Finally qualified. What's next?

^
Actually I should have clarified - Merit scholarship that are offered by the institution. Sometimes these are offered at admission based on the applicants stats. Each college is different some kids only get merit scholarships if they have "need" and sometimes there are restrictions that they be used for tuition.

In thinking further about this - I think the real payoff is when financial aid is filed for the sophomore year -all the monies received from ROTC (monthly allowance, book allowance, tuition) don't have to be declared. This will keep some needy student from falling through the cracks and they may still be eligible to receive Pell and other grants to help with room and board.
 
Yes, every financial situation is different. She may find that they remove the waiver of part of the OOS tuition since her tuition is fully paid.

What this means is the dollar value of the scholarship doesn't have to be reported as "income of financial assistance" on the FAFSA for Pell eligibility.
I just don't want folks to get over excited thinking that financial aid will pick up the room and board tab. In some cases that just won't happen.

Every student who applies for financial aid is eligible to borrow Stafford loans. The mix of unsubsizied vs subsidized is dependent on need.
Just as an example - if you do the FAFSA and your EFC is $10,000 and room and board are $9000 - don't expect any thing other than loans. Awarding of merit scholarships or other institutional grants are at the discretion of the admissions and financial aid department.

Yes, it will be interesting to see how Eau Claire handles goaliegirl's tuition waiver. They told me that we should not report it as an outside scholarship. When the Army deposits the big check to the account, it will be after the waiver has been applied, so what happens to the excess funds, will be interesting.

In my employment, I get a tuition waiver for myself or my dependents at public institutions in my home state. If goaliegirl were to attend in-state and get an ROTC scholarship, the PMS here told me that she would indeed get to keep the tuition waiver even with the ROTC scholarship and state lottery scholarship.

Not that these two situations are the same, but it does give me reason to believe that the moneys awarded can be fungible. And since you can pay the tuition in advance of when the Army pays (to avoid fee payment plan charges), it would give hope to the idea that the excess ROTC scholarship moneys paid can be paid out at the end of the year.

The person I talked to in the FA office did have goaligirl's file handy and didn't say a thing about her tuition waiver, so who knows? We certainly will find out.

As to the Stafford Loan situation, I believe subsidized Staffords are only allowed up to the unmet EFC, but not to cover EFC. Unsubsidized Staffords can be issued to meet EFC. In our case, R&B (the only cost not covered by the ROTC scholarship) is less than our EFC, so if the ROTC scholarship had been considered financial assistance, we would have lost our subsidized Staffords.

I agree that each individual case is different. There will be some who greatly benefit from this change - families like ours who have substantial need but lose out on subsidized loans because of the scholarship.

And if anything else, at least students won't need to update their FA awards, which is one fewer mistake to be made in the paperwork process.
 
^
Actually I should have clarified - Merit scholarship that are offered by the institution. Sometimes these are offered at admission based on the applicants stats. Each college is different some kids only get merit scholarships if they have "need" and sometimes there are restrictions that they be used for tuition.

In thinking further about this - I think the real payoff is when financial aid is filed for the sophomore year -all the monies received from ROTC (monthly allowance, book allowance, tuition) don't have to be declared. This will keep some needy student from falling through the cracks and they may still be eligible to receive Pell and other grants to help with room and board.

Actually, I'm not sure about the stipend not having to be declared. I believe such stipends still have to be included when filling out federal tax returns in certain places (as non-taxable income) and I believe FAFSA asks about those non-taxable income dollars from the tax return. However, I do think that actual scholarship and book allowance are considered "benefits" and not non-taxable income as they are paid to reimburse a paid for item.

Now if these are being treated as a benefit, my next interest is if the amount will still be included in the 1098 issued by the school? Or because it is like an employer supplied reimbursement, the school leaves it up to the student to declare (if necessary) the amount of the reimbursement when filing taxes to counterbalance the tution not covered by a "scholarship".

This is the downside of all of the tax ramifications of financial aid. You almost need a college degree in finance to understand the FA to get the degree in finance. :rolleyes:
 
And since you can pay the tuition in advance of when the Army pays (to avoid fee payment plan charges)


My FA office said that the since the scholarship comes in late and they know that from experience they will waive whatever late fees there are once the scholarship comes in.

PS-I actually reported the ROTC scholarship to the office as an outside scholarship.
 
Last evening DD completed a supplemental FA form that was requested by the Pitt FA office. DD had listed her AFROTC scholarship as an outside FA source, as the form specifically notes to list ROTC scholarships. (the form is dated for fall 2010-spring2011)

However, after rereading goaliedad’s posts and the DOE info sheet several times again this morning , DD and I have decided not to mail it off just yet until we get additional clarification, or until we educated our FA office.

Has anyone received any additional guidance or had any communication with your FA office concerning if in fact they will/are exclude ROTC scholarship as EFA?
 
I talked to the financial aid office and did not get much clarity. The person I talked to did not feel the ROTC scholarship would affect her offer whether it was included or not as external financial aid. This makes no sense to me.

We have not received any additional forms or requests for scholarship details. My plan is to respond to such a request by not listing the scholarship but including a note that she has an ROTC scholarship that is no longer to be considered as an external financial aid per the information provided by GoalieDad.
 
I think I'm already on record for not planning to list the AFROTC scholarship at all. We are not receiving any university or state FA, so the only FA is Federal (loans) which is not supposed to be affected by the ROTC scholarship. I would rather ask forgiveness than permission.

I suspect this issue will get a lot more attention in another 3 months.:eek:
 
I think I'm already on record for not planning to list the AFROTC scholarship at all. We are not receiving any university or state FA, so the only FA is Federal (loans) which is not supposed to be affected by the ROTC scholarship. I would rather ask forgiveness than permission.

I suspect this issue will get a lot more attention in another 3 months.:eek:



If we don't list the ROTC scholarship, then I assume it will be given to the student. How is this reimbursement done? Will a check be issued directly to the student or will it go to the university and post as a refund on the students account and then they will in turn issue a check to the student.

As you said, I am sure more of this will come up in the next few months. We just wanted to get an idea of how this whole process works. Thanks.
 
I was told by an University of Pittsburgh FA rep that the various ROTC programs provide a list of scholarship recipients to the FA office prior to school beginning. The college is then willing to wait for their money from the U.S. Government. Obviously we still need to pay whatever room and board costs that we owe (and ROTC is not paying) before the beginning of classes.
 
FA office at my son's school gets a list of ROTC scholarships and waits for their payment until well into the semester. However, all room and board for the fall semester must be paid and showing in the system prior to students moving in. Last year (freshman year for him) his Stafford Loan had not processed yet, so we we paid it up front. The money was refunded to him by check from the university once the loan processed.
 
Back
Top