NROTC SCHOLARSHIP

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Jolevy

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Jan 22, 2024
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So glad to have found this forum. I am trying to learn as much as I can about NROTC. My son was awarded the scholarship and if he follows through this will be our 3rd child in the military and a completely different branch.

I’m curious as to how the Navy pays for classes. For example, my daughter is in AROTC and she gets the money deposited into her bank for her to disburse payments as she sees fit. We are in Florida and my son will also have bright futures to help with tuition. Any input is appreciated!
 
Congratulations 🎉! For NROTC, my son uses the state ROTC waiver tuition & uses the NROTC $ for his room/board. The trick is to plan ahead as they don’t get that $ right away - it takes a few months. He has to budget accordingly - making sure has enough saved up for his rent/food while he waits for the $ to drop each semester. Of course, we help when he’s in a bind - but it has to be a true bind (not because he spent too much $ on his golf habit).
 
Jolevy said:
So glad to have found this forum. I am trying to learn as much as I can about NROTC. My son was awarded the scholarship and if he follows through this will be our 3rd child in the military and a completely different branch.

I’m curious as to how the Navy pays for classes. For example, my daughter is in AROTC and she gets the money deposited into her bank for her to disburse payments as she sees fit. We are in Florida and my son will also have bright futures to help with tuition. Any input is appreciated!
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Granted, for me it was the early 2000s, but my tuition was paid directly -- I never had money put into any account (other than my monthly stipend). The only exception is when I won some scholarships later, the excess funds between those and the NROTC money in my student account was refunded to me.


The stipend wasn't enough for room/board/food though, so I still worked part-time jobs all through school since I had no parental support. Granted, after being enlisted it felt easy juggling college/NRTOC/work. :cool:
 
NROTC paid my DS school - University of San Diego - directly. The school understood that the tuition payments were slow from NROTC so it was never a problem if they were a bit late.
 
Jolevy said:
So glad to have found this forum. I am trying to learn as much as I can about NROTC. My son was awarded the scholarship and if he follows through this will be our 3rd child in the military and a completely different branch.

I’m curious as to how the Navy pays for classes. For example, my daughter is in AROTC and she gets the money deposited into her bank for her to disburse payments as she sees fit. We are in Florida and my son will also have bright futures to help with tuition. Any input is appreciated!
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I strongly recommend that you or your son reach out to the Veterans Affairs office for the university. They can help sort out the various tuition input options.

The NROTC unit will have a person who handles HR matters, and someone else who manages tuition appropriations. The Supply/Disbursing person sends a list to the university's Bursar stating who gets their tuition paid. If the person is also eligible for other tuition arrangements such as an athletic scholarship or Bright Futures, then the Veterans Affairs office sorts out which takes precedence.

Some people will take the Bright Futures to cover tuition, and then have NROTC pay room.and board. Either way, that money goes straight from the government to the university.

Your son will receive a stipend check or have it sent through EFT. Hopefully he doesn't have it sent to your bank account and then bug you for money each month. :)
 
Jolevy said:
So glad to have found this forum. I am trying to learn as much as I can about NROTC. My son was awarded the scholarship and if he follows through this will be our 3rd child in the military and a completely different branch.

I’m curious as to how the Navy pays for classes. For example, my daughter is in AROTC and she gets the money deposited into her bank for her to disburse payments as she sees fit. We are in Florida and my son will also have bright futures to help with tuition. Any input is appreciated!
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Congrats. I also have 3 in the military, two different services. Welcome to that club 😎
 
My son is in NROTC at Univ of Tampa (UT), which is a crosstown of Univ of South Florida (USF). He was awarded the 4yr scholarship to USF, but he did not get accepted to USF Tampa. USF accepted him to the St Petersburg campus. That would not work for him to commute multiple times each week to USF Tampa. He was also accepted to Univ of Tampa. We found out that UT gives all those on ROTC scholarships free housing and meals.

In short, NROTC directly pays for his tuition and UT pays for everything else. The way NROTC and UT work the $, he never has had to deal with paying bills. The stipend is direct deposit into his bank account. The NAVY/NROTC has a great system for payment of scholarship $$.

University of Jacksonville also gives you room/meals if you are an ROTC scholarship winner. There may be other colleges in Fla that do the same but I dont have information on those.
 
Boymomof3 said:
Congratulations 🎉! For NROTC, my son uses the state ROTC waiver tuition & uses the NROTC $ for his room/board. The trick is to plan ahead as they don’t get that $ right away - it takes a few months. He has to budget accordingly - making sure has enough saved up for his rent/food while he waits for the $ to drop each semester. Of course, we help when he’s in a bind - but it has to be a true bind (not because he spent too much $ on his golf habit).
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Thank you for the input! It sounds like what we’ve had to deal with with my daughter. She gets her scholarship funds weeks after the semester has started so we definitely have to budget. We’ve had to help as well when it’s taken longer than usual (and that’s often) but she’s pretty responsible and handles her finances well.
 
TCartens said:
My son is in NROTC at Univ of Tampa (UT), which is a crosstown of Univ of South Florida (USF). He was awarded the 4yr scholarship to USF, but he did not get accepted to USF Tampa. USF accepted him to the St Petersburg campus. That would not work for him to commute multiple times each week to USF Tampa. He was also accepted to Univ of Tampa. We found out that UT gives all those on ROTC scholarships free housing and meals.

In short, NROTC directly pays for his tuition and UT pays for everything else. The way NROTC and UT work the $, he never has had to deal with paying bills. The stipend is direct deposit into his bank account. The NAVY/NROTC has a great system for payment of scholarship $$.

University of Jacksonville also gives you room/meals if you are an ROTC scholarship winner. There may be other colleges in Fla that do the same but I dont have information on those.
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How funny, just yesterday my son says to me “Jacksonville emailed me and I found out they do free room and board, but I don’t wanna go there”. I also asked him about UT and he isn’t interested and I’m like come on, help me out kid!

His first choice is UF and his second is USF. I like the latter because his sister graduates and commissions this year and I’m very familiar with it because of her. Problem is when doing the paperwork for the scholarship he put USF as his first choice (he assumed because he interviewed there that he HAD to make that his first choice?) so if he gets in to UF he’ll have to request a change. He got a letter from the Buccaneer Battalion today and in it they welcomed any questions, so my plan is to reach out to them soon.

Thank you for your input!
 
Jolevy said:
How funny, just yesterday my son says to me “Jacksonville emailed me and I found out they do free room and board, but I don’t wanna go there”. I also asked him about UT and he isn’t interested and I’m like come on, help me out kid!

His first choice is UF and his second is USF. I like the latter because his sister graduates and commissions this year and I’m very familiar with it because of her. Problem is when doing the paperwork for the scholarship he put USF as his first choice (he assumed because he interviewed there that he HAD to make that his first choice?) so if he gets in to UF he’ll have to request a change. He got a letter from the Buccaneer Battalion today and in it they welcomed any questions, so my plan is to reach out to them soon.

Thank you for your input!
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USF is a great choice. The ROTC building is impressive. Most of the ROTC students (all branches) live in Maple Hall. It is walking distance from the ROTC building. If you do get accepted to USF and choose to go there, get with the Battalion on how to best use the scholarship, Bright Futures, and other grants.

Putting in paperwork to change scholarship from one university to another is easy. You will need to be accepted by the university that you want to change to before you put in the change request.

We were looking at JaxU just because of the large Navy presence in the area. There is Jax Naval Base and Mayport Air Station. Those mids will get more exposure to seeing what Navy life is like vrs attending a college without easy access (USF, UF). We were seriously considering JaxU if USF fell through.

My son really likes his NROTC unit. He does have to drive from Univ of Tampa to USF at 5am 3-4 times per week. That is the only down side so far by attending UT. Not a big deal since he only loses 30 minutes of sleep compared to USF midshipmen. There are approx 14 midshipmen in his freshman class (4C). So there is lot of leadership positions he can get assigned to. Also, there are so many events in the Tampa area that keep the mids occupied. This weekend was Gasparilla. My son was working at a restaurant and saw several "pirates" flooding the restaurant. There are advantages to attend USF vs UF. But, you cant go wrong with either university. PM me if you want more info on life in the Tampa area.
 
Just a data point for all those considering the University of Tampa as a future school. Beautiful campus, many many positives but in 2021 they took deposits/acceptances and then AFTER May 1st notified a portion/ number of students that - oh, sorry we don't have housing for you - here is a list of rental apartments in the Tampa area. So those students had already turned down other schools and were left out to fend for themselves. I attended an on campus tour and orientation in April of 2023, and they in no uncertain terms state housing is not guaranteed- this remains an issue. They were generous with aid/ scholarships - just couldn't take the risk. I would look into this before committing to go there.
 
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