Midshipmen in the US Navy are those people who wish to be officers. They are either attending the US Naval Academy or are attending a NROTC program at college.
All Midshipmen fall under one of three types: Navy Option, Navy Nurse Option, or Marine Option. Marine Option Midshipmen have been granted a Marine Corps scholarship. Students without a Marine scholarship who want to be Marine officers often join NROTC as Navy College Program Midshipmen. Then, while in ROTC, they attend Marine training and apply for Marine Option status, all Midshipmen who are officially Marine Option receive the scholarship.

Some NROTC students had served as enlisted men or women in the Navy or Marine Corps. If they are awarded an NROTC scholarship, their enlistment is nullified and they are sworn in as a midshipmen. If they are accepted through an officer commissioning program, they retain their enlisted paygrade. They are not called Midshipmen; instead they are called either Officer Candidates for the Navy or by their rank for Marines.

All persons attending the US Naval Academy are known as Midshipmen. During their summer break from school Midshipmen will spend time with the fleet. When they come out and do their summer duty they are not treated as officers, but they are not abused. The lowest rank Midshipmen spend their time in the enlisted berthing and will actually do the dirty work. The higher in ranked Midshipmen will do more and more leadership type work.

We had different sets of Midshipmen come on board the Scott during the summer. Mostly they were 4th class and 2nd class Midshippers. The 4th class guys lived down in engineering berthing and were at our mercy. We had fun with them, but they did learn and that is the whole purpose.