What are the specifics as to when ROTC deposits tuition money?

[axxonboltz]

Good evening all!

This year I was blessed to receive a 4 Year AROTC Scholarship to VMI. I know that within the next few months it will be time to pay several costs to VMI. How does AROTC go about paying the tuition? In other words, will it be deposited into my/my parents bank account or will it go directly to the school? And when would this process occur? Thank you all for your time!

Best regards,
Cadet X

 

[Jcleppe]

Good evening all!

This year I was blessed to receive a 4 Year AROTC Scholarship to VMI. I know that within the next few months it will be time to pay several costs to VMI. How does AROTC go about paying the tuition? In other words, will it be deposited into my/my parents bank account or will it go directly to the school? And when would this process occur? Thank you all for your time!

Best regards,
Cadet X

Your tuition will be paid directly to the school.

The first tuition payment usually isn't paid for about 45 days or so, could be different at VMI. As far as the process goes, first you have to be DODMERB qualified, have all your paperwork completed including your 104R, and pass your APFT. Once all of that is completed you will be contracted and they will authorize the tuition payment directly to the school. Remember that your stipend does not start until you have met all the requirements and are contracted, the stipend is not retroactive so if you do not have everything completed for say a couple months, you will not be paid the stipend for that time. The book money will be authorized when you contract as well.

 

[5Day]

The process is school dependent, so contact the battalion, but it will probably be a seamless process. The scholarship funds are not sent to the school till after the semester starts, the 45 days referenced by @Jcleppe seems about right. But we never got a tuition bill from DS school. We did get one for room and board, so for my DS, the school waived the tuition due date and waited for the NROTC scholarship money. I would assume that if DS did not pass his fitness test, a bill would have been coming my way.

After the NROTC funds were recieved, the school reconciled DS account and refunded a small scholarship, that was eventually applied to the room and board portion. The check was cut to my DS who promptly deposited into his account, not mine. Books and stipend didn't hit his account until late October. It took a while.

 

[Dadof2]

Your ROTC scholarship won't be activated until after you matriculate, take the oath and sign your ROTC paperwork then pass the PT test for Army, so as the other responses said, there will be a lag from when you owe VMI money and when you will receive money from your scholarship. You'll need to either pay the initial bill or work out an arrangement for a payment plan/short term loan until the scholarship kicks in. Call VMI - they are very used to dealing with this situation.

Also keep in mind that if VMI offered any tuition breaks or scholarships you should not count on that aid in addition to your ROTC scholarship. VMI will review everything once the ROTC scholarship is activated and, depending on your family's financial situation, they will likely pull other financial aid they had offered. All of this takes some time to figure out and the 45 days from previous responses seems about right. It was a bit confusing for us to figure out what we owed for the first semester as we were initially billed for the 1st semester tuition, room and board and fees minus some financial aid VMI had offered. Once the ROTC scholarship kicked in VMI reviewed the other financial aid and pulled it all. If I recall correctly it was more than halfway into the first semester before all of this was worked out.

Good luck at VMI and make sure you show up to matriculation in great physical condition.