ROTC Scholarship + Financial Aid

dondurma

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I was selected for a Type 1 Air Force ROTC scholarship this morning! I know that it covers tuition and fees along with a monthly stipend, but doesn't cover room and board. I have a couple scholarship offers from colleges that don't know about my ROTC scholarship yet. Do most colleges allow you to combine their financial aid/merit scholarships with an ROTC scholarship? If so, I would be given more money than it costs to attend. How does that work out? Thanks!
 
It usually depends on the organization associated with the scholarship. Some will issue the scholarship money directly to the college with a stipulation that any excess funds are to be refunded back to them. Others will allow the college to issue a refund to the student (woo hoo!).

However beware that scholarships that pay for tuition and fees are not taxable whereas scholarships that pay for room/board or that are refunded to the student are considered by the IRS as taxable income.
 
I was selected for a Type 1 Air Force ROTC scholarship this morning! I know that it covers tuition and fees along with a monthly stipend, but doesn't cover room and board. I have a couple scholarship offers from colleges that don't know about my ROTC scholarship yet. Do most colleges allow you to combine their financial aid/merit scholarships with an ROTC scholarship? If so, I would be given more money than it costs to attend. How does that work out? Thanks!
First of all, Congrats on the scholarship!! That is great! As for how each individual college will handle the other scholarships you may have received, honestly it is up to them. But it would seem highly likely that they would use the other monies towards the room and board. In the end, you will probably have to contact the Financial Aid offices of those schools to get the specifics. Either way you are in a very good position. Congrats again!
 
I was selected for a Type 1 Air Force ROTC scholarship this morning! I know that it covers tuition and fees along with a monthly stipend, but doesn't cover room and board. I have a couple scholarship offers from colleges that don't know about my ROTC scholarship yet. Do most colleges allow you to combine their financial aid/merit scholarships with an ROTC scholarship? If so, I would be given more money than it costs to attend. How does that work out? Thanks!
It varies from school to school. For one, if it is financial aid that you receive (vs merit), ROTC money will usually offset any expected student's contribution but not the parent's. We received a financial aid package from MIT (all grants or scholarships, no loans as is their practice) and any ROTC scholarship would first take away my child's anticipated contribution and relieve her work study requirement, but then the remainder reduces MIT's contribution - none of the ROTC money lessens the parent's expected contribution.
As respects Merit Scholarships, this varies based on the school. For instance, my older son was awarded merit scholarship money from St. Louis U., but when he got a Type 2 ROTC scholarship, SLU took the merit money away. However, I understand they don't do that anymore. On the other hand, George Washington U kept the merit award for my son and offered to pay some of the room and board. Another school example is Boston University. For a Type 2 AFROTC scholarship, they paid half the first year's tuition and then topped off the remains years about the AFROTC money.
What you really need to do is call the university's financial aid departments and ask because they all have their own policies on how to deal with ROTC.
Good luck!
 
DS has a 3yr at AUM with a merit based scholarship and 2 need based once he is contracted he like all ROTC scholarship contracted cadets is no longer eligible for PELL so that will also remove one of the need based scholarships that is federal. Because the ROTC scholarship covers his full tuition and fees (He has no semesters expected to be over 15 credits) the school based needs award is removed since it is tuition and Fees specific. The University gives contracted ROTC cadets free room (Or equivalent of) the lest expensive room option. So in his case he can then use his merit scholarship to cover the money they are required to put on their account for use in food purchases (not a traditional meal plan) and difference in housing option he and a fellow cadet want to get. If there is anything left over at that point or he gets any other scholarships that go to the school they put it in their account so it can be used for food/drinks on campus, in bookstore or used the next semester or if he wanted to take a non degree class with credits above covered by ROTC award. I am 100%T&P Vet so he also gets VA dependent education which helps us cover transportation, fraternity dues, we bought a couple uniforms and school costs not covered by his PELL and merit and need based scholarships while not contracted. Had he been offered a Florida state college or university as his award schools it would depend since one school did give ROTC cadets Room and Board and others did not. Because of my T&P status he was awarded free tuition fees and books for any Florida state college or university credits up to 130% of degree requirements -so if you want a dual it is limited. So for schools that don't offer Room and board easy would have used ROTC award to cover that but for schools that did give room and board as well he most likely would just be getting the book and monthly stipend since two things the larger part of the award covers would already be covered. There are other times that the definition of what source pays first and if money 'left over' comes back to the student. Many are school level but there are also state and Federal level rules. So just like everyone tells you at the end you and your Cadet need to have a sit down with the school financial aid officer. If you or your spouse are Veterans you may want to have the VA Financial Aid officer involved just to insure there is no conflict with any state or federal funding your cadet is eligible for based on your service/s. Keep in mind if they are like my son is getting dependent education funds (current $1024 a month) the time they collect from that VA program reduces their total 48 months of entitlement to VA programs. So Right now he needs to use the program because he had a few thousand not covered at school plus all the costs that come with moving out into the world. Once he is contracted the long term cost of continuing to use Chapter 31 is based on value of benefits under other programs he might earn like current where were he to return home to the Keys just the living stipend is $2500 plus tuition, books and fees or the pass down options which removes the stipend. If he should need Vet Success (replaced VR&E) those would all be higher value programs than the cash benefit dependent education. Take a list of questions with you since easy to forget what you know you want to ask. Congrats to your cadet! And to you welcome to the cluster of parents that move from one scary pound of the unknown to the next. :) We luckily have parents that have gone before us and some great ROOs and PMS that willingly give up their time to give insight from the leadership side of the program.
 
Talk to the bursar. Every college is unique. Ask them flat out how they will bill you regarding any FA.

There is always fine print.

AFROTC type 1 will pay your tuition. If the college says 15K tuition than I doubt you can use both. If they say 15K merit and AFROTC pays tuition, R&B are 10, they may or may not let you keep that 5K
~ They being the college.

Talk to FA or the bursar.

Most importantly if you can only afford the school with both AFROTC and merit talk to the folks too
 
Congrates! For what its worth, here is my DS's experience. His university pulled back the entire merit grant they had awarded him based on his financial aid application once his four-year full tuition NROTC scholarship kicked in -- he was not allowed to keep any of it (and when added to his NROTC scholarship it would have been excess over the cost of his attendance anyway). It made sense to me, because with a full ROTC scholarship, your financial need is substantially different -- the economics a university uses to calculate your financial aid package is no longer applicable once you have a full ROTC scholarship. However, my DS's university did very generously replace my DS's merit grant with their own NROTC Room and Board grant, which paid for half of his room and board, so it wasn't all bad. And my DS was allowed to keep the money from the several local scholarships he was awarded at the end of his senior year in high school -- these were scholarships not associated with his university. He was able to use that money for the rest of his room and board that the university's NROTC Room and Board scholarship didn't cover, and then carry forward excess from those scholarships into his sophomore year. So, amazingly, he still has a little bit of a surplus in his university account!
 
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