3yr. AD entering MSII year... timetable for Stipend, book, tuition

Hi all,

I'm trying to help my DD establish a cash flow table for the next four months. I have a few questions about the timing of payments to cadets. School starts on August 20. I believe her APFT test will be given on August 21. Assuming she passes the APFT, as she did throughout her MSI year, then:

1) When would she actually sign her Contract?
2) When would she receive her first Stipend payment? I assume she signs her ROTC Scholarship Cadet Contract on August 21.
3) Is the Stipend paid every two weeks, or every month? ($175 or $350?)
4) I know the Tuition is paid to the school after 45 days per the Contract. Is that how it works in reality?
5) When would she receive the $600 first semester book allowance payment?
6) Lastly, how does she receive the Stipends and Allowance... is it Direct Deposit into her campus bank account, or is a check mailed to her?

Thanks in advance for any details you may remember from this past year.

Need to talk to the Battalion about when they will contract her.

Once she contracts she'll get paid stipend twice a month. There may be a little bit of a delay depending on how proficient the HRA is at the Battalion. It will get paid to whatever bank account she put on her direct deposit form. She'll receive a leave and earnings statement twice a month that tells here what she received. She will probably get her book money about 45 days in. The tuition paid to the school hopefully you will never see or hear about. It should be transparent to you and your daughter.

I can only tell you how it worked for my son's. Clarkson spelled it out really well as usual.

My son was a 4yr scholarship, he arrived at school last year on the Wed. prior to school starting for an orientation. The following day they had an APFT for the new scholarship MS1's, the cadets that were now sophomores that were on a 3yr AD, SMP cadets that were contracting, and Junior non scholarship cadets that were contracting, there were about 9 of them total. They completed the APFT together, those that passes then went to the office and signed their contracts that morning.

Our Battalions HRA is terrific, my son received his first stipend on the first full pay period, they included the few days that came before that period as well. The book money came within the 45 days right on time. As Clarkson said, the tuition was taken care of without any notice to us.

One thing that you may receive is a late notice from the school for tuition payment, there may even be some late fees that show up on her account. Don't worry about this at all, when the ROTC pays the tuition the late fees are removed and you won't get any notices. These are sent out automatically from the school, you can call them and let them know that the tuition is being paid by the Army since you personally paid tuition last year but it should not be an issue.

Your daughter will fill out a direct deposit form and all money will be deposited into that account. The stipend, book money and any money she receives form LDAC, CTLT, CLIP, CULP or any other program will be deposited into that same account. One thing to be aware of, if she receives a payment over $1,000.00 they will take out Fed. taxes, she should get all but the SS and M. Care money back when she files her taxes.

Clarkson is right, it depends on the battalion when it comes to contracting, her stipend will start once she signs the contract, make sure she has all her paperwork in order and gets it turned in ASAP so she is able to sign the contract.

Good luck to your daughter on her second year, she starts the same day as my son.

thanks to both of you.

I just read the Scholarship Cadet ROTC Contract again, and did notice the Book Allowance is, like Tuition, paid after 45 days into the first term, but also like Tuition, at the beginning of 2nd term with no waiting period.

One thing I noticed in the fine print of the Contract--

"Pay a subsistence allowance for participation in the scholarship program for a period of 10 months of any academic year (or the actual duration of the academic year, whichever is shorter). " Problem is, at my DDs school, Instruction starts Aug. 20 and Final Exams end May 14, which is 9 months, not 10. I wonder if the "whichever is shorter" fine print actually gets implemented, or if in practice, all cadets are paid 10 months of stipend over 20 pay periods each year.

"Pay a subsistence allowance for participation in the scholarship program for a period of 10 months of any academic year (or the actual duration of the academic year, whichever is shorter). " Problem is, at my DDs school, Instruction starts Aug. 20 and Final Exams end May 14, which is 9 months, not 10. I wonder if the "whichever is shorter" fine print actually gets implemented, or if in practice, all cadets are paid 10 months of stipend over 20 pay periods each year.

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Your daughter and my son have the same school calender year. My son received his first stipend on Sept. 15th last year, it included the period of Sept 1 through Sept. 15 as well as the previous days from start of school Aug 22nd to Aug. 31st, he signed his contract on Aug 18th. School ended on May 11th, he received his last stipend on May 15th. Not sure how the math worked out but I believe it was less then 10 months.

The book money will depend on how on top of things the HRA for the battalion is, some cadets from other battalions have complained that it takes forever to get the book money, I've seen some compplain that it took almost the whole semester to get the book money. My son's have always been lucky, their book money was usually deposited just before the semester started. Of course the first payment for books your daughter will receive will probably be at least 45 days out.

Jcleppe said:

as well as the previous days from start of school Aug 22nd to Aug. 31st

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^ OK, sounds like they're quite precise on the Subsistence Allowance. $350/30 would make the daily subsistence allowance $11.67, and therefore the MSII subsistence pay at her school for this year would be:

- Aug 21 (date of Contracting, I think) - Aug. 31 = 11*11.67 = $128.33, on the Sept. 15 deposit
- 16 payments for Sept - April, $175 each 15 day pay period
- May 1 - May 14, 14*11.67, $163.33

Total for MS II Year: $2,800 + $128.33 + $163.33 = $3,091.66

dunninla said:

^ OK, sounds like they're quite precise on the Subsistence Allowance. $350/30 would make the daily subsistence allowance $11.67, and the MSII pay at her school would therefore be:

- Aug 20 - Aug. 31 = 11*11.67 = $128.33, on the Sept. 15 deposit
- 16 payments for Sept - April, $175 each 15 day pay period
- May 1 - May 14, $163.33

Total for MS II Year: $2,800 + $128.33 + $163.33 = $3,091.66

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The total amount for her first stipend payment will depend on the exact date she signs the contract, that will depend on when they have the first APFT and when all the paperwork is completed. If the battalion is on top of things, some are not, they will make sure they get everything done before the first day of school. When my older son started school they did not have the first APFT for about a week or so, then they took about a week to get all the paperwork completed so the new scholarship cadets did not start getting their stipend right away and there is no retroactive payments made. The cadre was much more squared away when it came to my younger son.

My son's last stipend deposit of the year was for the full amount even though the pay period was short by a few days.

dunninla,

Sometimes the pay gets messed up or delayed due to the cadet, so make sure they have all of their paperwork in order now before they leave for school.

That means the original birth certificate, ss card, voided check/deposit slip, and a current DoDMERB exam on file

The last is the most important because kids tend to forget it is only valid for 2 yrs. If your DD had that exam the summer of their rising sr yr in hs., it may not be valid. Cadets/mids tend to forget that tiny little issue when they go for contracting as a sophomore in college. This is usually the case for the cadets that also applied for an SA since they typically start taking the exam in the summer.

If you know right now that the exam is not valid, contact the unit ASAP so they can order a new exam. They usually will not retro the back pay. The problem with trying to retroactively get paid if they approve it is it can take time to get the paperwork straightened out. Months.

For our DS they inputted his routing number wrong, and he went the whole year without getting the stipend. They did pay his tuition, and some how managed to find the account for his book allowance, but not his stipend. He did receive that 3K check in one lump sum at the end of the yr, THE FOLLOWING YR! That was after he had to submit 2 yrs worth of his bank statements to prove he never received any stipend. He did stay on top of it, going to see the 1st shirt every pay period, but it was in the black hole of DFAs where the problem originated.

FWIW, we sent DS with a pre-paid FedEX envelope to have him mail back his bc instead of him keeping it in his dorm at school. Fear of him misplacing it, someone taking it, or most likely the soda can spilling all over it!