tuition and fees reimbursement?

pv123

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Dec 20, 2011
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My DD just received her AFROTC scholarship intent package. Within the forms it states that tuition, fees, books will not be reimbursed until 90 days from the beginning of the fall term. Does anyone know if this ever becomes a problem with colleges waiting for payment that long. With a type 1 She will be attending a very expensive private school, so we cannot cover the initial payments. Surely the colleges work with this delay...or not??
 
Big issue is that 90 day marker may hit when it is time for the student to register for next spring. Colleges will do what is called a "lock". That means they cannot register since the current semester has yet to be paid.

It is easily solved, but it requires them to go into the Bursar's office and prove that they have a ROTC scholarship.

We had to endure this with our DS his 1st yr. They will contact the AFROTC det for verification.

The problem we had was we did not send him with his original Birth Certificate, only a copy, which created a lag time in processing the scholarship.
 
I believe each school and ROTC program operates differently.

DS's AROTC notifies school's bursar office of scholarship recipients. Bursar enter's the information into DS's account as "Pending Scholarship", so we do not have a heart attack every semester with the bill.

The first semester though, we did get a bill for full tuition in the summer prior to school starting. AROTC had not sent the list in yet and once they did, all was okay. Just need to make sure ROTC and BURSAR are talking to each other.
 
One other piece of advice pv123, create your own file and make sure it includes:

1. Student ID number
2. Password

We have 2 in college. 1 requires us to give the student ID number and nothing more when we speak to the Bursar.

The second requires that our DS open an account through her college portal and we must tell them her password.

Talk to the Bursar's office regarding their protocol.

Colleges have privacy laws and when your child turns 18, even if you pay for the school they will lock you out.
 
Thanks all! Quite wise on the AF after 21 years but clueless on how to let go of my 1st born to the ROTC world:frown:
 
With a type 1 She will be attending a very expensive private school, so we cannot cover the initial payments.
Congratulations to your family and your daughter on her AFROTC Type 1 scholarship! In addition to what Pima has already posted you might consider the following: if the initial payments for one semester are beyond your financial ability to cover, have you considered how you will pay for two years at this very expensive private school if your daughter is not selected for SFT? Just something you may wish to discuss with your daughter before she starts at this school and has other options. Good Luck!
 
Because of the schools high endowment the said they would cover that -- already checked, because we were worried about it:) Plus we have the GI bill transfer if needed, but would like to save those benefits for out next child.
 
pv123 said:
Because of the schools high endowment the said they would cover that -- already checked, because we were worried about it:)

Have they awarded her a merit scholarship. Endowments are endowments and it does not necessarily translate into scholarship. Duke has 1/2 Billion in endowments, but only a small percentage is scholarship. My advice would be to re-contact them and ask what are their parameters. GPA is usually 1 of them. AFROTC requires a 2.8, but at our DS's school for his merit it is 3.0 and they take it out to the 1/1000th. 2.9562 would be still under 3.0, it would be 2.956 in their eyes and below 3.0, hence he would be placed on academic probation for the school, but not AFROTC.

Additionally does that include as agagles stated dis-enrollment from AFROTC if not selected for SFT. Let's be honest, it is basically a 50/50 chance. I know you don't want to read that, but it is important to accept that fact. What will you do if she does not get SFT? I understand you have the GI, but you also stated you have another child. Do you use the GI for her and not the other kids?

I am a little bit confused because if the school is saying the endowment will cover it, that means to me they are offering a very big merit scholarship and this is moot. If you are saying the school will cover the bill, than it really isn't about endowment, it is just the Bursar saying we are accustomed to this and will not lock her.

Endowments are for scholarships, new buildings, etc. like the PTA at a school. It is not a part of their fiscal operating budget regarding their planning.
 
Sorry, they said if rotc scholarship receipients loose their scholarship they will continue the education cost. If for some reason they will not, the endowment financial aid is blind, ie. if one makes under 60,000 tuition & board is covered. If one makes under 180,000 you are to pay 1%-10% of the total cost of attending. Plus with the GI Bill we surely help. This has all been worked out and researched in detail. Trust me, we would not send her to one of the most expensive schools in the country without having these back ups of "what ifs". My concern was with the lag of reimbursement, but as addressed this shouldn't be a big problem.
 
pv123,

In case I forgot to congratulate your DD, from the bottom of my heart congratulations, the AF is gaining a great cadet.

I am glad that you are being proactive and making sure that the fear of not being able to attend the college if she leaves AFROTC is removed. Honestly, it is something when DS received his scholarship we never thought of, and after yrs watching recipients not get selected for SFT, or want to transfer into a curriculum that the AF must approve it is now my personal mission to make sure that being awarded a scholarship does not and will not equate to 4 yrs of payment.

The wake up call is in their freshman yr after fall semester when all of the sudden they realize that although they maintained the min gpa for the scholarship it may not be enough to get selected for SFT, and with that knowledge they worry if they can scrape the pennies together to stay at the school they are at for 2 more yrs.

Proactive cadets and parents will have put a course of action in place to guard against this fear.

Again congrats to her, a Type 1, speaks volumes regarding her stats. As I illustrated earlier she is the top 3% of all of the applicants in the nation. I am sure she also has some big merit money coming to her.
 
Proactive cadets and parents will have put a course of action in place to guard against this fear.
As the parent of an AFROTC daughter with a HSSP scholarship and nervously waiting for the SFT selections in March....I have to echo Pima's post. My daughter and I actually were discussing the upcoming SFT selection process this morning. While we are cautiously optimistic about her chances there is still the anxiety of waiting and not knowing. As bad as the selection percentage was last year, will the selection percentage be lower this year? We hope not, but we don't know. She mentioned this morning that she is thankful that she chose to go with a less expensive public college (that we could afford without AFROTC) than a pricier private that she was considering. While the waiting is still stressful, I can just imagine how much more anxiety there would be if she knew that she would also have to transfer to another school if she wasn't selected for SFT.

I believe both Pima and I are just trying to give anyone reading these posts something to consider and discuss with their children before choosing a school. Sounds like you have thought it through and have a solid plan. Congrats again to your daughter!:thumb:
 
If one makes under 180,000 you are to pay 1%-10% of the total cost of attending. .
I think that is off... I believe the way well endowed colleges work is that the family is responsibe for 10% of their *income* (don't remember if Gross, or line 37 of the 1040) toward the cost of the college, not 10% of the cost of attendance. I could be wrong though that is what I recall reading wrt how Harvard and a fewer others do it. i.e. 120,000 income means $12,000 would be owed to the college.
 
Dunninla, your're right but if you read my immediate post correction following my "mistype" you would see that I said that exact same thing. Most Ivies have this need blind financial aid equation, thus making these colleges more affordable than most state schools.
 
Dunninla, your're right but if you read my immediate post correction following my "mistype" you would see that I said that exact same thing. Most Ivies have this need blind financial aid equation, thus making these colleges more affordable than most state schools.

If one can get in they are a very good financial deal.
 
My DD did not have perfect stats but we truly believe that military service and back round is an admissions "hook" these days due to the all political and somewhat controversial reinstatement of ROTC Dets. We just hope that our conservative DD can hold strong in that environment:wink:
 
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