<p>How much does a cadet make during the first year, and what expenses do you have? Is it customary for parents to cover expenses?</p>
<p>I'm starting a movement to have cadets send all their extra money home to their parents! I believe the exact figures are posted somewhere on the academy admissions website. First year expenses are something over $10,000. This is extracted over two years from a salary of something over $8,000 per year. The bottom line is that cadets get takehome pay of about $100 per month during doolie year. The next year they get more. By their third year most of their expenses for uniforms etc. are already met, so they get most of their pay to spend wisely or unwisely however they choose.</p>
<p>When you are awarded other scholarships can you have them forwarded to USAFA so that less is taken from your stipend? Also, how do most of you cadets pay for airfare home on breaks? Parents?</p>
<p>redhead: I believe you can, but I don't think you'd see an effect until your last couple years. I have one that I should get, but I don't know when I'm going to see it.</p>
<p>As for airfare...I live in California and I think a round trip is roughly 400 bucks or so.</p>
<p>redhead, depending on the scholarship source, most scholarship checks are issued directly to the college you enroll in. The funds would be applied to your account (loan/debt). Guy4Christ is right. Depending on the amount of scholarships awarded, you may not recieve much more than a cadet that did not have private scholarship money. </p>
<p>The gov. makes advance pay loans to ensure funds are available for cadets to pay the required initial charges, The cadet is required to pay the loan back during the first two years( 4th and 3rd Class years).
Your 4th Class Issue costs approximately $1500 PLUS an additional $1500 for uniforms. You will be issued a computer. (You can purchase a printer at the C Store or have your parents bring it or ship it to you at the Acceptance Parade.)<br>
4th Class cadets are given Cash Allowances in addition to their regular pay in Oct. for Christmas Break, January for Spring Break and May for summer activities.<br>
Travel expenses are the cadets responsibility. Not all cadets travel home for Break. (Thanksgiving and Christmas Breaks are only 3.5 weeks apart.) Some cadets stay with their Sponsor Family.<br>
There are a number of additional deductions such as taxes, insurance, barber, linen, laundry, tailor, athletic fees (tickets to sporting events), etc.</p>
<p>After your loan is repaid, the cadet will have a reserve or "held pay" balance. This balance is known as "magic money". The Finance Office will periodically liquidate "held pay" balances in excess of $750 (2001 figure). Any balance at graduation will be paid to the cadet.</p>
<p>Redhead89: Not sure how you can have scholarships for USAFA (?)but you don't want to forward money to the Academy. Your salary is lower in the first two years because you are repaying an interest free loan that the AF makes on your behalf to cover uniforms and laptops. They are taking money from your pay to pay down the loan. Since it's interest free AND it's very complicated to repay it, I wouldn't. Just keep the money to use for airfare. You can even keep it in the same account that you establish for your regular pay. </p>
<p>In answer to your other question : we have a standing deal that we will pay for all airfare to fly our son home for any time he has longer than a weekend (assuming he has the inclination of course;) ). It's a pretty good deal considering we 1) WANT to see him, and 2) have saved a lot on tuition! Others are able to save enough from pay to afford it, maybe with a little help.</p>
<p>Military transport is also possible depending on where you live and assuming you can handle the uncertainties of it. Here's something to consider: if the AF has regular flights going to a base near you, you can try to catch a ride with them AND always book one commercial flight to make sure. If the military flight works, most airlines will let you use the ticket at a later date for a small fee. If it fails or changes last minute (that happens), you have the commercial flight as a back-up. If lucky, you just keep rolling that one paid-for commercial flight over and over. Just an idea.</p>
<p>AFDAD2010: I believe redhead89 may have or will be recieving private scholarship awards (local or national contests/sponsors). As long as the cadet's (recipient's) enrollment at an Academy does not violate the terms of the award(s), sponsors sometimes issue award checks with the recipient's name as well as the designated educational institution. This prevents the recipient from spending award money on something other than educational expenses. </p>
<p>You do bring up a good point. Since the government loan is interest free, there is no benefit to repay it ahead of their schedule. If you have scholarship awards, trust funds, or educational accounts that require a second payee (educational institution), contact the Admissions or Finace Office for specific instructions. If you have funds set aside for educational expenses, you might be able to keep or move them to interest barring accounts. Don't spend it until you have to.</p>
<p>as far as traveling expenses, according to the cadet i followed on my tour a few weeks ago, you rack up frequent flyer miles pretty fast. between going home and coming back a few times along with academy related travel (on the govt's dime) you get enough miles to where traveling isnt too expensive</p>
<p>Read over your scholarship details. Our son applied to Northwestern and Rice in addition to USAFA. My employer has a scholarship program that our son applied for, and he has to list what schools he applied to on the scholarship application. His award papers specifically state that if he goes to the Air Force Academy instead of the other two, he will forfeit the scholarship. I talked to our Human Rescources people about it, and they said that it is common to have that kind of a disclaimer in the offer if they know that someone is considering one of the service academies.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help, guys. I'm going to be getting state and local scholarships through my school, so I wanted to know the rules about where that money goes. I talked with the mom of a cadet I know and she told me that I can forward scholarships to an account at the Air Force Academy to help pay for books, computer, uniforms, etc. Thanks again. :) I'm sure a lot of my questions will be worked out during orientation.</p>
<p>redhead, did you already get your Offer of Appointment?</p>
<p>Not technically yet. I'm still waiting for my nomination. Keeping my fingers crossed. :)</p>