Cost of Tuition

marklaker

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Jun 30, 2015
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My DS is very steadfast in his desire to attend an SMC for the purpose of obtaining a commission in either the Army or Marines. A USAF retiree myself, with yet another son serving in the Army as a warrant officer, I'm very pleased and extremely supportive of his decision. That being said, the cost of OOS tuition (we live in Florida) is enough to keep me up at night as I calculate the megaton hit to my retirement account. Unfortunately, our household income all but eliminates any chance of federal or "need based" aid so I'm curious if anyone from the forum has successfully whittled down the cost of tuition via some form of institutional aid not tied to household income? My interest pertains to all SMC's, but particularly to the cost heavy Citadel, VMI, and Norwich.
 
Marklaker, will let those who navigated those schools post. A few items though...

ROTC scholarship obviously helps. That does leave a bill still for room and board typically. I believe Norwich offers a scholarship for those who do receive a scholarship that covers room and board. Take a look at the sticky for ROTC under room and board. That discusses schools that help cover room and board for ROTC scholarship recipients.

Add Texas A&M to the list. They offer in state tuition to those who participate in the Corps of Cadets.

From what I have seen on this board, your concerns are not alone, especially those dealing with OOS costs. Good luck!
 
I can only speak for Norwich, as that is where my son goes. After my son was accepted, but before his AROTC scholarship was accepted, he was offered a very generous Merit Scholarship package, which pretty much at least cut the tuition in half. It was not tied to income - just the students stats. Since he was offered the AROTC scholarship (which Norwich pays Room and Board to their ROTC scholarship recipients), our only costs are uniforms and health insurance).
Since Norwich is private, there is only one tuition rate (as opposed to in-state/out-of-state).
 
Roger on the ROTC scholarships, but those are very limited as I understand it. And while son is an above average student (3.7/4.1 GPA, AP (x7) and Honors (x11) classes; 32 ACT; top 3% in his class), with some extracurriculars (varsity baseball, JV football, NHS, Key Club, school ambassador, math team, Habitat for Humanity, AutoCad and scuba certifications), I'm not certain he measures up to the scholarship winning profiles I've seen in the ROTC forum. Honestly, those are some amazing kids.....congrats to their parents!

I lumped Norwich in with The Citadel and VMI because their end costs are very similar. Good to know they offer the possibility of merit awards. Did you "negotiate," or did they offer upfront? Also curious if you have any insight into the alumni network. In the southeast, The Citadel has a very robust presence and I understand VMI is similarly well-connected.
 
My sons stats were similar to your sons, however his ACT was much lower. He also had Eagle Scout, Boy's State and varsity soccer captain. Norwich offered the merit upfront. We never got to the negotiation stage(trying to get more money, like I had to with my other 3 kids!), because he was then offered the 4 yr AROTC. I would say go for it with applying for the ROTC scholarships - he certainly has stats that should be competitive.
 
My DS is very steadfast in his desire to attend an SMC for the purpose of obtaining a commission in either the Army or Marines.

If I may, your DS should consider other colleges too. I am assuming that "comission" equals activet duty. My comment is more about AROTC, as I am more familiary with the program than the Marine ROTC. I believe a larger percentage of SMC AROTC participants end up getting active duty, but I believe there are non SMC AROTC programs that also have a high percentage of participants gettingactive duty. It also appears getting active duty from ROTC is getting more competitive, so if you DS wants guarantee active duty, he should look into service academies. If you are not aware, Merchant Marine Academy graduate can comissions into any military service after graudation.
 
My son had similar stats to yours, slightly lower GPA and ACT. He was awarded a 3 year AROTC scholarship. I strongly encourage your son to apply, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. My son wanted to attend an SMC as well and all are out of state. He ultimately chose VMI after an overnight confirmed it as his first choice.

VMI offered a need based scholarship , which was unexpected, and a small student loan. This has put us out of pocket about $20,000 for his first year. He will lose the need based when his AROTC scholarship kicks in. VMI does apply $1,000 towards room and board for ROTC scholarship cadets. Every little bit helps.

Like the above poster, he was offered a merit scholarship to Norwich that about cut the cost in half. His AROTC scholarship plus the free room and board to ROTC scholarship winners would have made it close to a full ride. However, distance was a factor and his heart belonged to VMI.

Citadel did not offer any assistance to my son, but it was never his top pick.
 
I agree to also look at traditional colleges. There is a sticky on this forum for colleges that automatically offer scholarships for ROTC cadets. It varies school to school. Some are only for scholarship recipients, some are for X amount of $ before even the merit kicks in.

My DS applied to UMiami back in 08. He had an AFROTC scholarship in hand, and they still offered him 100K in merit as an OOS applicant. It would have been a free ride for him, and if he decided to leave AFROTC, we would have been able to easily pay for it.

UNCCH (IS) also gave him so much merit it would have been a free ride.
 
My DS is very steadfast in his desire to attend an SMC for the purpose of obtaining a commission in either the Army or Marines. A USAF retiree myself, with yet another son serving in the Army as a warrant officer, I'm very pleased and extremely supportive of his decision. That being said, the cost of OOS tuition (we live in Florida) is enough to keep me up at night as I calculate the megaton hit to my retirement account. Unfortunately, our household income all but eliminates any chance of federal or "need based" aid so I'm curious if anyone from the forum has successfully whittled down the cost of tuition via some form of institutional aid not tied to household income? My interest pertains to all SMC's, but particularly to the cost heavy Citadel, VMI, and Norwich.
As a parent of two out of state (OOS) cadets at TAMU I understand your concern. As stated above I believe OOS cadets at TAMU get in-state tuition. Now, of course, some of the savings are eaten up in transportation costs. I believe UNG also provides OOS with in-state tuition, and they might be closer to Florida. Each of the SMC are a bit different and now one school is right for everyone, and each of 'em have their own strengths. Try to visit as many as your family, and in particular your cadet-to be can and overnight with the cadets if the cadet-to be can. Second child strongly considered SUNY Maritime but decides after overnights that TAMU was the place to be. His best frien just finished rat year at VMI and couldn't be happier. Another Boy Scout friend just finished room year at Norwich and that was the right place for him. You cadet-to be will get more up clos and personal contact with professors at VMI and The Citadel than at TAMU or V-tech especially as a freshman. There advantages and disadvantages to being with a bunch of no -cadets at TAMU or V-tech. Wish you and yours the best, you are getting 'Good Bull' (info) as they'd say at TAMU.
 
I very much appreciate everyone's feedback. I've never been afraid to wear the nuisance tag in the search for greater wisdom so I'll be pestering the board with more questions as I try to fill in the gaps. Wish I had done the homework much earlier. :(
 
I'll echo what others have said - apply for an ROTC scholarship. My son got one to VMI and that's the only way it was affordable for us. We never did find out if it would have covered room and board in addition to tuition (we had heard that it would, but we never did confirm this as he ended up at WP).

Would your son also consider West Point? He might be accepted - you never know.
 
My son is putting a package together for the service academies, but given the limited number appointments and our residence in the highly competitive state of Florida, he's exploring all options. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but it seems to me his extra-curriculars are a bit on the thin side for both the service academies and an ROTC scholarship. Still, I'm encouraging him to adopt a leave no stone unturned policy.
 
Since you are a retiree make sure you submit your paperwork for him to get a Presidential. I would also try to visit at least his top 5. I say that because just like every college has a unique feel, so does every ROTC unit.

Additionally, many units have their own scholarships. It is the same as the HSSP, but it is directly tied to that college, you can't request to transfer it.
~ I do not know for other branches, but if they are like AFROTC than by accepting their scholarship you must remove your name from the national HSSP. I would check to see if that is true for A/NROTC
 
Roger on the ROTC scholarships, but those are very limited as I understand it. And while son is an above average student (3.7/4.1 GPA, AP (x7) and Honors (x11) classes; 32 ACT; top 3% in his class), with some extracurriculars (varsity baseball, JV football, NHS, Key Club, school ambassador, math team, Habitat for Humanity, AutoCad and scuba certifications), I'm not certain he measures up to the scholarship winning profiles I've seen in the ROTC forum. Honestly, those are some amazing kids.....congrats to their parents!

I lumped Norwich in with The Citadel and VMI because their end costs are very similar. Good to know they offer the possibility of merit awards. Did you "negotiate," or did they offer upfront? Also curious if you have any insight into the alumni network. In the southeast, The Citadel has a very robust presence and I understand VMI is similarly well-connected.
My son had similar stats to yours and received a 4-year Army ROTC Scholarship to VMI. It does only cover tuition OR room & board...not both. As we are out-of-state, this too was the only way he could afford to attend VMI. I would suggest that he apply as it's a great opportunity.

As for the leftover costs, most of the balance has been through student loans via the FAFSA. He will have some debt when he gets out obviously, but we have agreed to take care of that.
 
You mention Service Academy application and the competitiveness of Fla. I may be way off and sure someone will comment if I am. His appointment can come from another state with less applicants. I was told some states don't even use all of their appointments. This could be dated info and not the case now.

As far as the heavy cost of The Citadel you mentioned, they do not cut OOS tuition as TAMU or NG does. And I think additional scholarships are hard to come by unless you get in the honors school side (can't remember the name). I guess maybe because the largest part of the undergrad school is cadets. Definitely apply for a ROTC scholarship.

I will point you to a good resource that may can answer some questions for you that is just now fresh out of the rat race, in particular with the OOS tuition decisions. His DS was looking at Norwich, North Ga, TAMU, and The Citadel. His DS just left for Aggie land. Look for Sgt Lee on the members board.
 
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I may be way off and sure someone will comment if I am. His appointment can come from another state with less applicants. I was told some states don't even use all of their appointments

This has never been true. You must be a resident of your state to get a nomination. People get confused because only 1 SA, USMMA allows candidates to apply to every congressmen and the two Senators from their state. USNA, USMA and USAFA only allow you to apply to your congressman plus your Senators.

Yes, there are MoCs that never submit slates, such as Charlie Rangel is known not to submit. That does not mean you can now apply to NY when living in FL.

Some AD military members can apply to a different state than they reside. For example, even though my DH and I owned a home in VA, we were not VA residents because the military loophole for VA states that we were not required to pay state taxes. They see it as the military forced us to move to VA. Our residency was AK. Thus, we could have used AK as our residency since that was on Bullet's home of record. When we moved to NC, they had a different rule. I was a spouse and according to them I had to take residency in NC, but Bullet didn't have to take residency. They saw it as I did not have to accompany him, thus voluntarily moved to NC. In that case DS was eligible to apply to either AK or NC since even though he was still an AK resident, he owned a home in NC and that created the loophole for AD military dependents.

I know it is confusing, and trust me I called all 6 MoCs to see if they all said the same thing. They all did. We opted him to go NC route because we felt it would be unfair to do the AK route since he was a resident by name only from a tax saving perspective. (No state taxes). My DS is ADAF right now and he has a VA residency, but his wife that was from NC, now has a Texas residency where they live and own a home. It is very common among military spouses to be residents of 2 different states.
 
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