Navy ROTC Requirements
- All three Navy ROTC options share a set of general eligibility requirements. An applicant must be a U.S. citizen or national and must have acquired his high school diploma or GED by August 1 of the year in which he intends to start his ROTC program. In addition, a student must be between the ages of 17 and 23 when he starts his ROTC program and must have completed no more than 30 semester hours or 45 quarter-hours of undergraduate study prior to enrollment in the ROTC program.
- To be admitted to the Navy ROTC program, a candidate must meet certain performance standards in nationwide testing. A Navy option candidate or Navy Nurse option candidate must have scored at least a 530 on the critical reading portion of the SAT and a 520 on the math portion of the SAT, or at least a 22 on the English section of the ACT and a 21 on the math section of the ACT, as of November 2010. A Marine option candidate is required to have received at least a composite score of 1000 on the SAT math and critical reading sections, a composite score of at least 22 on the ACT or at least a 74 on the Armed Forces Qualification Test.
- Once accepted into a Navy ROTC program, a student must continue to meet certain academic benchmarks. Navy option students are required to complete one course of calculus by the end of sophomore year, as well as one year of calculus-based physics by the end of junior year. A candidate in both the Navy option and Marine option is required to take at least one course dealing with national security policy or American military affairs. A student in both the Navy and Nurse options is required to take at least one year of English grammar and composition. Candidates for all three options must take at least one semester of language or culture. In addition to these specific class requirements, candidates in all three options are required to take a naval sciences course each semester, participate in weekly drill-instruction periods and complete a four- to six-week training period every summer.
- A cadet must meet certain physical requirements to be accepted into the Navy ROTC program. To be accepted into the Navy ROTC or Navy Nurse ROTC programs, a male candidate must be between 62 and 78 inches tall; a female candidate must be between 60 and 78 inches tall. To be accepted into the Marine ROTC program, a male candidate must be between 66 and 78 inches tall, and a female candidate must be between 58 and 78 inches tall. All three options require that a candidate's weight be proportional to his or her height. Candidates for the Navy option must have normal color vision. In addition, candidates for all three options must pass a medical examination that declares them free of disqualifying ailments such as heart conditions or asthma.