ROTC and Private loans and SCRA

Hello all. As a proud parent of DS going to school on a 3 year Army scholarship we still need to pick $ up over the course of 4 years room and board and then some of the first year. Only choice we have is to do a private loan since FAFSA only helps a little. Anybody in the same boat and who did they go through? Also, does the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) come into play once a student contracts with the Army (in this case beginning of sophomore year)? Ideally we want any student loan to be paid off quickly after school. Really curious how SCRA works? Thanks.

We are in that boat and after checking the options decided to refinance the house and pull out some cash. The interest rate is lower than when we bought and our payment is essentially the same.

There are lots of loan options out there both student and parent. We have a second child who will be going to college in three years and we didn't want heavy loans so for us, this seemed the best option.

SCRA will provide no relief in this situation. It is only for those who are on active duty, which is not the case when contracting. Also, remember that the student loan in your child's name will be limited to $5,500 his/her freshman year. Any loans in addition to this will need to be taken out in the parent's name (using your credit) and will not be a direct responsibility of the student. So even if the SCRA were to apply, it would only go towards debt only in student's name.

Start paying off the loan while in school. You can make payments on the interest for example. Look at other scholarships as well. My DS applied for and received additional scholarships which defrayed nearly all the cost of attendance at his university. If your DS can get a ROTC scholarship, I bet he can get others while attending university as well.

Does his school offer any scholarships or grants that would help at least with the first year? When he was accepted to the college, did they offer any merit scholarships?

Between the time needed for classes and ROTC, having to pick up a job would make things difficult. My experience with my DS, was that only those in certain financial situations were allowed to get part-time jobs on campus. Everyone else had to go off campus to find one. College scholarships can also be an issue. The university my DS attends cut back on how much they give him since he started getting his ROTC scholarships. He has worked every summer but somehow he just doesn't quite manage to save any money. LOL. My nieces were quite motivated and each found a few small scholarships from various locations. It required some Internet searching and time filling out the applications but $1000 here and there can be useful.

I agree that as they go through the program, ROTC becomes a big chunk of their life. They will get positions that will require additional hours outside of LLAB and PT. If they get leadership positions than they could expect 20 hours a week just for ROTC.
~ At least that was my DSs experience in AFROTC.

Add that to studying, it can be hard to juggle a job, ROTC and maintain a strong cgpa.

I don't know about your school, but all of my kids (3) schools offered a 0% payment plan. They all differed from spreading it over 6, 8 or 10 months and when the 1st payment has to be made. Our eldest was 10 months starting in Sept., our youngest is 8 months, broken into 2 parts(fall and spring) and the 1st payment is made in Aug. before they even show up for school. We get Dec. off, and start again in January.

Additionally, some colleges will allow you to use your credit card as the monthly payment. If you have an AMEX and is the school allows it, you actually can get points too. It is amazing how fast they add up. That is what we did for DS1. Paid the monthly bill using a credit card, than paid the credit card off just like if we were on the payment plan.

Might be just me, but the lesson we really learned was to take the cheapest food plan offered.
~ My kids even with the bottom line plan, always had money left in their account at the end. They are not kids that will get up early for breakfast if their 1st class is at 9. Plus, they also realized how to schedule their classes so they always had a 4 day week, which meant many days they were back to back and missed lunch or had it so late that it was an early dinner.
~~ DS1 and DD actually had so much money left in their account, that 1 took 9 people for dinner every night during finals to use up his money. The other bought 2 cases of Gatorade and 2 trays of rice crispy treats to share with everyone during finals.

DS2 has never had that opportunity because we learned with the 1st 2.

Are the AROTC students able to use their 5500 guaranteed student loan towards defraying the cost of meal plan? Just got my DS bill today. I thought it couldn't be used with AROTC scholarship-but don't have any experience with this-just what I heard. If anyone has any insight it's most appreciated.

Rockats said:

Are the AROTC students able to use their 5500 guaranteed student loan towards defraying the cost of meal plan? Just got my DS bill today. I thought it couldn't be used with AROTC scholarship-but don't have any experience with this-just what I heard. If anyone has any insight it's most appreciated.

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Yes, they can use their student loan toward room and board costs.

Thank you!