Book Stipend

anon2021

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How much money do cadets get paid each semester or year for books? Is it true that the excess money is ours? If that's the case, I will probably CAREFULLY buy the correct books, used and save the rest of the money. Is that possible?
 
I'm not sure how it is for USMA but a USCGA cadet told me he only pocketed a few hundred dollars after taxes and other schoop related expenses.
 
How much money do cadets get paid each semester or year for books? Is it true that the excess money is ours? If that's the case, I will probably CAREFULLY buy the correct books, used and save the rest of the money. Is that possible?

Break out your highlighter, pore through:

https://www.usma.edu/parents/SiteAs...9d%2D4b43%2D8ad2%2Dd181155e316b&CurrentPage=1

Funny, I knew there was a budget book for USNA midshipmen, and got this via Google first try for the USMA equivalent.

I know I didn’t answer your specific question, but I’m sure the WP family will contribute. I wanted you to see you receive actual active duty pay, and there are a lot of mandatory deductions. It works in a different way than ROTC stipends.
 
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You’ll receive a book stipend based on class year and course load every semester except your first when the Academt will purchase your books for you. It’s a couple hundred dollars and more than enough to cover your books because it’s based on if you purchased them through the Academy book store new. If you’re smart, you can pocket a great deal of it if you’re buying used but don’t be that cadet who doesn’t buy their books. You’re there to learn. Be smart about it.
 
Cadet base pay is 35% of an O-1.

It was once 50%. Another reason for an old grad to grumble, but still better than paying $60k+ for civilian college.
 
How much money do cadets get paid each semester or year for books? Is it true that the excess money is ours? If that's the case, I will probably CAREFULLY buy the correct books, used and save the rest of the money. Is that possible?
My son is a plebe. For first semester all books are paid for. Next semester then he has to purchase books. The stipend that he has not used since August would be enough to pay for books. The instructors will let them know books to purchase in advance from what I understand.
 
I am 100% sure the left over money will be your to keep. DS purchased book from upper class men or on Amazon, he said you can even rent the book if you want to save even more.
 
You’ll receive a book stipend based on class year and course load every semester except your first when the Academt will purchase your books for you. It’s a couple hundred dollars and more than enough to cover your books because it’s based on if you purchased them through the Academy book store new. If you’re smart, you can pocket a great deal of it if you’re buying used but don’t be that cadet who doesn’t buy their books. You’re there to learn. Be smart about it.
Well.... DS is a Cow and he just discovered that he had an account where the Academy was depositing the book money. He didn't know about the account which has several thousand dollars in it. He said he hasn't been purchasing books. Don't ask me how you take classes without having the books because I wouldn't have been able to do that, but somehow he has done well academically. I'm with you. Buy the books.
 
My son is a plebe. For first semester all books are paid for.

To clarify.. paid for means that the cost of books was deducted from his cadet account. College text books have changed a lot over the years....back in my day you had to go to the book issue point (I think it was near the uniform factory) and just picked up the books. There was no other way to get them. Now you can get them much cheaper used or rented which is great.
 
The cost of books are deducted from the cadet account, a scary place for us to look into because half the time we don’t know what’s going on with it. Your cadet account is basically money you don’t see, and the amount of cash that goes in there is what’s left of your paycheck, essentially.

If you’re asking about total pay, every cadet makes about $1080 a month. However, a different quantity of that cash goes to a cadet’s personal account.

Plebes get approximately $225.
Yuks get around $300.
Cows see about $475.
Firsties get $550.

Excess money in the cadet account is known as “topoff.” It is true that cadets may request topoff from their cadet accounts, but the request isn’t approved very often.
 
Haven't heard of requests being denied. DS did topoff twice, no problem. Maybe if finance sees big expenses coming up, they'll hesitate.
 
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