Can I accept Merit-based Scholarship Money in Addition to the NROTC Scholarship?

Hi,
I received the Marine Option NROTC scholarship to attend Arizona State University. ASU offers academic scholarships of different amounts as part of the application for admission. I received the top award called the President's Award and it is $13,000 per year. I want to apply this to housing. My question is, can I accept this scholarship from ASU without interfering with my NROTC Scholarship? I sat in my Highschool counselor's ofice for 2 hours yesterday trying to figure it out. The rep from ASU said that the sources of funding cannot be the same and that is what I remember from the paperwork I filled out for the NROTC application.

On a side note, I'm frustrated because the unit that I have been assigned to is brand new at ASU so I have no way of contacting them and their website is useless.

One Data Point

I'll give you one data point: DS is NROTC-MO at Auburn. He also received ~$10k in departmental schollies, which he has used for room and meal plan. No sweat. It is almost like it is supposed to work out that way. I would say that your HS might not have all the answers in this particular point. (They might.)

I would call the registrar at ASU, or student finance department.

in your case I would say 1) Be optimistic that this will work out and 2) HUGE CONGRATULATIONS! SEMPER FI!

You might try and contact a "live person" on this page:
http://students.asu.edu/paymentoptions

green4life said:

I'll give you one data point: DS is NROTC-MO at Auburn. He also received ~$10k in departmental schollies, which he has used for room and meal plan. No sweat. It is almost like it is supposed to work out that way. I would say that your HS might not have all the answers in this particular point. (They might.)

I would call the registrar at ASU, or student finance department.

in your case I would say 1) Be optimistic that this will work out and 2) HUGE CONGRATULATIONS! SEMPER FI!

You might try and contact a "live person" on this page:
http://students.asu.edu/paymentoptions

Click to expand...

Thank you very much!

AROTC at both Baylor and TCU told us that the merit scholarship can be applied at both schools for room and board.

Check With the Financial Aid Dept.

My son has also received merit-based scholarships and it seems that whether you can use it for room and board entirely depends on the school.

For instance RPI said that if he has a ROTC scholarship they will simply take away the Merit-Based scholarship. End of discussion.

The University of Portland said they would take away his merit-based scholarship, but offered to pay both room & board and any difference between the ROTC scholarship and tuition -- giving him a free ride. (an even better deal)

At Colorado State University scholarships are 'stackable' and they'll even allow him to cash out his engineering scholarship if he receives enough other scholarships to cover his bill (tuition, fees, books, room & board).

In other words, you'll want to contact the financial aid people at the school as only they can tell you what the school's policies are. You'll want to ask if they 'stack' scholarships and ask how they treat ROTC scholarships.

The academic scholarship should have no impact on the ROTC scholarship. However, as areed has said the reverse may not be the case. In my daughter's case her academic scholarship was not reduced when she receveid the ROTC scholarship.

One other thing to keep in mind, with the ROTC scholarship covering tuition, fees and books that will likely make your President Award taxable income. Make sure you factor that in as you do financial planning for the year.

See: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc421.html

Always contact the college for policy

mariner116 said:

The academic scholarship should have no impact on the ROTC scholarship. However, as areed has said the reverse may not be the case. In my daughter's case her academic scholarship was not reduced when she receveid the ROTC scholarship.

One other thing to keep in mind, with the ROTC scholarship covering tuition, fees and books that will likely make your President Award taxable income. Make sure you factor that in as you do financial planning for the year.

See: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc421.html

Click to expand...

Always ask the specific school for their policy and remember that even after you receive a financial aid award letter any new piece of aid can potentially impact your other awards.

thefewtheproud said:

Hi,
I received the Marine Option NROTC scholarship to attend Arizona State University. ASU offers academic scholarships of different amounts as part of the application for admission. I received the top award called the President's Award and it is $13,000 per year. I want to apply this to housing. My question is, can I accept this scholarship from ASU without interfering with my NROTC Scholarship? I sat in my Highschool counselor's ofice for 2 hours yesterday trying to figure it out. The rep from ASU said that the sources of funding cannot be the same and that is what I remember from the paperwork I filled out for the NROTC application.

On a side note, I'm frustrated because the unit that I have been assigned to is brand new at ASU so I have no way of contacting them and their website is useless.

Click to expand...

Good evening,

It seems I am the perfect person to have stumbled upon your post. I am a sophomore aerospace engineering student here at ASU. In addition to that, I am also the Battalion Public Affairs Officer for NROTC here at ASU. Stacking on to that, I am also an employee of University Housing and work as a Peer Mentor for the Engineering Residential Community (If you're an engineer, you'll be seeing a lot of me). Even more so, I have plenty of experience with both ASU's Financial Aid Office and Scholarship Office and their policies since I deal with both almost on a monthly basis.

If this doesn't qualify me to answer any question you have, I quite frankly don't know what does.

The short answer to your main question is "Yes, you can accept both scholarships".

I encourage you to contact me at my university email kpbusch[at}asu[dot]edu if you have any further questions.

I'm looking forward to having you in the Battalion.

P.S. Thanks for sizing up our website.

Sincerely,
Ken Busch