DanGir
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2012
- Messages
- 164
My son has applied for and received a four year Army ROTC scholarship to his top three choices. We are excited for him. He is ready to go. He really likes all his schools and just wants to be an Army officer. His parents however, have some doubts. The more we read on these forums the more nervous we get. There is a lot of wisdom on on this website. One particular post struck a chord with me. Jcleppe said in a previous post:
"While they call it a Scholarship, it is really a loan that you are required to give a certain number of years to the Army as long as you graduate and commission, or pay back if you don't. This is not like other scholarships where if you fall below the standards you no longer receive the scholarship but are not required to pay back what's been paid."
If you approach it as a "loan" it is not quite as lucrative as a "scholarship." Heaven forbid he runs into some kind of problem and has to disenroll. I've read different posts on SAF about students with academic, weight, honor,alcohol issues, etc. It is not out of the realm of possibility. This post is an example: http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=30192&highlight=disenrollment
The three schools he was given have a 4 year tuition rate of over $160000. How would he ever pay that off? Not only that, with financial aid at these schools, our total family contribution would be significantly less that $40000 per year without the ROTC scholarship. It would be financially better for him to be a non scholarship college programmer for all four years ( if he could even do that).
At least we have a little bit of time to discuss this with him. There is a lot to consider. We appreciate the perspective given by this forum.
"While they call it a Scholarship, it is really a loan that you are required to give a certain number of years to the Army as long as you graduate and commission, or pay back if you don't. This is not like other scholarships where if you fall below the standards you no longer receive the scholarship but are not required to pay back what's been paid."
If you approach it as a "loan" it is not quite as lucrative as a "scholarship." Heaven forbid he runs into some kind of problem and has to disenroll. I've read different posts on SAF about students with academic, weight, honor,alcohol issues, etc. It is not out of the realm of possibility. This post is an example: http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=30192&highlight=disenrollment
The three schools he was given have a 4 year tuition rate of over $160000. How would he ever pay that off? Not only that, with financial aid at these schools, our total family contribution would be significantly less that $40000 per year without the ROTC scholarship. It would be financially better for him to be a non scholarship college programmer for all four years ( if he could even do that).
At least we have a little bit of time to discuss this with him. There is a lot to consider. We appreciate the perspective given by this forum.