Being an NLO/AO simply requires that you have the capacity to acquire and retain large sums of often useless knowledge in order to perform tasks that actually require 1/40th of that knowledge. Given that, if you have a B.S./B.A. in anything and possess some degree of mechanical apititude, spatial reasoning, and common sense, you should be fine. Its getting the interview that is the trouble. And the other 39/40th of the information is supposedly stored for when you become an RO (which you forget by the time you get to class).
I can tell you at my plant, they appear to hire about 10-15% of the new hires w/ B.S. degrees of varying sorts as of recently. The rest are ex-Navy guys -- Nuke, Gas Turbine, A-gangers, whatever the case may be. Nukes come in about $4 under full AO pay, M.S. / other navy fields about -$6, and B.S. about -$8. The thing with the college guys is making sure they highlight any science, math, or mechanical-related college courses when they apply. If you take apart Diesel Engines for fun, put that on there to.
It helps to know someone at the plants as well, especially if you are non navy. I know for our AO positions we had about 600+ people apply for something like 12 positions. I'd never have gotten hired if I hadn't known someone.
Cheers
