I agree paradoxer. Additionally, as stated before there is the question of qualifying for the private loans. Yes, they qualified this year for 30K, but what if next year with additional tuition costs it adds up to 35K, and this time they say no. How does he pay at that point without a scholarship.
A couple of other things.
1. What branch are we talking about?
~ Commissioning via AFROTC or NROTC means you will go AD upon commissioning. From an employment opportunity aspect a lot is going to be tied to those 4 years in the military. Additionally, many officers will use tuition assistance for grad school. Add that to having a TS clearance and many defense contractors will be looking at you when you leave the service.
~~ AROTC is the only one that does not mandate AD upon commissioning, so it could be true for employment opportunities that other things play into the employment opportunites.
2. As great as the suggestions of thinking about other colleges, the OP right now, unless they go to a CC is stuck with ERAU as their only option for this year.
~ Additionally there is some confusion whether the OP is attending ERAU in AZ or Florida. The tip of applying for their in state college is a good one, but maybe it is just me....they probably did due dilligence for their IS colleges and decided even with the cost they wanted ERAU over their state colleges.
Kensy, to answer some direct questions/ posts of yours.
1. Saving 4K is kind of a fallacy.
~ You are probably not adding in things like food, electricity, cable, etc. to run an apartment.
~~ Typical apartment leases are 12 months. Just because you look up apartments off campus and they say 400 a month it doesn't equate to 3600, the 9 months in school. It is probably 4800 in the end.
~~~ There will also be long days on campus. Are you going to bring lunch? Living on campus you have that food covered, living off you have to think about paying for it.
2. Benefits of being on scholarship.
~ Stipend and book allowances is the biggie.
~~ Otherwise we go back to which ROTC program?
~~~ AFROTC does not give any edge to scholarship cadets when it comes to summer field training aka EA. The AFROTC scholarship here is known as 2+2. You are guaranteed the scholarship through your sophomore year. Not selected for SFT/EA than all bets are off. NROTC is different, it is guaranteed for all 4 years as long you meet their requirements.
EDelahanty, I disagree with your post:
Any body with a pulse can qualify for loans. That's because as long as you still have a pulse you are obliged to repay your student loans.
This is true for FAFSA, but not private companies like Wells Fargo, Discovery and USAA. For most applicants they require a co-signer. If the folks don't meet the credit score than the kid is SOL. This goes back to my point about regarding this year they got 30K, but next year they could be denied. Mom and Dad next year might buy an Escalade with a loan, and they can say that the folks are now at the limit as a co-signer. My sister in law saw this happen when her DD was a rising junior. She was forced to cosign for the private loans freshmen and sophomore year. As a cosigner that debt also went against her credit score. She has a 6 figure salary, but when you add in her mtg., car payment and credit cards, if her DD defaulted on the loan they could not be sure she could pay back the private loan.
~ The OP in theory, no scholarship in college places the cosigner on the hook for 120K. I own a home, have no car payments and doubt I would get qualified for a total of 120K in college loans as a cosigner. 120K is conservative because we are not placing into the equation of a attendance cost increase.