<p>Just yesterday, a message was posted for all BGO's that the customary entrance fee of $2500 to defray costs will not be required for entrants in the Class of 2012. Great news!</p>
<p>Wow! great news! I wonder if the other academies will follow suit?</p>
<p>hmmm this is interesting. In the wake of tighter military budgets are they simply going to 'take it out' of the Plebe's pay? Any BGO's know the answer?</p>
<p>Our daughter is the class of 2011 at USAFA and they did not have a entrance fee!!!</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a free lunch. The academy will eventually get the $2,500 out of their monthly paychecks.</p>
<p>I can afford to join the Blue and Gold club and donate $1k to get the cool parking spot and buy season tickets to Navy Football. :) </p>
<p>See you all at the tailgating........</p>
<p>Seriously this is good news and I seriously was going to do all that anyways. </p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>In the past, the initial fee was charged, and another $6,000 of charges would also accrue - costs of uniforms issued, computer issue, etc. There was a provision that for finanically strapped families, the entering Mid (or Cadet) could avoid paying the fee, but yes - it was taken out of the paycheck over time (TANSTAFFL!!). </p>
<p>I would expect that the "dropped" fee will still be collected, over time. (And the service academies, just like the military at large, doesn't have the freedom to drop some of these charges. Its the same at boot camps, where there is a basic uniform issue that is covered, but there are lots of issued items that are charged to the recruits!)</p>
<p>Good news....Daughter can pay the fee out of her future pay and I can afford airline tickets to Army-Navy 2008. Now, we just need the appointment.</p>
<p>I just hope that the academies still keep these fees as a separate identifiable item.</p>
<p>Some students can get scholarships that can be applied to these fees (while other scholarships might be only good for tuition - in which case the scholarship is useless to someone going to a service academy.)</p>
<p>When the students go out and earn some nice scholarships - it is nice if the scholarship can be used to defray some of the costs.</p>