<p>Hey guys. I'm sort of in a deep situation with finances. My dad specifically doesn't want to pay for any of the UCs and demands that I go into ROTC. I don't think that I'm suited for anything related to the military and he's only several thousand dollars short for the UC schools. I feel like he's being ridiculous right now and forcing a life changing decision onto me. I want to go to grad school but won't be able to if I have to serve four years straight out of college. I'm the one who will end up being shot at. He's pushing me for a career in the military because he has absolutely no faith in me that I could find a job as an engineer. I understand that I sound extremely bratty right now but I'm very scared. I would rather take out some loans right now. I don't know. Can someone put their input on this?</p>
<p>Going into ROTC does not necessarily mean getting a ROTC scholarship.</p>
<p>Your stats posted elsewhere of 3.4 HS GPA and 33 ACT give you a full ride to Louisiana Tech. There is your affordable safety.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.latech.edu/admissions/Scholarship%20updates%20for%20website.pdf[/url]”>http://www.latech.edu/admissions/Scholarship%20updates%20for%20website.pdf</a> (Presidential Scholarship)</p>
<p>Not everyone in the military gets shot at. A lot of it depends on which service you are in and what your career field is. I would say that soldiers (Army) and Marines find themselves in dangerous locations a lot more frequently than airmen or sailors. As an engineer (depending on what type) in the Air Force, you could possibly find yourself in a lab for 4 (or 20) years. </p>
<p>Plus, the military provides tuition assistance (100% tuition and fees for courses taken by active duty personnel in exchange for a two year commitment starting at your last class) for a graduate/doctorate degree. The first two years in ROTC are commitment free (unless you get a scholarship). You could use it as a trial run to see if the military is for you. You never know before you try it, you just might like it.</p>
<p>Your weighted GPA is higher according to your other posts.</p>
<p>How much WILL your dad pay each year for college? </p>
<p>Frankly, I can understand that for many families, paying $30k+ per year for a UC is too much, especially if there are other kids in the family.</p>
<p>Since your weighted GPA is higher, Alabama would give you:</p>
<p>Free tuition
2500 per year for being an eng’g major.</p>
<p>Remaining costs would be about $12k per year …so cheaper than a CSU! If necessary, you could pay $5k per year from a student loan (no cosigner needed), and $2k from summer earnings, and your dad would only have to pay about $5k per year.</p>
<p>Alabama has a very good College of Eng’g. It has a brand new mega-sized Science and Engineering Complex…state of the art and gorgeous. The campus is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the city is very nice.</p>
<p>The app is VERY EASY…no essays, no LORs…takes like 5 minutes. Must apply before Dec 15th.</p>
<p>Calif sends a lot of kids to Alabama. It’s #5 in sending kids to Bama.</p>
<p>Way, way late to apply for any ROTC scholarship. ROTC is not a way to pay fur college. It is a way to serve as a officer in the military when that is your #1 goal.</p>
<p>The vast majority of students who manage to get the scholarship but only want it for the money end up dropping out. After year 1 you then owe the military either all of the money they paid for your tuition or you have to serve years as enlisted.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>OP should clarify if the father wants to push the OP into the military and is using the college money as leverage for that, or if the father is just hoping that the OP gets an ROTC scholarship to pay for college, but is willing to contribute some non-trivial amount even if no military path is chosen by the OP.</p>
<p>In the former case, the OP needs a full ride, while in the latter case, some other net price levels could be doable.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Clarification is needed.</p>
<p>However, the OP says that the dad is only a few thousand short of paying for a UC. That suggests to me that he’d be willing to pay for “some” of college. If so, then if his dad will pay more than just a few thousand, then Bama would be affordable.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for your input so far. My dad is willing to pay only some of college which I’m guessing is 30 - 50%. So maybe all of tuition will be covered. It upsets that he won’t tell how much he’s willing to pay because he wants me to get a ROTC scholarship. He’s being extremely difficult with me. I tell him that I’m just not cut out for any of the branches of the military but he insists I am. If it is too late for rotc then thank god.
And I already am looking into university of Alabama if that’s what collegemom is referring to. I’ll take a look at Louisiana tech too.</p>
<p>Keep the full ride at Louisiana Tech in your back pocket in case he really does not have any money to contribute, balks at contributing if you do not take the military path, or gives any indication of using the money as a means of pressuring you toward the military path.</p>
<p>Is your dad in the military? Where did he get this idea? If he wanted you to consider ROTC, where was he last year when you should have been starting the process- investigating your suitability for military life and getting ready to apply? I’m afraid he isn’t giving you the best assistance in the college app process. Ucb and mom2 have good ideas. My idea is that HE should join the military, stat, and do boot camp in a state with a good uni you can get into which is cheaper than UCs, and you finish your senior year there, so college is more affordable. See what he thinks of that idea. Jeez.</p>
<p>Does your dad know it’s too late to apply for ROTC? </p>
<p>Anyway, your dad will likely stop bringing up ROTC when you have large scholarships in your pocket from other schools. </p>
<p>If you apply to Bama now (EZ app), send transcripts and scores, select Eng’g as your major, submit the scholarship app (also EZ), then you’ll have your acceptance and scholarship offer by around Thanksgiving. With a $100k in merit money in your pocket, your dad will stop with the ROTC stuff.</p>
<p>Here’s a video and pics about the school…
<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p><a href=“Titanium Chef | Home”>http://acresummit.ua.edu/store/store_files/Jason_Walker-207.pdf</a></p>
<p>Pics of the new Science & Engineering Complex begin on page 6, Student housing pics begin on page 12.</p>
<p>Alabama forum on College Confidential is VERY active.*
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/</a></p>
<p>Is your dad in the military? Where did he get this idea? If</p>
<p>My guess is that dad is annoyed that the UC’s now cost so much money. It wasn’t that long ago that a student could attend for under $20k. The jump from $8k in tuition to about $14k happened nearly overnight. The cost of housing has exploded as well…and you often get stuck in a triple!</p>
<p>OP, hey I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to sound so hard on your dad. He could be me about a year and a half ago first realizing the current cost of college and panicked deer in the headlights. He probably grasped at first idea he came across that means he doesn’t have to be in debt the rest of his life to pay for your college. If you tell him the ROTC scholarship isn’t full ride even if you could get it at this late date- still have to pay room and part of board and that you have idea for something just as good(better) and would be free summers to work and make money to help pay he may come around.</p>
<p>He actually got his bachelors in math from northwestern. He was in the naval rotc and got a full ride scholarship that way. I am the oldest of three but he’s expecting my two younger siblings to get hockey scholarships. He gets these ideas from his friends whose kids are going somewhere like Stanford or Princeton on a military scholarship. I’m an extremely easy going kid and always listen and followed his advice. But this time I’m going to have to put my foot down and say no. He complained about joining the navy so much and other family members have been screwed over by the military which is why I’m extremely wary of the military.</p>
<p>It looks like your dad wants his kids to get money from SOMEWHERE…not necessarily military since he’ll let your siblings accept hockey scholarships.</p>
<p>So, get huge merit scholarships from schools, and he’ll likely accept that.</p>
<p>But you need to figure out how much money he will actually contribute.</p>
<ul>
<li>None or close to none: You need a full ride (e.g. Louisiana Tech).</li>
<li>~$10,000 per year: Full tuition scholarship will do (e.g. Alabama).</li>
<li>~$20,000 per year: more choices, like CSUs at list price (may need a direct loan or some work earnings to add to it).</li>
</ul>
<p>Also, if your family is not very high income, UC (and CSU) financial aid may produce a net price significantly lower than list price. Run the net price calculator or convince him to run it.</p>
<p>Yes. I’ll try to pry it out of him somehow soon. Sorry if it seemed like I’m bad mouthing the military. It just scared me off due to previous experiences family members had to go through. I talked to my mom about working while in college and she’s on board with it. In fact she would prefer that I didn’t do ROTC. Someone mentioned that I’m doing it for the wrong reasons which is absolutely true. I’m just not suited for the military.
But thank all of you. It seems like so many doors that I never knew that existed were just opened. You have no idea how motivated and relieved I feel right now.</p>
<p>Oh, so your dad did do ROTC. And then was in military afterwards I presume? He didn’t care for it? Was he in combat? Funny that he would want you to do it after he had a bad experience himself. But maybe he doesn’t see other options. I don’t think most ROTC scholarships are full ride, though they may be someplace. They are tuition and books plus a small monthly stipend as far as I know. Have you already applied for ROTC then? </p>
<p>Hey, if you apply to Alabama, make sure the transcript has the weighted GPA on it. Their website says they accept the higher weighted GPA for scholarships so long as it’s on transcript. Mom2collegekids really has me sold on that school. Taking my HS junior there to visit as soon as we have a chance. Anyway, good luck. </p>
<p>And good luck to brothers with hockey scholarships too. Are they stars? I don’t know hockey, but for sports like soccer, if you are good enough for D1 you can get scholarships, sometimes full, and sometimes less. But if you play D3, most often you may get a bit of preference for admission, but no money, just the chance to keep playing. One of S’s friends who is a real talent is leaving to go to a residential hockey school for senior year, not cheap. Seems like many parents I know dream of athletic scholarships for their kids. Occasionally it pans out, but can’t count on it when they are still young as can’t be sure how that early talent will grow over time. Unless you’re LeBron or something extraordinary.</p>
<p>Nah he never experienced any sort of combat during his time at sea. The only excitement he experienced was throwing one of his friend’s underwear off the ship. That’s pretty much it. </p>
<p>That’s great! I almost had a heart attack because the scholarship minimum gpa was a 3.5 and I thought that was unweighted. But never mind. What’s funny is my dad just so happens to be receiving his masters in aerospace engineering right now from UA via online but he hasn’t finished his thesis. So I find it really funny that I will take the same lower division classes as him. If that happens then I’m going to ■■■■■ him super hard by getting better test scores and grades.
My brother and sister are pretty good. My sister is a freshman in hs and she’s already extremely stressed about athletic scholarships. I just tell her to calm down, and do her best under the circumstances she’s in. But those two still have time to develop their skills.</p>
<p>*But you need to figure out how much money he will actually contribute.</p>
<ul>
<li>None or close to none: You need a full ride (e.g. Louisiana Tech).</li>
<li>~$10,000 per year: Full tuition scholarship will do (e.g. Alabama).</li>
<li>~$20,000 per year: more choices, like CSUs at list price (may need a direct loan or some work earnings to add to it).*</li>
</ul>
<p>The student can take out the following loans WITHOUT needing a parent co-signer…</p>
<p>5500 frosh
6500 soph
7500 jr
7500 sr</p>
<p>If a student were to add in a couple thousand from a summer job then the parents contribution could be VERY little.</p>
<p>Yes, Bama accepts weighted GPA for scholarships. If your weighted GPA isn’t written on your transcript, then have your GC hand-write it on there.</p>