Can you challenge/ change the Fin. Aid Total Cost to Attend the University Number?

[Herman_Snerd]

GM, My DS has received 4 year scholarship offers from AROTC and AFROTC. The university will cover room and board, too for all 4 years (taxable, and yet still great). But he is an aviation student, so there additionally are about 50k in flight fees remaining since he is already a private pilot. the university will let him apply most of the merit scholarships he's been given toward flight costs, but only up to the total cost of attendance from the financial aid letter.

Does anyone have experience in asking the university to raise that total cost attendance number, to include flight fees? Ohio State for example noted you can appeal and they will raise it. So far about half of the schools have included the flight fees in this total cost number without being asked. Has anyone been successful in appealing / asking for that number to be increased in order to keep more of the merit scholarships (in addition to the awesome tuition, books, fees, room, board already covered) through ROTC?

Please share any guidance/ experiences you may have had. Typically this degree and flight licenses cost about 320k when all is said and done. If he can end up getting nearly all of this covered AND have the opportunity to serve, it will be absolutely incredible.

Thanks,
Hermie Sr.

 

[Montana State Army ROTC]

The Army will not pay flight fees. Cadet command knows how much the university costs so asking the school to fudge the bill wont work.

On a side note- these aviation programs are probably not worth it bc the Army will teach you to fly all over again. And the program doesn’t guarantee Aviation as a branch.

 

[Whisky65]

GM, My DS has received 4 year scholarship offers from AROTC and AFROTC. The university will cover room and board, too for all 4 years (taxable, and yet still great). But he is an aviation student, so there additionally are about 50k in flight fees remaining since he is already a private pilot. the university will let him apply most of the merit scholarships he's been given toward flight costs, but only up to the total cost of attendance from the financial aid letter.

Does anyone have experience in asking the university to raise that total cost attendance number, to include flight fees? Ohio State for example noted you can appeal and they will raise it. So far about half of the schools have included the flight fees in this total cost number without being asked. Has anyone been successful in appealing / asking for that number to be increased in order to keep more of the merit scholarships (in addition to the awesome tuition, books, fees, room, board already covered) through ROTC?

Please share any guidance/ experiences you may have had. Typically this degree and flight licenses cost about 320k when all is said and done. If he can end up getting nearly all of this covered AND have the opportunity to serve, it will be absolutely incredible.

Thanks,
Hermie Sr.

I'm not sure cheating ROTC is a good start to your military career?

 

[Herman_Snerd]

The Army will not pay flight fees. Cadet command knows how much the university costs so asking the school to fudge the bill wont work.

On a side note- these aviation programs are probably not worth it bc the Army will teach you to fly all over again. And the program doesn’t guarantee Aviation as a branch.

Thanks. Um. Just to clarify. Agree army will not pay the flight fees. They don’t need to and I’m not asking them to. Beyond army, I’m asking about using other awarded merit scholarships to cover flight fees. Which is allowed up to the total cost in the financial aid letter. Not fudging the bill or handing it to the army. Am exploring having the flight fees added to the total cost for merit use only.

I’ll have to reread my note if it implies cooking the books. Not the goal here.

 

[Herman_Snerd]

GM, My DS has received 4 year scholarship offers from AROTC and AFROTC. The university will cover room and board, too for all 4 years (taxable, and yet still great). But he is an aviation student, so there additionally are about 50k in flight fees remaining since he is already a private pilot. the university will let him apply most of the merit scholarships he's been given toward flight costs, but only up to the total cost of attendance from the financial aid letter.

Does anyone have experience in asking the university to raise that total cost attendance number, to include flight fees? Ohio State for example noted you can appeal and they will raise it. So far about half of the schools have included the flight fees in this total cost number without being asked. Has anyone been successful in appealing / asking for that number to be increased in order to keep more of the merit scholarships (in addition to the awesome tuition, books, fees, room, board already covered) through ROTC?

Please share any guidance/ experiences you may have had. Typically this degree and flight licenses cost about 320k when all is said and done. If he can end up getting nearly all of this covered AND have the opportunity to serve, it will be absolutely incredible.

Thanks,
Hermie Sr.

I'm not sure cheating ROTC is a good start to your military career?

So. Guess my note missed the mark. I agree with you by the way. This note is not about the rotc scholarship. There are other threads asking about merit use for other fees not covered by the army. This is like that only. Again I’ll need to re read what I wrote and apologies for the confusion


I don’t have great looks, the ability to dunk a basketball or wealth but my integrity is rock solid.

 

[Jcleppe]

Just curious, what does he get for the 50K that's spent on the Aviation Fees since he already has his PPL.

 

[Humey]

Just curious, what does he get for the 50K that's spent on the Aviation Fees since he already has his PPL.

My son's major at Purdue was Professional Flight. To answer your question, my son got a commerical, instrument and multi engine license out of his major. He was taught to fly an executive Jet as well as an acrobatic plane. He was taught the basics on engines and plane design. His is now at Air Force UPT and while he had to learn how to fly the Air Force, he was 1 of 3 who were picked out of his class to fly the T-38, which is a fighter trainer. My point is that he had a nice edge going in. His college friend who also got the same degree lost his pilot spot because of vision, is now at RPA training. They cut 6 months out of his training because of what he learned from his degree. Also, because they went to an accredited college, if they were to work for an airline, they would only need 1000 hours of flight time compared to everyone else who needs 15oo hours

 

[Dckc88]

I understood your post completely, I knew what you meant about the COA, and being able to use financial aid. Not only to be able to use merit, but even if you or you student were going to use some loans for the cost, it would need to be part of the COA. How I understand the COA, is that it should include any mandatory fees, which is why some schools have a different fee schedule and COA for different programs. I don’t know the answer, but I think the first step would be to call the financial aid office and ask. No harm in asking in my opinion. I have found that many times it is a student answering the phones, especially at larger universities, so your u might have it ask to speak with someone else since this is likely an issue that doesn’t arise often. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Jcleppe]

Thanks Humey, I alway wondered how that program worked.

 

[Herman_Snerd]

Quick follow-up. For those of us with children receiving ROTC scholarships, there are often still costs to attend college. Specifically, room and board for some, and in my DS's case, significant flight fees. The amount of scholarship moneys you can "keep" is governed by the total cost to attend number in your financial aid package.

This may be understood by some but for those curious, I've spoken with two universities and confirmed that, yes, you can appeal to get the the Total Cost to Attend Number increased. This is the overall number which is used to determine both how much subsidized funds you can borrow (for those who qualify via FAFSA) and beyond your military ROTC scholarship, how much Merit scholarships you can keep to apply toward room/ board or other needs.

In 2 requests, both universities responded to increase this number, so that now he'll be able to keep the entire merit scholarship they offered him to apply for flight fees, in addition to the tuition/ fees/stipend/book stipend from the Army. He'll also be able to keep more of other merit scholarships awarded from outside groups to apply toward his flight fees should he receive them. Had they not offered room and board, he could have applied the additional merit scholarship moneys to room and board too.

On quick additional notes - @Dckc88, thank you for the constructive response.
@Jcleppe / @Humey, excellent question and response that I found interesting and future readers will find helpful.

 

[Pima]

Happy to hear that it worked out for your family.

May I ask why your DS opted to go Army over AF in this case? Army is traditionally RW with very few fixed. Is it because he wants helos? Want RW go Army, want fixed you go AF.

Think about it this way...if the 82nd needs to jump out of perfectly good airplanes they call the AF for the ride. If troops on the ground need air support they call the AF or Navy. If they need supplies delivered or heavy equipment, the AF does the job.
~ I know this since my DS is an AF C130J pilot and he is constantly doing many missions with the Army. My DH flew the 15E so he answered the calls when deployed to the sandbox for air support. It was his squadron that answered Prince Harry's call for air support. (The call that ended up sending Harry back home due to his identity was blown)

Does the school offer helo options? If not how will he maintain his fixed wing hrs upon commissioning and going RW? You can't step out for 5-6 yrs and come right back into a fixed wing if you have not kept up with it. You will need to go back for re-training ($$$).
~ I am not sure what the time/flight hrs needed to get back the certs, but I can say definitely that even if you are in the AF, and fly a desk for @3 yrs., and return to the exact same airframe, the AF will send you to a 6-9 week courses to get requalified. They don't just let you get right back in the plane because you have 1000 hrs. Heck, even on a daily/weekly/monthly/annual basis as a rated officer they will send you up for re-qual checks. Admin will send down to scheduling...Capt Smith needs to take this specific night mission to keep their night rating.

Hence, my curiosity of why pay this kind of money if they only offer fixed wing, but he wants to go Helo.