The NROTC program was established to educate and train qualified young men and women for service as commissioned officers in the Naval Reserve or Marine Corps Reserve. As the largest single source of Navy and Marine Corps officers, the NROTC Scholarship Program fills a vital need in preparing mature young men and women for leadership and management positions in an increasingly technical Navy and Marine Corps.
Selected applicants for the NROTC Scholarship Program are awarded scholarships through a highly competitive national selection process and receive full tuition, books, fees and other financial benefits at many of the country's leading colleges and universities. Upon graduation, midshipmen are commissioned as officers in the Naval Reserve or Marine Corps Reserve.
The NROTC Scholarship Program is available to qualified students who graduate from high school before Aug. 1 of the year they intend to start college.
Students selected for the NROTC Scholarship Program make their own arrangements for college enrollment and room and board, and they take the normal course load required by the college or university for degree completion. Additionally, scholarship midshipmen are required to follow specific academic guidelines.
NROTC midshipmen are required to complete the course of study prescribed by the college or university that they attend. Midshipmen also are required to take several naval science courses in addition to their college's prescribed course load. Because of the increasing complexity of today's Navy, Navy option midshipmen are required to complete the equivalent of two semesters of calculus before the end of their sophomore year and two semesters of calculus-based physics before the end of their junior year.
Upon graduation, NROTC Scholarship Program midshipmen are commissioned as ensigns in the Naval Reserve or second lieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve. Midshipmen without scholarships also may receive a commission through the College Program. College Program midshipmen must serve at least three years of active-duty service if they accept a commission. The service commitment times vary according to what community in which the graduate has selected to serve.
Full information concerning the NROTC Scholarship Program is available from any of the colleges and universities with NROTC units or from Navy and Marine Corps recruiters. A list of colleges and universities is available on this website at the Colleges and Universities page.
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![](http://images04.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-11/1time%20cher%20uss%20missouri%201200.jpg?itok=qi9yyMAM "Cher's more formal look in her 1989 music video, "If I Could Turn Back Time," filmed aboard the battleship USS Missouri. (Criteron Studios)")
