Scholarship pulled after 13 months

[RotcParent62]

My child was offered a 3 year scholarship starting their sophomore year. We disclosed a hearing issue on the application and we were told that a medical variance would be processed, not to worry. They attended their first year(deans list) with no scholarship following that guidance to the tune of $40k. The day that the first bill was sent for the sophomore year, the scholarship was noted on the bill. One day later the rotc called to say the variance would not be approved and rotc was no longer an option. So for 13 months we have been relying on a promise that was ignored until the $$ was required and now we are scrambling to find another school last minute to avoid the out of state fees and Cadet program that was leading to the rotc career options. Very disappointed in the Army for ignoring the issue for 13 months, or out and out lying to us, when they already knew the outcome.

 

[AROTC-dad]

Did you receive anything in writing about the variance? (usually called a DoDMERB waiver).

A written promise is more powerful than a verbal one, to prove detrimental reliance (I am not an attorney, but you might need to consult with one).

Did he go through DoDMERB and not pass?

 

[RotcParent62]

I believe that is the case but we have not received the report yet. The Dr who signed off last year did little, if any, testing to verify anything.

 

[AROTC-dad]

we were told that a medical variance would be processed, not to worry.

Was this info given by the Dr. or a member of the battalion? (no names, please.....was it the ROO, PMS, etc.?).

 

[RotcParent62]

All hearsay but I was told it was someone from Rotc that gave that assurance, the Dr said his hearing seemed fine(seriously) and someone at rotc asked for hearing testing results 13 months ago.

 

[Herman_Snerd]

My child was offered a 3 year scholarship starting their sophomore year.

Congrats and you should know this scholarship offer is a contingent offer on your meeting all standards, including medical.

We disclosed a hearing issue on the application and we were told that a medical variance would be processed, not to worry.

By whom and when was this stated? Did you track the outcome? Do you have that in writing? What was the outcome - when was a DODMERB Waiver submitted? when was that decision made? If you have no record, take some time tonight to document who said what to whom - write it down - (Document) x 3.

They attended their first year(deans list) with no scholarship following that guidance to the tune of $40k. The day that the first bill was sent for the sophomore year, the scholarship was noted on the bill.

Congrats on the dean's list. Sorry to hear of the cost you took on in your first year.

One day later the rotc called to say the variance would not be approved and rotc was no longer an option.

*Here is a key -what does "would not be approved" mean? Is that a future decision or an already decided outcome? Sounds like this was already dediced - so, when was your waiver adjudicated, and when was a decision made? when was the unit notified of that decision? When was your portal updated? When were you notified of that decision - how far apart were those events? If this was decided in the fall and you were not notified then you may have recourse since you attended the Spring semester in good faith you had this scholarship coming. Are you certain you or your child were not notified sooner than you stated?

So for 13 months we have been relying on a promise that was ignored until the $$ was required and now we are scrambling to find another school last minute to avoid the out of state fees and Cadet program that was leading to the rotc career options.

Promise has nothing to do with it. Your scholarship is contingent on meeting all standards. If you don't meet those standards, no soup for you. I hope you have these assurances in writing and recommend you review that with specialized counsel.

Very disappointed in the Army for ignoring the issue for 13 months, or out and out lying to us, when they already knew the outcome.

Sorry to hear of your situation. It's a setback. I recommend finding out the details above and exploring options. What can you prove? Free advice - recommend you abandon the "promise" talk since it's N/A - that scholarship is contingent on a host of factors and if you don't meet them, read the contract, it's a no good for you. If you can prove they didn't notify you in a timely manner that's potentially helpful. But if this is some hallway promise that someone can deny, and you spent a whole year not confirming this was taken care of- well just gather the facts for now.

Above all, focus on ensuring your child moves forward with their education and if needed finds a path outside of the armed services to serve. Lots of 'em. If money is an issue explore in-state alternatives to transfer to, or even a semester of community college while you regroup. Talk to your university (not cadre but the school itself) about what happened and ask what they can do to help your child stay at that school.

Please see my post earlier about "Who moved my cheese?" on another thread - another recommendation here to read it at the library or buy used for 3.98. Worth the time.

Good luck to you.

 

[Herman_Snerd]

All hearsay but I was told it was someone from Rotc that gave that assurance, the Dr said his hearing seemed fine(seriously) and someone at rotc asked for hearing testing results 13 months ago.

You need to be more specific and track down who said what, to whom, and when. If all you have is the above you don't have a leg to stand on - so recommend you find out, or don't but even for your peace of mind you should straighten this out. Good luck.

 

[MullenLE]

RotcParent62,​

The correct answer, have your son, not you: Send me an email: lawrence.e.mullen.civ@mail.mil; provide complete name and last 4 SSN; provide the text of your Parent's posting above to YOUR email. The subject line of the email should be “RotcParent62-SAF = Scholarship pulled after 13 months.“ Do NOT embed links in your email as I will not be able to view those.

 

[RotcParent62]

Congrats and you should know this scholarship offer is a contingent offer on your meeting all standards, including medical.

By whom and when was this stated? Did you track the outcome? Do you have that in writing? What was the outcome - when was a DODMERB Waiver submitted? when was that decision made? If you have no record, take some time tonight to document who said what to whom - write it down - (Document) x 3.

Congrats on the dean's list. Sorry to hear of the cost you took on in your first year.

*Here is a key -what does "would not be approved" mean? Is that a future decision or an already decided outcome? Sounds like this was already dediced - so, when was your waiver adjudicated, and when was a decision made? when was the unit notified of that decision? When was your portal updated? When were you notified of that decision - how far apart were those events? If this was decided in the fall and you were not notified then you may have recourse since you attended the Spring semester in good faith you had this scholarship coming. Are you certain you or your child were not notified sooner than you stated?

Promise has nothing to do with it. Your scholarship is contingent on meeting all standards. If you don't meet those standards, no soup for you. I hope you have these assurances in writing and recommend you review that with specialized counsel.


Sorry to hear of your situation. It's a setback. I recommend finding out the details above and exploring options. What can you prove? Free advice - recommend you abandon the "promise" talk since it's N/A - that scholarship is contingent on a host of factors and if you don't meet them, read the contract, it's a no good for you. If you can prove they didn't notify you in a timely manner that's potentially helpful. But if this is some hallway promise that someone can deny, and you spent a whole year not confirming this was taken care of- well just gather the facts for now.

Above all, focus on ensuring your child moves forward with their education and if needed finds a path outside of the armed services to serve. Lots of 'em. If money is an issue explore in-state alternatives to transfer to, or even a semester of community college while you regroup. Talk to your university (not cadre but the school itself) about what happened and ask what they can do to help your child stay at that school.

Please see my post earlier about "Who moved my cheese?" on another thread - another recommendation here to read it at the library or buy used for 3.98. Worth the time.

Good luck to you.

I have no concern that he will be fine in another program. That wasn't the point. It was a year of a total lack of follow up with many attempts to get this resolved. I am positive of the date he was told, they called and said they would send out the decision. I appreciate your reply but I will choose to say verbal promises if that is what was offered. Relying on them is on us, but it doesn't negate the truth of it. The fact that it showed up on his bill confirms that the rotc had not communicated their decision until the $$ was requested. He was included in all rotc activities last year well after we were asking about the scholarship.

 

[RotcParent62]

RotcParent62,​

The correct answer, have your son, not you: Send me an email: lawrence.e.mullen.civ@mail.mil; provide complete name and last 4 SSN; provide the text of your Parent's posting above to YOUR email. The subject line of the email should be “RotcParent62-SAF = Scholarship pulled after 13 months.“ Do NOT embed links in your email as I will not be able to view those.

I have let him handle everything up to this point, not a helicopter parent here. But now that we have been told it is final, I am expressing my dismay. If you believe it is not final, and by all the red text you are upset with me for this, I am sorry for that. I will notify him but he is pretty upset and my guess Is he will choose to move on. 13 months of 'promises' have left us all a bit wary.

 

[franknd]

I'm going to interject here on a related issue that bugs me when it not infrequently comes up. So often, the advice is to "let your cadet handle it." And as a general proposition, I don't disagree. But it is not always the best complete advice, and this situation is illustrative. Simply put, most 18/19-year old kids aren't equipped on their own to negotiate and contemporaneously and properly document principles of contract law, particularly when $120k is at stake.

IMO, in situations like this, the better advice is to contemporaneously monitor developments with your cadet. Sure, at the end of the day, it's your cadet's job to take care of his own business; but we do them no favors leaving them hanging out to dry, which can be the result when an unsophisticated young person is dealing with a government bureaucracy. It's sometimes tough enough for me -- an experienced, middle-aged, government professional -- to deal with the government. It's unreasonable to think the vast majority of teens have the savvy in a situation like this one to do so on their own.

 

[Heatherg21]

Don't take the red text as anything other than color. Mr. Mullen helps people(candidates) all of the time. He is a perfect source of information. I would pass his instructions on to your son. I'm sorry about this challenging situation.

 

[franknd]

I have let him handle everything up to this point, not a helicopter parent here. But now that we have been told it is final, I am expressing my dismay. If you believe it is not final, and by all the red text you are upset with me for this, I am sorry for that. I will notify him but he is pretty upset and my guess Is he will choose to move on. 13 months of 'promises' have left us all a bit wary.

On the chance that Mr. Mullen might not see your reply, I wouldn't read anything into his font color. He is probably the most useful poster on this entire site and goes way above and beyond in helping cadets out. I'm confident that is the only purpose of his message.

 

[RotcParent62]

I'm going to interject here on a related issue that bugs me when it not infrequently comes up. So often, the advice is to "let your cadet handle it." And as a general proposition, I don't disagree. But it is not always the best complete advice, and this situation is illustrative. Simply put, most 18/19-year old kids aren't equipped on their own to negotiate and contemporaneously and properly document principles of contract law, particularly when $120k is at stake.

IMO, in situations like this, the better advice is to contemporaneously monitor developments with your cadet. Sure, at the end of the day, it's your cadet's job to take care of his own business; but we do them no favors leaving them hanging out to dry, which can be the result when an unsophisticated young person is dealing with a government bureaucracy. It's sometimes tough enough for me -- an experienced, middle-aged, government professional -- to deal with the government. It's unreasonable to think the vast majority of teens have the savvy in a situation like this one to do so on their own.

Thank you for this reply. I agree. We had regular conversations with him to try all of the options he had to try to resolve but we let him do it. He didn't want it coming from us. He tried campus resources. Rotc resources, recruiter resources. All told him the waiver would be the answer. Why did it take 13 months for the refusal when we were very clear upfront of the possible medical issue. It isn't lIke he didn't benefit from a year of the Cadet program and it didn't hurt his engineering plans but his future plans for the Army were nixed. And as you said, maybe he should have known how to fight the Army, but he was 18 and did his best.

 

[RotcParent62]

Don't take the red text as anything other than color. Mr. Mullen helps people(candidates) all of the time. He is a perfect source of information. I would pass his instructions on to your son. I'm sorry about this challenging situation.

Thanks. I thought I made him mad. I wasn't asking for a resolution I guess, just sharing our experience.

 

[kinnem]

Thanks. I thought I made him mad. I wasn't asking for a resolution I guess, just sharing our experience.

Have your son contact him anyway in case there is just a glitch in the system somewhere.

 

[RJB1690]

As @franknd mentioned, Mr. Mullen is probably the most useful member of this forum. Your son should take him up on his offer. At a minimum, he will provide insight into the DoDMERB process your son underwent (what happened and when) and provide a final answer as to if there is anything that can be done at this point.

As an aside, I joined this forum on 10/6/2020 when my son was going through the academy application process. He had gotten his DodMETS referral and when he called to make his medical exam appointment, the provider told him that their earliest available appointment was in March of 2021, five months later! As a non-military family, we didn't know if this was normal, but I was worried about it as it seemed like too long to wait and so I started Googling. This forum popped up in my search so I joined and posted about the situation asking if that kind of timeframe was normal. Enter Larry Mullen who advised that I read about parent/applicant separation of duties and have my son email. My son sent the email as suggested and Mr. Mullen sprung into action using his undisclosed superpowers such that by the next day, my son had a new provider with an appointment set for two weeks hence. It is because of his intervention that in December of 2020, my son was able to get a full appointment offer to the Coast Guard Academy (he had applied EA) instead of one conditional on medical clearance.

I work in a field where clients sometime utilize paper applications. There are parts of the application that are in red, rather than black ink. The purpose of the red is to highlight that these sections are important to read carefully; the red has nothing to do with mood. While I cannot claim to know what is in another person's head, I suspect that's why Mr. Mullen chose to reply in red. If anyone scrolls through these responses, his will stand out, demonstrating importance. Truly, as it relates to DodMERB, Mr. Mullen is the absolute authority. Best of luck to your son, wherever his path leads.

 

[RotcParent62]

As @franknd mentioned, Mr. Mullen is probably the most useful member of this forum. Your son should take him up on his offer. At a minimum, he will provide insight into the DoDMERB process your son underwent (what happened and when) and provide a final answer as to if there is anything that can be done at this point.

As an aside, I joined this forum on 10/6/2020 when my son was going through the academy application process. He had gotten his DodMETS referral and when he called to make his medical exam appointment, the provider told him that their earliest available appointment was in March of 2021, five months later! As a non-military family, we didn't know if this was normal, but I was worried about it as it seemed like too long to wait and so I started Googling. This forum popped up in my search so I joined and posted about the situation asking if that kind of timeframe was normal. Enter Larry Mullen who advised that I read about parent/applicant separation of duties and have my son email. My son sent the email as suggested and Mr. Mullen sprung into action using his undisclosed superpowers such that by the next day, my son had a new provider with an appointment set for two weeks hence. It is because of his intervention that in December of 2020, my son was able to get a full appointment offer to the Coast Guard Academy (he had applied EA) instead of one conditional on medical clearance.

I work in a field where clients sometime utilize paper applications. There are parts of the application that are in red, rather than black ink. The purpose of the red is to highlight that these sections are important to read carefully; the red has nothing to do with mood. While I cannot claim to know what is in another person's head, I suspect that's why Mr. Mullen chose to reply in red. If anyone scrolls through these responses, his will stand out, demonstrating importance. Truly, as it relates to DodMERB, Mr. Mullen is the absolute authority. Best of luck to your son, wherever his path leads.

Thanks, I have not stepped in a single time, including here. I just relayed our experience.

 

[justdoit19]

Echoing what others are recommending about your son shooting Mr Mullen (Deputy Director of DODMERB, BTW) an email. Aside from his superpowers and actual job, “he knows people”. Well connected. He is THE person in the know with the medical/waiver piece…at least initially.

At the very least, he can guide him.

I’m of the opinion that a parent should be “cc’ed” in at this point woth their child. Their plus one. A consulting role (stolen from @Capt MJ). My oldest DD just closed on her first home sale, and I was involved. Didn’t talk, but was there. For support and guidance.

These 18/19 yr olds are practicing their adulting. And especially financial matters, imo, need adult guidance. But the fact of the matter is that they ARE adults, and that comes with certain legal ramifications…such as a medical profession not being able to discuss their matters with anyone but them, for example.

Good luck. I hope this works out favorably.

 

[RotcParent62]

Echoing what others are recommending about your son shooting Mr Mullen (Deputy Director of DODMERB, BTW) an email. Aside from his superpowers and actual job, “he knows people”. Well connected. He is THE person in the know with the medical/waiver piece…at least initially.

At the very least, he can guide him.

I’m of the opinion that a parent should be “cc’ed” in at this point woth their child. Their plus one. A consulting role (stolen from @Capt MJ). My oldest DD just closed on her first home sale, and I was involved. Didn’t talk, but was there. For support and guidance.

These 18/19 yr olds are practicing their adulting. And especially financial matters, imo, need adult guidance. But the fact of the matter is that they ARE adults, and that comes with certain legal ramifications…such as a medical profession not being able to discuss their matters with anyone but them, for example.

Good luck. I hope this works out favorably.

Thanks!