus with a little more professionalism than others.
Goodluck on vandy and all of this rotc stuff and if you have more questions go for it.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Did I mention that you’re my hero?</p>
<p>That was some serious amount of information and must’ve taken you tons of time. I’m sorry! I can only take some comfort in the fact that you said you have a lot of free time on your hands… :/</p>
<p>However, I do have a few more questions of clarification :]
[Thanks for putting up with me, btw…]</p>
<ul>
<li>First, when I apply for the NROTC scholarship, is this at the end of my<br>
junior year, senior year…? And where do I get the application? [online?]<br></li>
</ul>
<p>-So after you got your scholarship/assigned school and notified Vanderbilt and sent your “I want to go here” letter, did you send in an application as well? Or was that whole part skipped? I’m kinda fuzzy on that… </p>
<p>-Are you saying that NROTC does require classes, but doesn’t chew up an overwhelming amount of time? My dad’s friend’s daughter went to a uni. w/ ROTC scholarship but then dropped the scholarship because the work was too much to handle. I don’t remember what school it was, maybe the workload varies school to school…?</p>
<p>-I’m going to spell out my life plans right now to see if you can help me with this part. Basically, I want to become a cardiothoracic or neurosurgeon. Let’s say that I got the scholarship, got assigned to Vanderbilt, went through w/ my four years of undergrad. After that, what happens? How do I let the Navy know of my career plans? Am I able to attend graduate school to become a surgeon or am I shipped off to sea for a certain number of years?</p>
<p>O_O My head is spinning with questions, but I’ll save them for later, because you’ll probably answer them by answering this load. </p>
<p>Once again, I’m indebted to you.</p>
<p>Yeah I wasn’t kidding about free time and boredom. The summer training fortunately let my parents chill out about getting jobs or summer school (they pay you to shoot guns and go in submarines for a month).
<p>-So after you got your scholarship/assigned school and notified Vanderbilt and sent your “I want to go here” letter, did you send in an application as well? Or was that whole part skipped? I’m kinda fuzzy on that…
My bad. So like I said college admissions and NROTC scholarship are separate, getting one has nothing to do with the other. Therefore, when I got the scholarship and it said “Vanderbilt” as my assignment, I had already sent in my Vanderbilt early decision II college application and was waiting to hear from them. I was fortunate that the school I was assigned to was also my top choice and was also where I was first accepted. But yeah once again, I sent in tons of applications to different schools like everyone else and the nrotc thing was completely separate.</p>
<p>-Are you saying that NROTC does require classes, but doesn’t chew up an overwhelming amount of time? My dad’s friend’s daughter went to a uni. w/ ROTC scholarship but then dropped the scholarship because the work was too much to handle. I don’t remember what school it was, maybe the workload varies school to school…?
Yeah I shoulda made it clear that my experience at Vandy is different than someone at Duke and someone at Texas and so on. Every Unit is different all over the country. The commanding officer of each school’s unit and the staff and the history all have an influence of how things go. Vanderbilt is a real close knit group of smart and motivated kids and we are given a lot of the power in the Unit. They really let us run things. NROTC DOES require classes each semester, ranging from an overview on the navy which is pretty straightforward to history courses on the roots of the navy to leadership to navigation. The courses are usually very manageable and you should do well in all of them without suffering in any other classes. I know some schools have physical training every morning or other required activities but at least at my school its required only if you show the staff that you are out of shape or need extra help. You want to get involved in as much as possible but almost never will you be expected to overextend beyond repair. I took 5 classes last semester (including the history of seapower class for navy), played lacrosse, pledged, and met all the navy requirements and never found it to be too much to handle. One thing I didn’t mention is that with NROTC you are required to take some non-navy classes like calculus and physics for a year which is a pain in the ass if you arnt good at them but the Unit offers tutors and its pretty easy to handle.</p>
<p>-I’m going to spell out my life plans right now to see if you can help me with this part. Basically, I want to become a cardiothoracic or neurosurgeon. Let’s say that I got the scholarship, got assigned to Vanderbilt, went through w/ my four years of undergrad. After that, what happens? How do I let the Navy know of my career plans? Am I able to attend graduate school to become a surgeon or am I shipped off to sea for a certain number of years?
Well you definitely need to talk to a recruiter to spell out the definite details of that kind of career path but ill tell you what I know. NROTC midshipmen are commissioned into the unrestricted line, which basically means you choose to be on a surface ship, a submarine, or aviation. Those are the main options. There are certain opportunities available to a select amount of mids each year including SEALS, special ops, and med school, among others. If you wanted to go Intel or supply, you would serve two years in one of the main communities and transfer to something new I think. I know vandy had two seniors get selected for Med School two years ago which was wild. Its really selective but possible if you do well. If you were selected for that option, im guessing the navy who pay for med school and you would serve a certain amount of years as a navy doctor before your commitment was up. There are probably other ways for you to become a doctor through the navy or afterwards that you could work out with your commanding officers but I know its possible. The navy loves sending people to grad school and will usually take up the tuition for a certain amount of extra years of commitment. Definetely let your class advisors know what you want to do and they will work their asses off to see it work out. </p>
<p>Hopefully everything ive said is helpful and im fairly confident its all accurate, at least at vandy. Every unit is different though like I said so if you are looking at other schools make sure to get an idea of what their rotc units are like. I was very close to going to UVA and talked with some vandy nrotc grads who really let me know Nashville was the ****.</p>
<p>wizpatch, you’ve been a lifesaver. thanks so much for all your help.</p>
<p>hopefully i’ll be working at NIH or the naval medical center when everything’s said and done.</p>
<p>i really wish there were a million questions from you i could answer to pay back but… haha, yeah i don’t know anything.
i’ll be sure to keep in touch with question every once in a while, give you a break for tonight.</p>
<p>Ok wizpatch I have some questions for you, if you don’t mind… What is the pt like in your unit? I can’t run worth crap and it concerns me because I will be in the NROTC unit at Utah this fall but am hoping to transfer to Vandy or San Diego next year. Do you know anything about transfer student GPA’s and such?</p>
<p>In terms of pt, every unit in the country will be different. No matter how many times a week wherever you end up does pt, it is important for you to work on your abilities as often as possible. At vandy we only have weekly mandatory pt for marine options and people who fail the PFA and need to work on their scores. ANYONE can participate in these workouts however. As a batallion, we have mandatory workouts three or four times a semester that are usually pretty fun and two PFAs each semester (fitness tests). Im not a great runner either but when it comes down to it i have to work hard to get better because it does matter. When you get to the fleet, our staff reminds us that officers must show competence and leadership and pt is one of the first chances to do that. In terms of transfers, I know we have one coming in next year and you always have a few. I think the most important part is getting the grades for vandy acceptance and your CO will do his best to transfer the scholarship. Vandy isnt easy to get into but if you have good grades and good recs than you should have a great shot. The scholarship is not guarenteed to transfer because each unit is allotted a certain amount of spots but hopefully it will workout. good luck.</p>
<p>wizpatch, thanks for taking the time to thoroughly answer all these q’s.</p>
<p>Do you happen to know how many people get their first choice at service selection? I’ve heard that at a school like Vandy it’s practically 100% assured that you can get what you want w/o any problems.</p>
<p>I did look at Vandy’s NROTC site and it looked as if Calc and Physics are not required for NROTC - is that correct?</p>
<p>Also wondering if you considered USNA and why you chose Vandy?</p>
<p>Vandy has a realy good record of producing quality officers who get the selection they desire but in the end they tell us it all depends on the needs of the navy. Basically they put all the mids in the country and put them in order based on gpa, fitness reports, pt scores,just a ton of things. If you are high up there you will have more choices but generally things are said to end up just fine. We had seniors go SEALs, EOD, Med school, and to all the core communities. bottom line-vandy does real well but it just depends on what the navy needs and stuff like thatin the end.</p>
<p>Not sure what the website says but i am quite sure that navy optino midshipmen need to take two semesters of calc (math 150a and b or above for vandy) and two semesters of calc based physics. Also, mids need to take a political science class and maybe one or two othr electives. </p>
<p>I never really considered the academy. I really loved the idea of being able to hve a normal college life (for the most part) with the opportunity to serve afterwards in the navy. Im able to play sports, stay up as late as i want, do the greek thing, goto a great school and take whatever classes i want, and lots of other htings that im not positive i would get at USNA. Also, come summertime when we do our cruises, i think our military knowledge and training is just as strong as the USNA guys. Obviously i could be wrong and they have a ton of sweet opportunities that nrotc guys dont get from summer sailing programs to more options at commisioning, but i dont think it gets any better than nrotc at a funschool like vandy.</p>
<p>Do you know how often it is people get assigned to their first choice school? Are you at least guaranteed your top 3…?</p>
<p>Also, if you’ve earned IB credit in math, does that exempt you from certain navy calculus classes? Or AP/IB credit in any class, for that matter…</p>
<p>What GPA would you recommend that would give a person a solid and rather good chance on receiving the scholarship?</p>
<p>No idea what the numbers are but you give them five schools and Im sure they try and give you your first choice. They make you put a public school in your top three because they have larger units and if its instate the tuition is much cheaper. </p>
<p>Unfortunetly AP credit (and the same for IB im almost positive) will not help you get out of taking calculus and physics. It’s painful but you gotta knock them out once you get to your respective school. Vanderbilt is kinda crappy with Ap credits, using them mostly for placement and rarely for actual credit as well.</p>
<p>I think they take the time to look at your transcript and see how you challenged yourself and dont just care about the GPA. you will be competing with some really smart and talented people but when they meet in the scholarship boards they are looking at leadership positions in school, sports, toughness of classes, sats, just everything. I was a B/B+ student with a bunch of extracurriculars and captained two sports and was considered a strong candidate so not sure if that helps but its definetely about more than just the GPA.</p>
<p>Wizpatch-
What was your GPA in highschool? I am really concerned I don’t have the grades and scores to get into Vandy.</p>
<p>Just out of mere curiosity, what uniforms / articles of clothing are given to you / what clothes do you have to buy?</p>
<p>Also, kinda stupid question but I’m honestly not sure, are you given a military ID card in order to access bases, etc?
Will I be allowed to keep my current military ID and use it?</p>
<p>OKay to answer Utah’s question my grades were solid. I went to a strong DC private school and had mainly B’s and B+'s (we didnt get gpas so i cant be more specific). My science and math grades were not very good which could have hurt me but i showed a lot of strength in historys and language andenglish. Extra curriculars really are huge for this too (our unit staff stresses that they like someone who holds leadership positision, not just someone who joins every club).</p>
<p>In terms of uniform, the list is long. We only wear our whites, Service dress blues, wash khakis, and pt gear during the year for labs but are issued a ton of things for cruise. In all, we are issued whites, two or three pairs of wash khakis, a pair of cnt khakis, SDBs, coveralls, camis, steel toed boots, hot weather boots, navy pt gear, vandy nrotc pt gear, white and blak leather shoes, other stuff im sure i am forgetting… the supply officer stays busy. We were issued military ids during our INDOC week and have to keep them nice and safe for our summer cruises. They get you base access, NEX access, military discounts at stores. Good thing to hve. Ifyou have a dependent id im sure you can keep it.</p>
<p>ACT or SAT score?</p>
<p>Wizpatch you are the best! If your’re not the recruiting liaison for your unit - you should be.</p>