<p>I've got a question and I've posed this situation to both the admissions and financial aid offices and recieved two completely different answers. </p>
<p>I have a scholarahip for full tuition (through ROTC) but since room and board is still a sizable $14000 I'm hoping to be able to add some institutional based merit or need based aid to cut that cost down (Ill likely just miss getting any federal help outta FAFSA. The website seems to suggest that ALL of the need based awards from the school and all of the merit based awards from the school MUST go towards tuition and cannot be used to help with room and board cost? Like I said I've gotten conflicting and vague answers from the school, please help! </p>
<p>Hi there, </p>
<p>I’m trying to fully understand your full situation, which may be the source of confusion from the respondents at the university. Are you referring to specifically a university-based scholarship, or is the ROTC scholarship outside of the university? Because the only mention of ROTC on the scholarship information page on the university’s website is this: </p>
<p>Qualifying ROTC scholars may be eligible for awards toward the cost of GW campus housing and meals. Navy, Army, and Air Force ROTC scholars who are new to the military service with majors in computer science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, or engineering may be eligible for a $4,000 room and board award. Regardless of major, NROTC scholars with prior Navy experience may be eligible for awards up to the average cost of room and board.</p>
<p>The above mentions that ROTC scholars may use their awards towards housing and meals. If this does not answer your question, could you specify the source of your scholarship? </p>
<p>Much thanks for the response, I will elaborate. I recieved a four year full tuition award from outside the school. I recieved the scholarship directly from the US Army independent of the school. I am also not going to be a tech major so I am not eligible for the $4000 that I’ve seen like you mentioned on their site. My question however is not whether I will automatically get an award like that to pay for room and board. The issue is whether or not i am disqualifyied from recieving any need or merit based aid the school would normally award to a regular applicant with my credentials, because of the fact I have full tuition. I am afraid that even though there is still about $13000-$14000 in room and board that I do not have covered by my scholarship, the school will see any award admissions gives me in a package as an overaward and then revoke it. That is in a nutshell what a financial aid officer told me at thw school Friday morning, but later that afternoon I posed the same question to an admissions counswlor who looked at ne like I was crazy and seemwd to think that any award money that came from the school could indeed go towards room and board. I don’t know who to turn to!</p>
<p>So, obviously you will be able to utilize your outside scholarship toward any expenses you would like to. Nevertheless, some need-based/merit-aid should indeed be able to be used towards the cost of room and board. </p>
<p>It doesn’t specify on the website that awards can only be used towards tuition. And when I received all my financial aid information, it didn’t bind my grants to just tuition (with the exception of the University Guaranteed Grant Award). However, the University and Alumni Award description did not bind it to tuition expenses. The federal grants can be used towards any type of college expense, too. </p>
<p>Actually, ROTC scholarships can only be used toward tuition – except at a few schools where ROTC scholarships can be applied to room and board instead of tuition (but most such schools are state universities). NOTICE that I said “instead of.” ROTC scholarships cannot pay for both tuition and room/board costs.</p>
<p>In addition, the ROTC student receives a $300 or greater stipend each month which can be used for anything. </p>
<p>I suggest contacting financial aid again, and hope to get a different person and a different answer. If you have been awarded a specific type of aid already, then ask specifically about its applicability to room and board. Try to get specific answers to specific types of aid.</p>