Army ROTC 2023-2024 3rd Board

ROTC_has_been said:
Was the financial package offered before or after they knew about the ROTC award? If they are joining the Corps of Cadets at A&M, there may be a special financial package offered for the Freshman year for 3-year scholarship winners which my son will be taking. Citadel offers such a thing like VT and other service academies...I would look into it if A&M is the #1 choice for college.
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They said that they had come into some additional funds and were going to offer the 3year winners additional money to help with the 4th year.
 
SchweatyYeti said:
Schools are clambering to get 3 year scholarships, especially if you son will be are part of the Corps of Cadets at A&M. Its far less money the school has to shell out in scholarships/grants later on. I can name quite a few schools that compete for kids with 3 years, by offering significant scholarships like paid tuition for their freshman year. We speak from experience, so talk to your schools Financial Aid team, and inform them that your son has a 3 year in hand.

It will greatly help having a competing second school or even a third school already accepted into that is offering something for Freshmen wit a 3 year. In our case, both military public schools our DS son was excepted to were offering tuition freshmen year then room and board soph - senior year. We took that to his third school and they trumped both schools, and was the right choice for him.

Its just business and negotiations. Schools want them, maybe even more, then they want to go.
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I called the ROO, there isn’t negotiation. You get what you got.
 
jketron said:
I called the ROO, there isn’t negotiation. You get what you got.
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The Army isn't going to negotiate with you at this point, but the school might. You can certainly try to finagle things with the financial aid office, and depending on your FAFSA, they may be able to "find" some additional aid for your DS if you demonstrate need.
 
Pa-Outdoorsman.....We were in the exact situation as I am speaking of The Citadel, and also out of SC. I am reading directly off their 2022 flyer to which they covered tuition and fees for the gap year (freshmen 3-year ROTC) for the Class of '26. "will cover tuition and fees for that gap year.... representing as much as $36,400 savings per student. Combined with the room and board funding, that represents a potential savings of about $68,000 over few years for those individuals". (ROTC pays tuition). Just had to maintain a 2.5 GPA during the 4 years at The Citadel.

They may have stopped the program or now offering something different.

Our DS was hard charging to The Citadel too. We showed that program above to colleges that also had ROTC units, and some trumped it. That was just our experience. The Citadel was not willing to move that much more (in our case). The Citadel is terrific and wanted him to go there. Money talked on this one.

My points are still:

1) 3 years scholarship winners have significant desires for colleges to pull them in. Colleges are willing to negotiate in many cases.
2) Talk to finical aid officers, let them know you have a 3-year in hand. Some may say "no more movement"; others may say "we will be right back with a better offer". Our experience was definitely the later.
3) It never hurts to ask. All they can say is "no".
 
jketron..... to be clear, I am not talking the ROTC program or ROO. I am talking college financial aid and grant offices to make freshman year affordable for folks that did not get a 4 year.

ROTC will not move....its the individual colleges that might/will because of a kid now has a 3-year.
 
SchweatyYeti said:
Pa-Outdoorsman.....We were in the exact situation as I am speaking of The Citadel, and also out of SC. I am reading directly off their 2022 flyer to which they covered tuition and fees for the gap year (freshmen 3-year ROTC) for the Class of '26. "will cover tuition and fees for that gap year.... representing as much as $36,400 savings per student. Combined with the room and board funding, that represents a potential savings of about $68,000 over few years for those individuals". (ROTC pays tuition). Just had to maintain a 2.5 GPA during the 4 years at The Citadel.

They may have stopped the program or now offering something different.

Our DS was hard charging to The Citadel too. We showed that program above to colleges that also had ROTC units, and some trumped it. That was just our experience. The Citadel was not willing to move that much more (in our case). The Citadel is terrific and wanted him to go there. Money talked on this one.

My points are still:

1) 3 years scholarship winners have significant desires for colleges to pull them in. Colleges are willing to negotiate in many cases.
2) Talk to finical aid officers, let them know you have a 3-year in hand. Some may say "no more movement"; others may say "we will be right back with a better offer". Our experience was definitely the later.
3) It never hurts to ask. All they can say is "no".
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Yes, I agree. They can't get mad at you for asking -- and all they can say is no.

As far as The Citadel, that is DS's #1 at present. He also is accepted to Charleston Southern, which is a crosstown program. They offer free room and board to ROTC winners and also have given DS a very nice merit scholarship award. It looks like it would be more affordable to go there than The Citadel for freshman year, though he would still be in the Citadel's AROTC program and be on campus a couple times each week. Would be nice if The Citadel could at least match with a merit-based scholarship award on top of ROTC incentives for 3-year winners.

Thanks for the information regarding their program. I know they launched that a couple years ago with great fanfare. Best I can tell is they have scaled back somewhat on just how much "extra juice" they are offering the 3-year winners. As you shared, it may have been full tuition and room and board that first year, but now it looks like all they are doing is giving you in-state tuition for your first year and a partial offset of room and board. Not sure why they scaled it back; maybe they haven't been raising enough money to pay for it?

I also just checked with VMI. They offer some pretty impressive benefits for 3-year winners and they are still accepting applications. So, I am going to suggest DS submit his application. Not sure how interested he will be, but as you said, it's good to have options and perhaps be able to get an attractive offer that can be shared with other schools that may be interested in competing for a student.

Like you said, a 3-year winner is worth a lot in years 2, 3 and 4, when you know the school isn't going to offer any discounts to the Army and will be charging Uncle Sam full out-of-state tuition and fees.
 
Norwich covered all of my kid’s first year with his 3year AROTC scholarship. They’re known for giving a lot of aid. Rolling admissions too. All we paid for was uniforms and books. Books are now included in tuition so that went to zero second semester. It’s been a great deal for us and a great year for him!!! Highly recommend you reach out to them or apply.
 
Some colleges will work with you and some won't. Some ROTC units will help too. My older son had a large merit scholarship to Pepperdine that could only be used for Tuition...not R&B. If we used ROTC for R&B for $10K per year DS could have went to Pepperdine for $8K per year. But University of San Diego was incredibly flexible. Now DS is a Soph. and loving beach life and not paying for anything. My youngest was a 3 year winner just upgraded. He had schools that offered to pick up first year for him (Ole Miss, WVU) or part of it to the extent we'd make it work. TCU, Montana State and Embry Riddle all upped their merit. Not full coverage but bearable. If you are dead set on a specific school then there is not much you can do if they aren't flexible. I started my son looking at stretch schools and at schools he'd be in their top 10 % of applicants as well. Kids will love most places they go to college. I loved my college and it really pales in comparison to the options my sons have.
 
SchweatyYeti said:
jketron..... to be clear, I am not talking the ROTC program or ROO. I am talking college financial aid and grant offices to make freshman year affordable for folks that did not get a 4 year.

ROTC will not move....its the individual colleges that might/will because of a kid now has a 3-year.
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The ROO called my DD (3 year winner) yesterday to say that he put her name in for the Trustee (or Presidential or similar) scholarship at her school. If she is not accepted, I'm fairly confident that the Bn will offer her something to supplement the 3-year. She has been pretty frank with the ROO and the collegiate DI coach that we cannot afford this OOS state university otherwise.
 
Just an FYI to the "non-select" population - USACC is balancing the books right now and are allocating additional 3AD scholarships to the Brigades. If you still see, "Boarded/Under Consideration" - you're still in the hunt over the next couple of weeks.

Anticipate that each Brigade will handle this differently (unless explicitly told otherwise). Some will retain at Brigade-level and balance out 3ADs between programs. Some will apportion them to the programs to choose winners.
 
formerPMS said:
Just an FYI to the "non-select" population - USACC is balancing the books right now and are allocating additional 3AD scholarships to the Brigades. If you still see, "Boarded/Under Consideration" - you're still in the hunt over the next couple of weeks.

Anticipate that each Brigade will handle this differently (unless explicitly told otherwise). Some will retain at Brigade-level and balance out 3ADs between programs. Some will apportion them to the programs to choose winners.
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Really interesting information. That's exciting to hear for those who were not selected.

Do you mind sharing where you got this info -- from an ROO, directly from Cadet Command, etc?
 
jketron said:
I called the ROO, there isn’t negotiation. You get what you got.
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Interesting! My ds attended a Corps of Cadets dinner last month. He’s already received a 2K/year scholarship on top of his 4-yr ROTC/Patriot scholarships, but was told more were available to him as soon as he accepts and confirms Corps intention. Was your DS told any of that? I wonder if that is because they are already considering the $$ he’s getting to bring his OOS tuition down to in-state rates.
 
99Gold said:
Interesting! My ds attended a Corps of Cadets dinner last month. He’s already received a 2K/year scholarship on top of his 4-yr ROTC/Patriot scholarships, but was told more were available to him as soon as he accepts and confirms Corps intention. Was your DS told any of that? I wonder if that is because they are already considering the $$ he’s getting to bring his OOS tuition down to in-state rates.
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Probably varies by school, depending on how much campus-based scholarship funding they have available and how badly they need to/want to lure new cadets into the program.

IDK what school @jketron is talking about. Do you? Also, what school are you talking about @99Gold ?
 
99Gold said:
Interesting! My ds attended a Corps of Cadets dinner last month. He’s already received a 2K/year scholarship on top of his 4-yr ROTC/Patriot scholarships, but was told more were available to him as soon as he accepts and confirms Corps intention. Was your DS told any of that? I wonder if that is because they are already considering the $$ he’s getting to bring his OOS tuition down to in-state rates.
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There is a scholarship he gets now, the 2k and the other one one that offsets out of state tuition to be the same as in-state.

With both of those we will owe 30k for the first year.
 
Milarmymarinelady said:
Norwich covered all of my kid’s first year with his 3year AROTC scholarship. They’re known for giving a lot of aid. Rolling admissions too. All we paid for was uniforms and books. Books are now included in tuition so that went to zero second semester. It’s been a great deal for us and a great year for him!!! Highly recommend you reach out to them or apply.
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Norwich is a hidden gem for many reasons, especially financial aid considerations. They're also generous with their merit awards. Our son got their top level merit aid award long before he was selected for his ROTC awards. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you're in a financial conundrum.
 
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