ROTC Scholarship tuition payment

E

ernrun

5-Year Member
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Jan 10, 2013
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Just writing to see if anyone has had similar issues and what their current status is. My DD received a 4 year ROTC Nursing scholarship and contracted back in September along with 11 other cadets at PLU. She has still not had her tuition paid and as of the last update she got she was told to ignore the school and just keep doing all as usual and that the battalion would deal with the school. She is receiving her stipend again. Has anyone had similar issues? Heard of a kid at CU Boulder having to go back home to VA because his tuition wasn't paid just last week. She also was told that the scholarship was still up in the air because of the new fiscal year and there not being budgeted money? If anyone has heard anything please post. Also, seems like it is just newly contracted cadets and not cadets already receiving scholarship money? Thanks for any insight.
 
DS contracted the end of August. Due to computer glitch at cadet command he did not get his book money nor his stipend until after the gov't was reopened. He received his book money on Oct 21 and he received all of his stipend on the Oct 25.

As of that time his tuition had still not been paid. He is at an MJC though so they are used to dealing with the Army.

I think I would talk to the bursars' office and let them know what the ROTC dept said. Make sure everyone is on the same page.
 
DS is a contracted MSI at CU Boulder in AROTC. Tuition and book money paid in full and on time. So far all stipends have been paid, should know on the next stipend tomorrow as it has been hitting his account on the first of the month. He did say they have not contracted anybody recently due to the shutdown. A friend of his is waiting upgrade from a 3 yr to a 3.5 yr but the unit has been told to hold off for now. DS did not mention anybody having to leave due to tuition issues.
 
Timing of funds paid

Even before the shutdown delay there have been issues. Last year DS contracted on 9/2 and his tuition paid about 12/17, after the semester was over. He was told two things were in play: his school would not submit request for payment until 35 days after the contract date and once submitted there was one person to process hundreds/thousands of payments. This year the tuition paid about 10/17 which is still 60 days after the start of the semester.

Agree that you should talk to the Bursar/Office of Student Accounts to see what your options would be, many will talk to ROTC contact to verify eligibility and then wait for funds to post to the account.
 
Ignore the school, I guarantee the admissions people know who is ROTC and who isn't. They have done this dance many times before. Often my tuition wasn't paid till almost the end of the semester and ROTC is in contact with them I am sure.
 
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I know with our DS, one semester AFROTC had not paid by this time and his account was locked by the bursar so he couldn't register for spring semester. He called them and said just bring over a letter from your det., and we will unlock your account. He was not the only cadet, and by the time he got to the det., the 1st shirt had a stack with each cadets name on ROTC letter head signed by the CoC waiting for them.

Like Aglahad said this is not the 1st dance for the college and the ROTC unit. They know exactly what to do from both sides of the fence.

I am not sure I believe in the CU kid being sent back for lack of ROTC payment. As I said, typically most colleges will just lock their account. IOWs they cannot register for the next semester, this is awfully early to clear them out of the dorms unless CU is on trimesters.
 
DS is a MSI 4yr contracted cadet. He has received monthly stipends on time as of now. However, tuition and books have not been paid. School sent a letter stating that it is now our responsibility to pay it. His HR person in the battalion said that if we could pay, to go ahead and ROTC will reimburse the money to us. So that is what we did. I sent a copy of his fee bill to the HR person to prove that it has been paid. We shall see what happens with that.

Also, DS could not register for Spring semester until his bill was paid. So that was another reason why we paid it.

It would be nice if all was taken care of in a reasonable amount of time. But as always when dealing with the government, it is turtle speed.
 
Thanks all for your info and input. Book money paid 9/27 and stipends paid 10/1 and 10/25 so far. Not sure exactly what happened with the CU cadet as this came from my co-worker who has a daughter at the school. Possibly didn't contract as far as I know. We'll keep on waiting but it seems like my DD battalion HR manager is on top of things and told her that they will deal with the school. ii other cadets in the same boat.Hopefully it does get paid some time soon.
 
DS is a 4 year scholarship recipient and was all set to contract when the government shut down. Batallion is simply waiting for word from the government to resume contracting. As a result, the unviersity asked us to pay last semester's tuition so DS can register for spring semester. They assured us that as soon as the university was paid by the gov't we would be reimbursed. Fingers crossed! This is our first experience with all of this.:confused:
 
That is a little scary to me regarding payment! OOS or private tuition can be in the 10K+ per semester.

It comes back to what many of us say if you can't afford the college without the scholarship, think twice.
 
tuition reimbursement

Our DS enrolled with an AROTC battalion was awarded a 4 year campus scholarship and contracted towards the end of first semester last year (12/12). We were on the monthly payment plan with his pricey private and were told by FA that we should continue with the payments until the Army paperwork caught up with their office. We got reimbursed, retroactive to August, but not till the end of April. I suppose we could have taken a hard-line with the University and stopped paying, they got 10k more from the Army since he got some merit aid, but we were patient, it worked out.
 
So true Pima!! We look at the scholarship as a blessing! A gratefully appreciated blessing! DS would have gone to that college AND participated in ROTC with or without scholarship.. And thank God that we were able to pay that bill till ROTC can. I look at it this way, what we get back from fall semester will help pay for spring, etc. so we will be ahead. Yeah,
 
Our son's tuition was paid right after contracting, but he has yet to receive a stipend or book money. Isn't that strange?
 
Just talked to DS, he received some back pay he was owed last week ( not sure how much or why) and received his stipend today.
 
AROTC stipend

Sheriff3: I think the second half of the AROTC stipend for October was paid 10/25 due to the shutdown. Stipends should have started again as scheduled today.
 
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Well, DS has yet to contract. He was in the office getting ready to sign when government shut down. He is at a cross-town affiliate so things move a little slowly. Now the everything is back up and running, they are telling him that he is not a priority and that they need to first work on contracting the MS3s. They also told him he would not receive any back stipend. Glad we took people's advice and he went to a school we could afford. He decided on the Room and Board option, so there was no deferment, everything up front. He feels like his 4 year has turned into a 3-1/2 year. Hope he doesn't get discourage because he loves the program. Anyone else in same situation? :frown:
 
3 to 4 year

MtnMom: I'm no expert but if he was awarded a 4 year, he should contract as a 4 year. welcome to the military, MSIs and sometimes IIs get in line behind the 3s. Even with that though, you should be fully reimbursed, I've never heard of someone losing a year off their scholarship because paperwork was slow. Each bn has their own HR personnel and that can make or break your experience. BTW being cross-town IMPO should not be a factor in your cadet's rotc experience-it hasn't for ours (other than some minor transportation issues). Our DS contracted in December of last year, tuition was reimbursed and he received stipend for December and book money for the semester but no $ for Sept-Nov. so you can count the college reimbursing you after the army pays the school. Your cadet should begin receiving the stipend I believe the month they contract-it might be partial if they sign towards the end of the month.
 
Thank you for your response. He absolutely loves his company and his experience has not been diminished being at the cross-town school, with certain minor differences. He is just feeling frustrated because he was there with pen in hand when the shutdown occurred and now there seems to be no rush to have him contract. I told him this will pass and soon he won't remember waiting. The only thing that is really bumming him out is that he will miss the CULP application deadline, even after the extension. Hope they don't wait too long!

But to parents out there helping their student pick schools, make sure you can afford it before you send them off, you will never know what may come up; and to have to leave school because of finances would be devastating. I am glad we took the advice from those on here who know. +1000 to all those that have said this before!!!
 
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