AROTC Scholarship Payments Delayed indefinitely

T

Tgun

5-Year Member
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May 15, 2012
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:frown:
I received an email from DS who is a 4-year AROTC scholarship recepient (contracted this past August).

Unfortunately we have not completed the scholarship contract on DS, and three of his peers, because of the budget problems. The scholarship is awarded and will be honored. I am just waiting for permission to complete the contracting process. Since the contract obligates Government money I can’t process it until there is a budget.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience, I assure you I have the files prepped and will be all over it as soon as possible

This sounded absolutely rediculous to me, so I called 3rd Brigade to verify...

Unfortunately, the above information is correct for scholarship receipents for graduating years post-2015. I was told that until they have a Federal Budget, there will be no funds paid (stipend, tuition/fees, books, etc.).

Now mind you, there has been no Federal Budget for 3 years (only spending allocations) and there is no budget negotations expected until January. I am also contacting my local congresscritter(s) for help. :eek:
 
Tgun said:
Now mind you, there has been no Federal Budget for 3 years (only spending allocations) and there is no budget negotations expected until January.
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That was my 1st thought too! Hopefully they really meant to say when their (DoD) budget is approved for FY 14.

I am sorry for what you are incurring, but it is reason why many posters say think about attending any college if you cannot afford to finance it without the scholarship.

If it is the federal budget than I wonder how they will approach the scholarships for class of 18. How can you award a scholarship if you know currently that they aren't paying the 3 and 4 yr scholarships currently.
 
I received an email from DS who is a 4-year AROTC scholarship recepient (contracted this past August).

Tgun,just to clarify your DS is "fully" contracted correct? By that I mean AFPT passed and contract signed and sworn in Aug? If so this does not sound like a brigade issue, it sounds like a unit issue. My question to the HR person in DS unit would be... if DS was all set to go back in Aug why was he not contracted in Aug or Sept like 90% of the other "fully" contracted cadets in the nation? Not much you can do at this point other than wait it out I guess. My advice for what its worth. I would be cautious about getting a congresscrtitter involved at this point. It may come back to have potentially negative repurcussions upon DS. Best of luck on this issue. :thumb:
 
Yes, fully contracted (along with the 3 other fully contracted cadets who are also affected- these were the 4 awarded 4-year scholarships) in August. We have the contract paperwork as proof.

I hope that Pima is correct; that it is the FY2014 Defense Budget that they need approved. It sounds like the "continuing resolutions" for funding the U.S. Government isn't going to work for DoD / Military Branches anymore.

Thank you for the feedback!
 
Post 2015 would seem to include MS2's as well. All the MS2 cadets on scholarship had their fall tuition paid and have received their stipend to date, this would be the 2016 class.

In light of this new information, will these cadets not have their spring tuition paid and will the stipends stop.

It sounds like the 2014 and 2015 class will continue as usual.

Sounds like could be a lot of scrambling with finances for these cadets soon.
 
Tuition?

DS is an MS2 (class of '16) and has received all stipend $ and tuition paid to date. This sounds like a problem with the paperwork at a battalion level, I would caution too much involvement on a parental level as well, better to let your cadet take the lead.
 
Thun,

Has your son been receiving any stipend since he contracted this fall. Have those stipend payments now stopped.
 
Nope, never received stipend. I did confirm this AROTC payment delay for post 2015 graduation class years with 2nd Brigade in addition to 3rd Brigade. DS HR staff also said that there was no guarantee that he would get his stipend payments retroactive back to August... so even if funding is started up again, he may only receive monthly stipend from current month forward... What a mess...

Seems the Continuing Resolutions (Federal Budget) are not going to get the job done, and the Army is wanting a "real" budget and some guarantees that there will be no more sequestrations. A real FY2014 DoD budget minus sequestration seems to be the mantra...
 
At least your kiddo is "contracted". Mine is being told, he cannot until this mess is resolved. I spoke with the Cpt. While we can swing his current situation financially, I don't know about how much longer. I guess it is more loans for us. We were hoping for some relief. At least the school he chose is within budget, but he really wanted to attend another school. ROTC is his priority, so he gave up his "dream" school to attend his current one. Now he is wondering if he did the right thing. I was told today that he has a 90% chance of being reimbursed for this year, but he will definitely not get his stipend!! Yikes, I already put a call into my congressman, I hope there is some resolution. I wonder how many kids will have to drop out because they cannot continue to afford the school they are going to.
 
I have to agree that this seems very odd. Even all the MS1's that contracted early fall at my sons battalion have been receiving their stipend and their tuition has been paid

What seems odd is that if your son had been fully contracted why has he not been receiving any stipend when contracted cadets from other battalions have been receiving theirs.

It does seem that something fell through the cracks at your sons battalion with completing your sons contract.

Edit. The more I read this all seems to be a real mess for some cadets.

It will be real interesting to see how they award scholarships this year when they can't even honor the ones they have already given.
 
Yes, they were really slow in getting the contracts ready to sign, even though my son had his paperwork done before school started. Then they made him wait to take the APFT test. And of course, as I said in an earlier post, the day he was finally able to sign the contract, the government shut down. I do wonder how this year's scholarship process is going to work. He is the only 4 year National scholarship winner at his school and the main concern is getting the MS3s contracted. I understand that, but was still hoping that they can honor their promise for his scholarship. It is very frustrating.:thumbdown:
 
At our son's school, some have received stipends, some have not. Our son's tuition was paid right after he contracted, however, he still has not received stipends or book money. HR is new and doesn't seem to know what's going on.
 
Agreed, plus the added stress on the affected MSIIs (Sophomores) and MSIs (Freshman).

I know for fact that there are 4 cadets (all Freshman 4-year scholarship recepients including my DS) all impacted. They all were sworn in after Initial Week in August, but not all passed APFT at that time; all however, did pass in September.

Hang in there MtnMom, I am hopeful that the situation will improve.
 
Correction: DS and the other 3 cadets have all their contracting paperwork completed, but HR had NOT submitted due to the budget issues.

So, they were sworn in in August, passed APFT, had all their paperwork completed, and now are penalized because their contract packets were not submitted to Cadet Command prior to Government Shutdown? :mad:
 
Oh, and since they have not yet contracted, no stipend backpay to when they were sworn it... so $300 per month stipend gone too.

Given the current federal budget shortcomings, I suspect that our DS may be waiting months to contract... if then. Maybe not even until his Sophomore year the way things are going (not going).

We won't see any Federal budget nor a FY2014 DoD budget for a long time. Gov't has been working from numerous Budget Resolutions, not an official budget.

Current situation does not bode well for scholarship applicants and awardees for 2014 either. They may be awarded a scholarship, but if not allowed to contract, it is all for not. No contract = no scholarship, no stipends, no books, etc.

Raw deal all around. :unhappy:
 
Sorry to hear things have gone this way for your son and the other cadets.

I know individual battalions seem to do things differently but this seems like a major mishap. My son'd battalion push to get every cadet that meets the rewuirements contracted ASAP, paperwork completed and filed right away. If some cadets don't meet the mark on day one, they still complete the contract prcess for those that do, they don't wait until they have a group. My younger son was the only scholarship cadet to complete everything when he arrived on day one, they had his paperwork turned in the next day, the rest waited until they could complete everything and pass the APFT, then they contracted them at that time. My son received his first stipend the next pay period.

I really do not understand the reasoning some battalions use in waiting until they have a large group to contract, less paper work??, doesn't seem fair to the cadets since they can receive no stipend until the paperwork is complete. May just be my opinion but if a cadet meets the requirements, they should be contracted and paperwork done at that time. This whole things seems sloppy to me and it has real consequences for these cadets as we are seeing.
 
I really do not understand the reasoning some battalions use in waiting until they have a large group to contract, less paper work??
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Are you sure that is the way it works, could it be that is how it is required for them to do it, but maybe one school had less on scholarship, thus they were able to submit the group much faster than a school with many on scholarship.

I am just asking.
 
Forgot to ask.

Is this only an AROTC issue because I have not read anything from the AF/NROTC posters saying that this has been an issue for their contracted students.
~~~ Maybe I missed it.

If it is only AROTC, than maybe clarkson can explain why they are saying the scholarships are on hold indef. until a budget is passed? I know each branch submits their own budget to the DoD, so it could be the branches determination to hold onto the money, for the G forbid sequestration impact for FY14 which nobody will really know the impact until Dec.

If I am right, I recall reading there were about 2200 AROTC scholarships awarded last yr. If even 750 cadets are without the scholarship currently, and let's hope they pay the tuition, but they have already stated they will not pay retro stipends that is a lot of money. 300 bucks a month for 750 cadets by my math would be 225,000 a month in savings. That's if it is only 1/3 of the cadets feeling this impact. If it is 2/3 of the cadets, that is almost 1/2 a million a month staying in the kitty. That also doesn't include if they don't pay back the book allowance.
 
Here's a link to the Army ROTC scholarship contract. It's from the internets, so it is sure to be accurate and up-to-date.

http://armyrotc.syr.edu/Files/forms/DA 597-3.pdf

Until now I had never noticed the following phrase, which is italicized in the agreement:

(provided funds are appropriated by Congress)

Based on my junior high school education on the structure of outlines, my analysis of the contract leads me to believe the above phrase, which is in 1(a), applies to 1(a)(1) tuition and fees, as well as 1(A)(2() book and laboratory expenses.

However, the funding condition does not appear to (1)(b), which deals with Subsistence (i.e., monthly stipends). In other words, if appropriate parties have signed the contract, the Department of the Army should not be able to withhold or suspend stipends. Unfortunately, in a bureaucracy paperwork does not always follow the most direct route between two points in space.

I don't know if it will do any good complaining to said Congreess, but here's a link to the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.

http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/military-personnel
 
It sounds like this is effecting cadets that had completed everything in order to contract and assumed the paperwork had been sent in, when in reality the battalion had not for some reason submitted said paperwork. These cadets are now finding out that they are not yet contracted. This would mean the Army is not obligated to pay anything including the stipend. Tough break for these cadets to say the least

Cadets, even the MS1 and 2's that were contracted before the shutdown, have had their tuition paid and are receiving their stipends.
 
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