H2O Mom
H2O Mom, that's awesome DS got a full academic scholarship. If you get the NROTC scholarship, understand that you will lose the academic scholarship. Since NROTC doesn't pay room & board, the only thing the NROTC would pay that is more than the academic scholarship is the $750 for books and the monthly stipend of $2500 freshman year and $3000 sophomore year. In other words, it doesn’t pay much more than the academic scholarship. You also would get about $800 for the 3/C and 2/C summer cruises. You may want to consider keeping the academic scholarship and going College Program. This will maximize your son’s GI Bill accrual for graduate school. NAVADMIN 187/09 (google it) states that: THE MINIMUM ACTIVE DUTY SERVICE REQUIREMENT FOR NAVAL ACADEMY GRADUATES AND NAVY RESERVE OFFICER TRAINING CORPS SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS DOES NOT COUNT AS QUALIFYING ACTIVE DUTY TIME. What this means is your son could leave the Navy in 3 years with the ability to pay for 100% of his graduate school if he goes College Program. If he took the NROTC Scholarship, he would not be able to leave the Navy will a full GI Bill until after 8 years (5 years of active duty service requirement + 3 more years to maximize the GI Bill and activate Yellow Ribbon benefits-very important and lucrative). If he ends up staying in for a career, then this is irrelevant. But if he finds that a Navy career might not be for him, being able to leave with a full GI Bill after 3 years, vs. 8 years is a big difference. Check out the VA website for GI Bill info, especially the Yellow Ribbon program. My daughter will use my GI Bill (you can give it to family members) to attend the University of Michigan and it will pay $218,000 which is 100% of her Bachelors degree costs. Keep in mind that graduate tuition is even higher so the GI Bill is worth even more for graduate work. With the College Program, DS will still get a $3500 stipend his Junior year and a $4000 stipend his senior year, plus about $800 for his summer cruise after his Junior year. Hard to think years down the road when you're just sorting out college plans now, but this could make a big difference in how DS' life plays out down the road.