Advice on Army Scholarship while awaiting for Waiver

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NavyUMO

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I need a little sage advice from this august group! My DS has a 4 year AROTC scholarship offer in hand to his top 3 Northwestern, Duke and USC. He has been accepted at USC but is still awaiting NW and Duke results. He signed his agreement to Northwestern to put it in by the deadline. He also has been accepted to UVA and that is in state for us and he would also be most amendable to using the scholarship there though it was lower on his preferences He is also waiting a medical waiver which the Army Waiver authority tells us may take several more months.

The Army Waiver authority told us it looks like we likely won't get word back on the waiver prior to needed school decisions, deposits etc by 1 May, DS is trying to figure out how to best position himself without "signing up" for a much more expensive proposition while awaiting the waiver which might not come to fruition. Should he contact UVA (his 5th choice) and tell them the situation. Can the scholarship be "held"? I know nothing is really official until they clear/contract in the fall but he/we would obviously invest a lot personally and financially if he heads down a particular school path that doesn't come to fruition.

I look forward to seeing folks' sage thoughts/advice.
 
The scholarship cannot be "held" and will only be activated after he is cleared by DoDMERB. There are many cases where this does not occur until 2nd Semester of freshman year. The advice that is routinely given is do not attend a school that you cannot afford without the scholarship. CC is also very helpful in transferring the scholarship, so I would not worry about that at this time. Hopefully your DS will be cleared soon and can get on with making some decisions. Good luck.
 
My own opinion is to always pick a school you can afford without a scholarship. Should the student discover that ROTC is not for them, or if they are dropped for other reasons (eg academic performance, medical, DUI, etc) what would you do then? Picking a college you can afford allows an opportunity to remain at the college without a scholarship. UVA is an excellent school provided they offer his desired major.
 
Agree with the thread. I come from a ROTC family (lost count across 3 generations - Army & Navy). Go in state to UVA (great school!), participate in Army ROTC without contracting if possible before sorting out the medical. Focus on gen ed courses that can easily transfer if necessary. If first year AROTC does not work out, it will still count as an elective there or most other places. Good luck!
 
Agree with the others....choose a school that you can sustain if you lose the ROTC scholarship.
 
@MullenLE posts here routinely and I believe works in DoDMERB. Have you tried to reach out to him here through, perhaps, the DoDMERB forum? It seems like he's incredibly helpful.
 
franknd said:
@MullenLE posts here routinely and I believe works in DoDMERB. Have you tried to reach out to him here through, perhaps, the DoDMERB forum? It seems like he's incredibly helpful.
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Yes, Larry Mullen does work for DODMERB. He usually answers DODMERB questions if your son emails him directly. As far as waiver timeline and likelihood of receiving one, it would depend on the disqualifying condition. If you PM me the DQ, I should be able to give the historical data for what criteria was need for that specific DQ to be waived.
 
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