What should I do, NROTC or Navy OCS?

Question

I think NROTC would be an interesting expierence but the school I want to go to doesn't have it.

Answer 1

NROTC for sure.  my school doesn't have it within an hours drive or I would consider joining.

Answer 2

I graduated NROTC to get my commission, and I'm kind of partial to it, but the answer depends on a few things. First, what do you want to do? NROTC will let you chose between Pilot, NFO, Surface Warfare, Subs, SEALs, or EOD, also medical or legal if you qualify for extra school, but won't let you into other communities, such as intel, seabees, etc, so if you want another job, you definitely need to go OCS. If you want to fly, your chances through NROTC are a lot higher. Also, in general NROTC is pretty laid back, it's more or less playing navy for 4 years for a couple of days a week and a month having fun during the summer (yes, it is actually fun), vs OCS, which is a much shorter time (13 week I think) but completely sucks while you are there. That is really a personal preference thing. In my opinion, NROTC is a great deal.

Answer 3

OCS is very competitive to get into and can take forever to finally begin, where as NROTC begins as soon as your college career begins and you basically guaranteed a commission as long as you pass your tests.  

Answer 4

I think you will benefit more from NROTC if it's anything like Army ROTC. You will be developed over a course of four years of college and training to be ready to become an Officer while OCS is all of that crammed into a few weeks or months.

Besides, you could earn a scholarship or stipend through ROTC.

Answer 5

In the NRTOC - there's a lengthier run through, but you get a better rank. (The Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps commissions individuals into either the United States Navy as an Ensign or the United States Marine Corps as a Second Lieutenant.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NROTC

In NAVOC (Navy OCS), its only a 12wk program, but you only get a lower ranking opposed to completion of NVOC (Officer candidates are mustered in at the rank of E5 - Petty Officer 2nd Class - the equivalent of a "Sergeant" in the Army or Marine Corps.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_Can...

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure how to answer your Q on surface warfare.

Answer 6

ROTC and OCS are not equivalent. The biggest question is whether you already have a college degree or not.

OCS requires that you already have a college degree; if so then you go to a boot-camp-like 13 week course to get your commission as an officer. The college is not paid for, but you get paid as active duty immediately upon start of OCS.

ROTC requires that you have no degree at the start (if you did already have one you'd probably not get accepted to ROTC since they don't want to pay for one if you don't need it). You attend college on a normal schedule, additionally taking 12 Naval Science classes on top of your degree and going on midshipman cruises during the summer breaks. Your tuition gets paid, but you get no pay or credit for active duty service otherwise while in college. Upon graduation you get your commission. (Also, OCS does not do the summer cruises like ROTC.)

The Naval Academy is essentially the same as ROTC except that the college time is more militarily oriented and regimented.

There are a few variations in all of these details depending on which program and/or pre-existing college degree you do (or do not) have. Bottom line, you need to talk to a Navy officer recruiter (normal home-town enlisted recruiters can put you in contact with one) to find out which program you qualify for and which one matches your desires.

EDIT:

Scott is right about OCS, it sucks a lot. BUT it is only 13 weeks long. ROTC and the Academy are spread out over 4 years and in my experience people get pretty tired of them, too. Getting up at 5 in the morning once or twice a week (ROTC) or every day (Academy) is not most people's idea of what college should be like. Plus there is that month in the summer where you get sent on some random ship, and it sure won't be a Carnival cruise liner...

Tamara's comment about different rank for OCS vs ROTC is (mostly) wrong. OCS gets paid as enlisted for the 13 weeks of OCS (in case you don't finish, but a lot of ROTC don't finish either). Once commissioned OCS grads are exactly the same as ROTC or Academy grads.

So do you have a degree already, or not? That is really the only question for OCS vs ROTC.

Surface Warfare (SWO) is one of the "Unrestricted Line" (URL) communities, along with subs, aviation and special warfare. (URL officers can be Commanding Officer of a ship at sea.) Either OCS, NROTC or Naval Academy will get you into any of the URL fields.

Medical, Supply, Legal, Human Resources, etc. (the Navy has a lot of different kinds of officers!) are Restricted Line and are harder to get (there are many more URL officers in the Navy than Restricted Line). Legal and Medical are generally only taken in after they already have their degrees, and they come in through a different commissioning program than OCS/ROTC/Academy.