Student Loan Help

[USMAROTCFamily]

Loans CAN be used for off-campus housing and to cover food cost, utilities, etc. I'm one of the dissenters when it comes to the notion of only choosing a school that you can afford with or without an ROTC scholarship. I am completely fine with shooting for the stars and using the scholarship to go to a great school that you couldn't afford otherwise. You just have to be realistic about what happens if you lose the ROTC scholarship. With our kids (one in NROTC and the other at USMA), I look at it the same way. If either one washes out of their programs for whatever reason (don't like it, get kicked out for DUI, flunk out, can't pass PT, etc.) they would both have to leave their current schools and look at cheap, in-state schools that they could possibly even commute from home to go to. They both had full merit scholarships to several schools, not tied to ROTC, that they could have chosen and guaranteed they could stay there with or without ROTC. However, they believe in themselves and believe they can make it through. So they both dreamed, achieved and are following these paths. If ROTC or the academy doesn't work out, they know they will be on the hook for tuition repayment, if necessary. So if you shoot for the stars, just keep you eyes open to realties of what could happened. Sometime you just have to take risks in life!