<p>Once you are in a military academy, I believe through your sophomore year, if you decide not to go further, your can exit then w/o any repayment (so say you finish junior year and opt out) - you have to repay some (or maybe all) of your costs of attending.</p>
<p>With ROTC, there were ROTC students with their ROTC scholarship and participation ended (due to funding cuts) and with a short time frame to pay back their scholarship $$ - if you were at a pricey school, that payback money is quite substantial. With Air Force, that was over 100 students nationally this spring. I imagine it may have happened with other branches of ROTC. </p>
<p>A very tight percentage of Air Force students entered summer field training 2014 - cuts were made due to the gov’t funding cuts - and so that ended those cut students’ time with ROTC. How different branches were affected obviously has varied. </p>
<p>Not sure if entry classes to the military academies has fluctuated due to funding cuts.</p>
<p>Just saying, many people are not aware of the quite dramatic changes with the option of possibly paying for college with ROTC. We are in a new paradigm. Even the news media has recently talked about some of the gov’t union jobs (like within IRS) that have been protected, while military personnel do not have some of the same protections (a recent story about terminating a serviceman during their time while serving our country in the Middle East).</p>
<p>Someone with plans to be a MD or get into law school or dental via military - ever changing scenarios.</p>
<p>However, NJ National Guardsmen get to go to any NJ public tuition free, and IL National Guardsmen can go tuition free to an IL public after one year. Possible risk of deployment, though (though you may be protected while in school). You’d have to look in to that. Air Guard may be safer.</p>
<p>Also, Guard pay should be enough to cover room and board.</p>
Thank you SOSConcern for the explanation! I’m not sure the above is completely accurate. My understand is that anyone on an AFROTC scholarship that was not selected for Field Training…was NOT required to pay back their scholarship money. Yes, they lost their scholarships but did not have to repay ANY amount. Now any scholarship cadet that voluntarily quits after the beginning of their sophomore year is required to repay all scholarship monies. </p>
<p>Do you have a source for your statement that ROTC cadets whose “participation ended (due to funding cuts) and with a short time frame to pay back their scholarship $$”?</p>
<p>BTW - I agree completely with the following statement: "Just saying, many people are not aware of the quite dramatic changes with the option of possibly paying for college with ROTC. We are in a new paradigm.'</p>
<p>I’m not sure that @SOSConcern was referring to my post but if so than we are indeed talking about completely different things. I didn’t reference either ROTC or a Military Academy. Both military options that I mentioned were for medical school ONLY. The “Health Professions Scholarship Program” is a scholarship that you apply for when you are accepted into medical school. They pay your entire medical school bill along with a stipend. The military medical school in Bethesda, Maryland is a medical school that you apply to alongside of all other medical schools. If you are accepted you can choose to to go there for free, with pay and you enter one of the three services or the Public Health Service.</p>
<p>I would not suggest to anyone whose ultimate plan is Medical School to do their undergraduate either through a service Academy or ROTC because the number of people that they will allow out of their immediate payback commitment to attend medical school is indeed small. </p>
<p>@DEfour I was just opening up the discussion more, because others reading your post might think the opportunities in the past will continue to be open, and the paradigm is changing. Something for students/parents to look into, but some ignore the limitations on any particular option (looking through rose colored glasses).</p>
<p>@alanges - my DD did not have any scholarship AFROTC time, but she knows of over 100 nationally (I think the number was just under 130 or 140) that did have to pay back some or all scholarship money (info from her Command) - they may have already had their field training; they were cut from the program due to the budget cuts. And yes, there were people cut that did not have to pay back scholarship. Some the AF honored fulfilling their scholarship but they will not go into AF upon degree completion - it is not rational, but sometimes that is how the gov’t works. The ones that were to repay were instructed via letter about expected 6 month period for full repayment; not sure how AF will proceed with securing the funds. Her source of info was via her AF Command, but I am getting this info through her, not directly. There may have been a difference in how various contracts were written up - based on the follow through, contracts most likely were different for the different outcomes (some with scholarship payback, some not)… </p>
<p>There were 30 nursing students nationally with AFROTC that were somehow ‘pre-selected’ - so either contractually or otherwise were chosen before the remaining 20 slots (ultimately these 50 students represented 43% of the national nursing applicants that had met all ROTC requirements and were on the list). The rest were cut - so these were the ones before field training (and perhaps w/o scholarship payback).</p>
<p>The point is that it is very disappointing to jump through all these hoops and then get the rug pulled out from under you. But it happens in the private sector too. </p>
<p>My DD’s Command has directed her to Navy Nursing - they have a fall application process for students like her (in nursing school with fall classes).</p>
<p>I have not heard any personal stories of other branches of the service with their cut-backs. A friends’ son just finished Army LDAC training (has 4 year ROTC scholarship). </p>
<p>I do know a physician that was going into an additional specialty paid for by Army, and then having a commitment on service, however a few months before starting, the gov’t changed their mind and backed out…not sure the reason - funding or didn’t need that specialty…he is an ER MD, and continues doing that, private practice.</p>
<p>SOSConcern My information also comes from my daughter, my conversation with her Detachment Commander and another site with quite a few more AFROTC cadets and parents than this one. That said…I will PM you the rest so as not to push this thread any further off of topic. </p>