ILLINOIS TUITION WAIVER??? no way...

Vista123

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This seems to good to be true...
Can anyone explain this to me?
I was told today by a Illinois state school battalion officer, that if you are an Illinois resident, and you get into an Illinois state school (IE University of Illinois) and you join ROTC, even if you dont contract, Your tuition is waved.

I must have looked like a complete idiot because I told him, "No I dont think so, you are wrong." To which he replied basically that 'he would know!'

say whaaaatttt?
 
Looks like from USMC's link it is in fact a mandatory waiver. Now get the scholarship, and R &B will be covered.
~~~~ remember R & B is taxable.
 
the baffling part is the "even if you are not under contract"

so -as a follow up - I told the officer I was concerned about my son's color deficiency getting through dodmerb. He thought color deficiency wouldn't be an an issue because he can do vivid red-green and he might not even need a waiver (to which of course I again replied "No I dont think so, you are wrong." ---sometimes people do not like me...:rolleyes: and then he replied, even if he cant get through dodmerb and cant serve he can join ROTC -not under contact and participate in the tuition free waiver.

to which of course I AGAIN replied "No I dont think so, you are wrong.":wink:
 
I saw the section Pima references but also saw the last sentence of the paragraph: "Waivers shall be awarded at each university on the basis of the equivalent of 10 scholarships per class, per branch of service, each academic year"

If a unit has more than 10 members per class, I wonder how they determine who gets the waiver?
 
My DS's color deficiency was discovered (I'd suspected it but it had never been identified before) during his DODMerb physical and it was not a disqualification for AROTC.
 
My DS's color deficiency was discovered (I'd suspected it but it had never been identified before) during his DODMerb physical and it was not a disqualification for AROTC.

did he get an automatic dq and then get a waiver?
 
I saw the section Pima references but also saw the last sentence of the paragraph: "Waivers shall be awarded at each university on the basis of the equivalent of 10 scholarships per class, per branch of service, each academic year"

If a unit has more than 10 members per class, I wonder how they determine who gets the waiver?

I assume they make the decision on which 10 based on the scores of the test they need to take every year.

Applicants are required to take an examination each year according to rules prescribed by the presidents, or designees, of participating institutions. Scholarships are awarded on a merit basis to those eligible recipients receiving the highest grades with evidence of leadership ability.
 
My DS's color deficiency was discovered (I'd suspected it but it had never been identified before) during his DODMerb physical and it was not a disqualification for AROTC.

AROTC's color vision requirements are different from AFROTC and NROTC primarily because of the needed ability to distinguish navigation markers etc that don't factor into Army at all.
 
AROTC's color vision requirements are different from AFROTC and NROTC primarily because of the needed ability to distinguish navigation markers etc that don't factor into Army at all.

This is why my son stayed away from aviation and water. But I did read a post by clarkson that one if guys did not pass dodmerb due to color
 
A lot of Army *enlisted* MOSs require normal color vision or at least ability to distinguish between red and green. It is possible they could restrict you from certain jobs, but like they always say about DoDMERB, no one can predict it!
 
This is the first that I have heard of this and DS attended a state university in Illinois. But, he was eligible for the Illinois Guard Grant which covered all of his tuition, but not school misc fees or room/board.
 
did he get an automatic dq and then get a waiver?

No -- he simply came home from the vision exam and said he was color-blind. A couple of weeks later got his notice that he was medically qualified.

As Kinnem pointed out -- this is AROTC. Other branches have different rules.

I will also note that my DS's color deficiency is probably not severe. As I mentioned previously I had suspected he might have some degree of deficiency but it never seemed to impact his activities. My other DS has a much more pronounced deficiency and it manifests itself in some activities.
 
Waivers

I am a student at an Illinois state school, and this does exist. The state of Illinois grants tuition waivers to ROTC students for recruiting purposes. You do not have to sign any contracts, just medical waivers, etc. I know it sounds too good to be true, but I was on the waiver for a semester, and its basically what the Cadre tell you.
 
(to which of course I again replied "No I dont think so, you are wrong." ---sometimes people do not like me...:rolleyes: and then he replied, even if he cant get through dodmerb and cant serve he can join ROTC -not under contact and participate in the tuition free waiver.

to which of course I AGAIN replied "No I dont think so, you are wrong.":wink:

Let me guess ... You went to the Dale Carnegie School and majored in how to Win Friends...
 
I am currently on this waiver and have been for the last 3 years. Basically each detachment gets a certain number of waivers depending on the size of the school (40 for mine). Each detachment can decide who they give these waivers to, mine goes by GPA, PFA, ACT score, Cadet Rank. No commitment is made, we have freshmen who just walked in get them. If you drop ROTC during the semester you completely lose the waiver for that semester, even if there is a few weeks left. If you get a waiver one semester and the next semester you decide you no longer want to be in ROTC you do not have to pay anything back.
 
I think this is excellent marketing for ROTC. Let's face it, the vast majority of HS juniors and seniors are compeletely unfamiliar with ROTC, unless of course they are from a family with someone who served in one of the services over the past 40 years, which is probably less than 3% of the US population.

This exposure to ROTC, which costs the State of Illinois, or National Budget, or DOD, or whoever is paying for it, about $12,000 per year tuition for a maximum of two years, so a maximum investment of $24,000. After that point, a cadet either Contracts, or leaves the program so the investment ends. Even for cadets who leave after 1, 2, 3, or 4 semesters, it is tremendous exposure for young adults to the the price of freedom, which most young adults take completely for granted.

Now, let's suppose 50% of the U of Illinois non-scholarship cadets who are under this unique program end up Contracting. Let's also suppose the average # of semesters for cadets in this program is 3. Doing a little math, 40 cadets per year in the program*3 semesters * $12,000 tuition = $720,000 total expense for that Year Group. With 50% (half) of these cadets going on to Contract, that makes 20 2Lts production from an investment of $720,000 or $36,000 per 2Lt.

THAT is one fantastic bargain for whoever is footing that bill.
 
This may seem like a stupid question, but why would the national board give 4 yr or 3 yr scholarships to Illinois instate residents to attend an Illinois Instate college since they can just accesses the Illinois Tuition Waiver?
 
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