AROTC Textbook Stipend

WorkforJesus

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Jun 9, 2014
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Does anyone know how the stipend works for textbooks. I am a four year winner who has to order textbooks soon and I was told that there would be a stipend. Thanks!
 
My dd, class of 2015, arrived at her college a week or so before classes with other arotc cadets where they took apft and did paper. All the scholarship cadets who passed the apft were contracted and did the paperwork which pretty much started the ball rolling on the stipend and book money. She got the check via direct deposit about a month and a half later
 
Does anyone know how the stipend works for textbooks. I am a four year winner who has to order textbooks soon and I was told that there would be a stipend. Thanks!
Like so many things in AROTC land this can be battalion specific. If your HR is on the ball you should receive soon after contracting. My DS contracted first week of December and he had the money in his account before the end of the first semester as well as the second half of stipend for December. You may have to front the money first, you may need to purchase books before you receive the stipend.
 
The key thing to understand here is that you have to have all your paperwork squared away and you must at the VERY LEAST pass the APFT (60/60/60). You don't have to get a perfect but you must pass.

If you don't pass the APFT - you will NOT see any money (scholarship or stipends of any kind) until you pass it. I can't stress it enough. Make sure you pass it!!!

In other words, if you are unable to pass the APFT until the official one in December, that means that you wont get any money until then. However, the caveat is that the monthly stipend pay is only given for those months after you pass the APFT.

So ... say you don't pass until December - you will practically get no stipend for that semester (... there's a particular term for this that I can't think of at the moment). So, do you see how important it can be to pass as soon as possible?

One of the nice things about the Army book stipend is that the Army doesn't reimburse you for your books ... so technically whatever you don't use is up for you to decide what to do with it ...
 
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I'm not 100% sure this is accurate anymore. DS went to a JMC last year and the second semester they were issued a vouchers instead of receiving a check. DS paid for books and had to turn in a receipt then he was reimbursed.

They might have been experimenting or something. I would not bank on having left over money this year.
 
For sure this is battalion/HR specific. DS was a 4 yr awardee, passed the AFPT and contracted just prior to school starting and had his first stipend and bood money in less than 2 weeks direct deposited into his account. Look into renting your textbooks insteand of buying. DS rented his books for an average semester rent of $150. He was able to pocket the other $450 per semester. ;)
 
For sure this is battalion/HR specific. DS was a 4 yr awardee, passed the AFPT and contracted just prior to school starting and had his first stipend and bood money in less than 2 weeks direct deposited into his account. Look into renting your textbooks insteand of buying. DS rented his books for an average semester rent of $150. He was able to pocket the other $450 per semester. ;)
+1
between renting, used books and amazon, DS has always come out ahead on the book stipend.
 
The bottom line is you won't receive your book money before the semester starts, so plan on paying for you books out of your own pocket and then receiving a $600 payment sometime in September (hopefully).
 
+1
between renting, used books and amazon, DS has always come out ahead on the book stipend.
Chegg is also an awesome place to rent books ... on occasion, I find books even cheaper to rent there than Amazon. But you have to act quick - the later you wait in the semester to get books, to more expensive it's going to be to rent them (and you run the risk of online places running out of copies)
 
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