Can you combine an AFROTC scholarship with CalVet Tuition Waiver?

edlp

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My AFROTC scholarship will cover tuition, some money for books, and a monthly stipend. The CalVet, which I'm getting as a dependent of my dad, only pays for tuition.

I was curious if I would get "money back" if I were to apply both of them at the same time. Right now I'm paying for housing out of pocket and it would very helpful if I had something extra on the side that I could put towards my bills.

If you're wondering, I got this idea from my brother who went through AFROTC in college with a 2 year scholarship. He said that he successfully used both and got money back that he used towards housing costs. Right now, he's away so I can't really ask him how he did it. I'd really appreciate it if anyone else had any feedback on this. Thanks!
 
It is very clearly written, AFROTC goes only towards tuition, but also in the fine print it is UP TO X amt.

I.E. if you get a Type 2 scholarship it is UP TO 18K. It doesn't not say 18K, and you get to keep the excess if it is under 18K for tuition.

I believe what your brother had was not an HSSP or ICSP, but instead a det. scholarship. That is different. That goes straight to the college, thus he can get money back.

I believe that because 95% of all HQ AFROTC ICSP scholarships are 3 and 3 1/2 yrs, not 2 yrs. Dets OTOH, give scholarships in whatever amounts they want, and if the det. says it can go to anything, than the bursar will place all of your merit money into the pot. If it is over, you get money back like your brother received. In your case your AFROTC scholarship will go to the Bursars office with a connotation, TUITION ONLY. The bursar will decide whether to charge CalVet or AFROTC for the tuition if both say TUITION ONLY. It is really that simple.

I have never seen here anyone with your parameters get a check back or be allowed to move money to the R & B side of the bill.
 
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similar situation

We are in a similar situation. My son received a 4 year ROTC scholarship (which covers tuition only) and he is using my husband's GI Bill to pay for housing (although it also covers tuition). We have been told by multiple people that we will get money back, but I don't see how that would be.
 
We are in a similar situation. My son received a 4 year ROTC scholarship (which covers tuition only) and he is using my husband's GI Bill to pay for housing (although it also covers tuition). We have been told by multiple people that we will get money back, but I don't see how that would be.

Like Pima said, you won't. The actual money from ROTC doesn't usually come until October/November. What you will see in your son's account will be "ghost" money put in by the university to keep his classes from being canceled. Colleges handle this issue with ROTC students differently so definitely check into that before the fee deadline, but everyone gets their money from CC at the same time and you can gaurentee it will be late. Once the GI Bill pays for housing and tuition, the ROTC scholarship will reflect that it is paying for mandatory fees only. I have a tuition scholarship as well as an AFROTC scholarship. The tuition scholarship disperses first, and then my AFROTC scholarship pays for my mandatory fees. I do not get back the extra money that CC would have paid for my tuition. It just doesn't work that way. Once CC sees that you have a scholarship paying for either tuition or fees, it will be reduced to cover whatever the other scholarship doesn't for tuition and fees ONLY. The only way you could get money back is if you have an outside scholarship not given by the government and not specifically for tuition of fees.
 
We are in a similar situation. My son received a 4 year ROTC scholarship (which covers tuition only) and he is using my husband's GI Bill to pay for housing (although it also covers tuition). We have been told by multiple people that we will get money back, but I don't see how that would be.

Not to meddle in your family finances....but unless your DS is the only child that will need help with college costs, financially him using the GI bill is less than optimal. I think the only way you would get money back would be a result of weak financial administration from the colleges Financial Aid/Bursars office. If he does get money back, I'm pretty sure it will be taxable income.

Our DS with a 4 yr AFROTC scholarship is not getting any of my husband's GI bill benefits since his scholarship covers tuition. But he is our oldest and we have 3 others that will use the benefit. He has campus based scholarship to help with room and board and had to pay $852 in federal income tax. Good "problem" to have, since it was @$10,000 of taxable scholarships, but we were a little surprised how the math worked out.

For his junior year, campus $ and outside org $ were applied to his account first, the school billed AFROTC only $8200/semester, not the $9000 that the scholarship allowed.
 
Not to meddle in your family finances....but unless your DS is the only child that will need help with college costs, financially him using the GI bill is less than optimal. I think the only way you would get money back would be a result of weak financial administration from the colleges Financial Aid/Bursars office. If he does get money back, I'm pretty sure it will be taxable income.

Absolutely correct. Any money that comes back because it exceeds tuition or is applied to room and board (if on campus) is taxable income. Only scholarship money that goes to tuition is not taxed.
 
No taxes on the BAH/book stipend is a great benefit of the GI bill. It is not sent to the school, but directly to the student. It does take @30-45 days to get the $ though, so have a plan to pay the costs upfront.
 
We are using the GI Bill to cover room and board which is $10K/yr and is not covered at all by the ROTC scholarship.
 
Makes sense that it would become taxable...Thanks for the info guys!
 
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