Was Awarded 4 year, Cannot Start at Accepted College Until Spring

[Carik]

Im in a bit of a weird situation. Recently I was awarded a 4 year scholarship to my top choice university. However, when I applied to the school I was accepted under a program called Spring Scholars. The program comes with the caveat that I would not be considered a full time student until the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year.

I have a few options at hand, the university has established study abroad programs with schools in Rome and Paris that I could attend for the fall semester.
I could also study at a neighboring school which is located directly next to my top choice university and shares an ROTC program, I could study for one semester as a "visiting student"
I could also take the semester off stay home and work or get an internship etc. and graduate late, or stay home (in Wisconsin) and take community college classes.

I contacted the ROO and was advised to not start elsewhere early but start in the spring.

I guess my question is, would it be possible at all for my 4 year scholarship to be transferred to a different university (I would guess for sure not the study abroad schools) for one semester? Or if I go elsewhere would I have to pay out of pocket?

My other concern is joining everyone else late and being behind and this makes me strongly want to attend the neighboring school and being able to complete my first year on time.

 

[momx3]

While I don't have any answers for you, I do have a couple of questions. First, congrats on your scholarship!
Did you apply to other schools where you could transfer your scholarship permanently if you are interested in starting with the rest of the Freshman, attend Freshman ROTC training and college orientation? How badly do you want to attend the top choice school? Can you contact the admissions office of this intended school for the spring scholar, and ask about reconsideration for fall admission in light of your ROTC scholarship? In my opinion, and its just an opinion, if it were me, I would not want to risk losing the ROTC scholarship by having to start in the spring somewhere- read the fine print on the scholarship whether it allows you to enter in the spring or is it contingent on your entrance to college in the fall. The other problem is if you attend school, you will now have college credits which may invalidate the ROTC scholarship eligibility. Take a close look at some other schools, and if you still have a chance to apply to another school TODAY- do it, since some give you until Feb 1. It may be worth your while to start fresh in the fall with no worries about the scholarship. I'd probably ask admissions again about fall entrance, and if not, I'd move on to another school and enter as a fall freshman.
Good luck!

 

[kinnem]

+1 to mom3x. Work every angle of the issue before you cave. If you can't resolve it with the school, perhaps go elsewhere. I might drop that as a hint, as in, "I risk losing my scholarship so I may have to go elsewhere but would prefer to go here if I could only enter in the fall."

EDIT: You would be surprised the magic having a full tuition scholarship will do.

 

[Mmmidshipman]

Im in a bit of a weird situation. Recently I was awarded a 4 year scholarship to my top choice university. However, when I applied to the school I was accepted under a program called Spring Scholars. The program comes with the caveat that I would not be considered a full time student until the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year.

I have a few options at hand, the university has established study abroad programs with schools in Rome and Paris that I could attend for the fall semester.
I could also study at a neighboring school which is located directly next to my top choice university and shares an ROTC program, I could study for one semester as a "visiting student"
I could also take the semester off stay home and work or get an internship etc. and graduate late, or stay home (in Wisconsin) and take community college classes.

I contacted the ROO and was advised to not start elsewhere early but start in the spring.

I guess my question is, would it be possible at all for my 4 year scholarship to be transferred to a different university (I would guess for sure not the study abroad schools) for one semester? Or if I go elsewhere would I have to pay out of pocket?

My other concern is joining everyone else late and being behind and this makes me strongly want to attend the neighboring school and being able to complete my first year on time.

Tell your admissions department that you received a scholarship and they might be able to make something happen. I was in the exact same situation but I contacted admissions and I got in for the fall semester. The same thing happened to about 10 or 11 midshipman and cadets at my school

 

[BUArmyROTC]

Carik, I think you have gotten some good advice so far. As a ROO, I would definitely suggest having an in-depth conversation with the Admissions department at your school of choice, and they may still have the flexibility to admit you for the regular term. The second option is for the ROTC Program at that school to annotate your record for a January start, with the potential for covering your summer term as one of your 8 semesters. There are some requirements to make this work, but it is possible. We have considered doing this for our Boston University London program that has students starting in January. From there, consider that the Army may be willing to transfer your scholarship to another school that has admitted you. I have some recent experience with this.... If you transfer it before the end of the summer, you may have complete success. As you consider other schools, I always suggest that prospective Cadets consider the advantages of Hosts or "Manned Partnerships" in order to minimize the need to commute between schools. The effort that it takes to succeed as a Student and Cadet increases if you are commuting significant distances to get to your ROTC events. Good Luck!

 

[Carik]

While I don't have any answers for you, I do have a couple of questions. First, congrats on your scholarship!
Did you apply to other schools where you could transfer your scholarship permanently if you are interested in starting with the rest of the Freshman, attend Freshman ROTC training and college orientation? How badly do you want to attend the top choice school? Can you contact the admissions office of this intended school for the spring scholar, and ask about reconsideration for fall admission in light of your ROTC scholarship? In my opinion, and its just an opinion, if it were me, I would not want to risk losing the ROTC scholarship by having to start in the spring somewhere- read the fine print on the scholarship whether it allows you to enter in the spring or is it contingent on your entrance to college in the fall. The other problem is if you attend school, you will now have college credits which may invalidate the ROTC scholarship eligibility. Take a close look at some other schools, and if you still have a chance to apply to another school TODAY- do it, since some give you until Feb 1. It may be worth your while to start fresh in the fall with no worries about the scholarship. I'd probably ask admissions again about fall entrance, and if not, I'd move on to another school and enter as a fall freshman.
Good luck!

I also had the scholarship awarded to NYU and Santa Clara both for 4 years. I haven't been accepted by either YET, but I would much more prefer to attend this top choice school for my own reasons. This school also covers room and board if you are in ROTC. The total worth of my scholarship from both the school and army is around 280,000 where at NYU it would be 200k worth and I would have to cover room and board out of pocket. I've also been accepted to a few other schools in that caliber already but again these two are my top choices, so transferring the scholarship out of these would not be ideal.

Multiple times on the "Spring Scholar" site it says that you will not be reconsidered for fall admission for any reason. Is it worth it to contact with stated language like that?

 

[FMHS-79]

While I don't have any answers for you, I do have a couple of questions. First, congrats on your scholarship!
Did you apply to other schools where you could transfer your scholarship permanently if you are interested in starting with the rest of the Freshman, attend Freshman ROTC training and college orientation? How badly do you want to attend the top choice school? Can you contact the admissions office of this intended school for the spring scholar, and ask about reconsideration for fall admission in light of your ROTC scholarship? In my opinion, and its just an opinion, if it were me, I would not want to risk losing the ROTC scholarship by having to start in the spring somewhere- read the fine print on the scholarship whether it allows you to enter in the spring or is it contingent on your entrance to college in the fall. The other problem is if you attend school, you will now have college credits which may invalidate the ROTC scholarship eligibility. Take a close look at some other schools, and if you still have a chance to apply to another school TODAY- do it, since some give you until Feb 1. It may be worth your while to start fresh in the fall with no worries about the scholarship. I'd probably ask admissions again about fall entrance, and if not, I'd move on to another school and enter as a fall freshman.
Good luck!

I also had the scholarship awarded to NYU and Santa Clara both for 4 years. I haven't been accepted by either YET, but I would much more prefer to attend this top choice school for my own reasons. This school also covers room and board if you are in ROTC. The total worth of my scholarship from both the school and army is around 280,000 where at NYU it would be 200k worth and I would have to cover room and board out of pocket. I've also been accepted to a few other schools in that caliber already but again these two are my top choices, so transferring the scholarship out of these would not be ideal.

Multiple times on the "Spring Scholar" site it says that you will not be reconsidered for fall admission for any reason. Is it worth it to contact with stated language like that?

IMHO, the worst admissions can say is "no, we will not consider you for the fall semester". Call them and see what your options are so that you can make a more informed decision.

 

[Donkopolous]

While I don't have any answers for you, I do have a couple of questions. First, congrats on your scholarship!
Did you apply to other schools where you could transfer your scholarship permanently if you are interested in starting with the rest of the Freshman, attend Freshman ROTC training and college orientation? How badly do you want to attend the top choice school? Can you contact the admissions office of this intended school for the spring scholar, and ask about reconsideration for fall admission in light of your ROTC scholarship? In my opinion, and its just an opinion, if it were me, I would not want to risk losing the ROTC scholarship by having to start in the spring somewhere- read the fine print on the scholarship whether it allows you to enter in the spring or is it contingent on your entrance to college in the fall. The other problem is if you attend school, you will now have college credits which may invalidate the ROTC scholarship eligibility. Take a close look at some other schools, and if you still have a chance to apply to another school TODAY- do it, since some give you until Feb 1. It may be worth your while to start fresh in the fall with no worries about the scholarship. I'd probably ask admissions again about fall entrance, and if not, I'd move on to another school and enter as a fall freshman.
Good luck!

I also had the scholarship awarded to NYU and Santa Clara both for 4 years. I haven't been accepted by either YET, but I would much more prefer to attend this top choice school for my own reasons. This school also covers room and board if you are in ROTC. The total worth of my scholarship from both the school and army is around 280,000 where at NYU it would be 200k worth and I would have to cover room and board out of pocket. I've also been accepted to a few other schools in that caliber already but again these two are my top choices, so transferring the scholarship out of these would not be ideal.

Multiple times on the "Spring Scholar" site it says that you will not be reconsidered for fall admission for any reason. Is it worth it to contact with stated language like that?

As an FYI, I am pretty sure Santa Clara covers room and board too. You may want to double check by calling them. Good luck.