Thompson,
I might be wrong and ready to eat my crow, but I have never heard of that at all. AFROTC is tied to the cadet and not the school, thus one college could theoretically have 100% on scholarship and 0% at another. Dets actually pay the university rent to the college. A larger det will receive more funds from AFROTCHQ regarding their budget. Those on scholarship will not impact the det at all because the way it is paid is it goes straight to the bursar or the cadet, it never goes through the det finances, in other words, they aren't taking it away from a cadet that actually attends that college and is not a xtown cadet.
Now why most will say not to do xtown if it is at all possible to avoid.
1. PT is usually at O dark thirty.
~~~ For example Det 330 is considered in the beltway of MD/VA George Mason, and JHU commute to UMDCP. In this area it becomes bumper traffic starting around 6 am until 9 am. It can take 30 minutes to go 10 miles.
In essence to guarantee you will be there for a 6:30 show, you would want to leave by 5:45, and even if you roll out of bed to get ready, you are still looking at getting up around 5:15. The cadet on campus can roll out of bed at 6 to be there at 6:30.
It also means that it can mess with your class schedule because if that class is only offered at 8 a..m or 1 p.m., the 8 a.m. option is out. That can have a domino effect on other classes for scheduling.
2. Cost
~~~Although gas prices are down to 3.25, remember it can go back to the 4.50+ mark just as fast. Additionally most colleges will not have free parking, so you will be paying for parking. Some colleges will not allow xtown cadets the ability to get a permit since they are not a student, thus they have to pay meter parking. You will repeat this for LLAB too. 10-15 bucks a week in gas and 5 bucks in parking does not seem much, but multiply that by 30 weeks. It can be 500 dollars a yr more out of pocket.
3. Human nature
~~~ Some dets will house their cadets some will not. Either way it is still human nature to bond with those that are on campus in class, going to FB games with you faster than those that aren't at the college. It is common for cadets to discuss which prof to take and which to avoid. A xtown cadet won't have that as readily available to them.
Xtown cadets can feel that they are caught between two worlds socially because they have part of their life at one school and part at another. Freshman yr is hard enough to adjust to in the 1st few weeks, this is just another adjustment that they need to make.
~~~ Great dets know that and they have things like GMC night where the cadets get together 1x a week at night in the cadet lounge. They order in pizza play crud, foosball, Xbox, etc.
~~~ The dets will also most likely have Honor Guard, AAS, Angel and Silver wings. These are military fraternities. At our DS's det twice a yr they have formal functions and you can see with the POCs how they impact the cadets by looking at the tables. They are not assigned tables, they select whom they want to sit with. When I attended the graduation formal last spring, everyone at DS's table had an AAS forge, the table to the right they were silver wings, to the left it was Angel flight, etc. These cadets typically pledge the spring of C100 or fall C200, thus, they have been socializing outside of AFROTC for yrs. They do philanthropic work together, they go camping together, they live together, etc.
For those that live on campus they just walk to the det at night which makes it easier than for those that live xtown. Again, another reason why they bond faster. It is easy to join, whereas xtown, many don't want to drive back to the campus at 6 p..m. to go and hang with cadets when they can hang with the kids at their school.
~~~ At our DS's det., cadets on campus with an hr to kill between classes usually will go to the det and hang out with other cadets. This gives them indirect face time. They are hanging with out playing xbox or surfing the net on their computers, not kissing up to anyone, but as the cadre is walking about they can start placing a name to a face. They get to see the cadets in other ways than just LLAB. They become people.
~~~ As you go up the leadership ladder your job will have more responsibilities and that means more meetings and submitting reports. It is easier to pop in between class to check on something than have to drive out to the college one more time. This is also true regarding paperwork for your self, such as semester reviews, pay, DoDMERB, SFT, AFSC packages and orders.
To me these are the reasons why one should think long and hard about doing xtown.
Again, I would not worry that the command will see you in any negative light regarding finances and taking spots for on campus AFROTC because it has no financial bearing on them at all. Think about it how could you take money away from them when:
A. Typically the avg % of cadets on scholarship is @20%, 80% are not scholarship, hence they aren't taking a spot.
B. They allow walk ons, and financially they can not plan the yr prior in Oct. how many walk on they will have the following fall. Fiscal budgets run Oct 1-Sept 30th.
Just my 0.0175343 cents of an opinion and now toss it in the circular filing cabinet because honestly, you will be miserable if you attend a college just because it is the host college and not because you want to attend the college.
OBTW, I know several who had children that did xtown, and I would say that statistically they stayed with the program at the same rate as those that were at the host college.