Financial Aid with ROTC Question

Our son received an AROTC 4 year scholarship to an Ivy League school. The Ivy League schools are 100% need based for aid. In acceptance letters from other schools, he was qualified for certain federal aid loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized. In his letter from the AROTC school, he did not get offered any aid at all. They just took the tuition amount of the scholarship, and did not give him another penny of aid, or federal loans.

Has this situation happened to others where they take your ROTC scholarship "off the top", and then that hurts you from receiving any other aid offer? Seems to discount that whole, military service for you country thing, to me.

PotentialParent said:

Our son received an AROTC 4 year scholarship to an Ivy League school. The Ivy League schools are 100% need based for aid. In acceptance letters from other schools, he was qualified for certain federal aid loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized. In his letter from the AROTC school, he did not get offered any aid at all. They just took the tuition amount of the scholarship, and did not give him another penny of aid, or federal loans.

Has this situation happened to others where they take your ROTC scholarship "off the top", and then that hurts you from receiving any other aid offer? Seems to discount that whole, military service for you country thing, to me.

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Yes, most need-based institutional aid is reduced by the amount of the ROTC scholarship. Merit aid is usually a different thing.

First thing to know, your need-based aid cannot exceed the COA for a school anywhere and if merit (which ROTC basically is treated as) pushes federal or state need-based aid over the COA, they are required to reduce it, I believe.

As to the Ivy League schools, all aid is need-based. That being said, if you receive any merit-based (outside) scholarships whether they are ROTC or your local Rotary Club, they will reduce their need-based grant accordingly, as your need is not as great.

I believe the stipend is not directly taken into account, as it is considered like having a job - something you can do to meet the family EFC, so the ROTC scholarship is not a total loss.

If it makes you feel any better, goaliegirl didn't receive a dime of need-based grant aid from any school (regardless of the ROTC scholarship or not) and our EFC is barely in 5 digits. Not all schools are as generous as the Ivy League.