Great Lakes, Illinois. (August 1, 2023): In this photo by MC1 Luke McCall, Captain Craig Mattingly, commander of Naval Service Training Command, speaks to officer candidates during Naval ROTC New Student Indoctrination aboard the USS Marlinspike, a training ship at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes. The Naval ROTC program is a major contributor of new Naval officers through Navy ROTC offices at more than 160 colleges and universities across the country.

On the junior level, Navy ROTC and the National Defense Cadet Corps teach citizenship and civic responsibility through programs offered at more than six hundred high schools around the country.

The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (Navy ROTC) Program was established in 1926 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 a career in today’s high-tech Navy and Marine Corps.

Applicants must pass a highly competitive national selection process and are awarded scholarships including tuition, books, and other financial benefits. Scholarship students make their own arrangements for college enrollment, like room and board, and they take the normal course load required by the university. They are also required to take several naval science courses in addition to their college's prescribed course load.

Upon graduation, NROTC Scholarship Program midshipmen are commissioned as ensigns in the Naval Reserve or second lieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve and must serve up to an additional four years.