Veterans Benefits GI Bill

Dr. Pat from the blog Veterans on Campus mentioned back in May ‘09 that the Wisconsin GI Bill–a state-funded military financial aid program in WI–would force students to switch to the Post 9/11 GI Bill. The WI GI Bill grants a tuition waiver, but the student must provide documentation that he or she applied for the Post 9/11 GI Bill in order to qualify; if they were accepted, they must switch from Chapter 1606/MGIB to Chapter 30, and if they were declined, they may continue using Chapter 1606/MGIB.

This throws a monkey wrench into the issue of whether the MGIB or the Post 9/11 GI Bill is more beneficial for Wisconsin college students. The effect was only proposed back when Dr. Pat blogged about it in May, but has officially been approved to go into effect in Spring 2010.

Wisconsin military students will now have to decide whether to switch to the Post 9/11 GI Bill or not based on different factors:

1. Whether or not they receive more money from the Post 9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 30) and the tuition waver from the WI GI Bill, or
   
2. They receive more funds from the Montgomery GI Bill (Chapter 1606)

Reuters released a report today concerning the development of the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Due to the extensive wait time that the Post 9/11 GI Bill has posed for veterans, reserve, and active duty that have anticipated benefits since August 1st, the VA is initiating a “call every applicant” process to make sure communication is in check until funds are dispersed. (Read the entire story here.)

This means that if you still have not received your funds, the VA should be contacting you–rather than the other way around–to address you questions, comments, and concerns.

Due to the backlog of Post 9/11 GI Bill applications, many veterans, reserve, and active duty have thus far been unable to receive the financial aid they need for this fall semester. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has responded to this by posting how many financial benefits have been distributed on a continual basis–the last update, October 8, 2009, with 2,651 Post 9/11 GI Bill applications processed and 3,461 other government financial aid programs processed.

This does not even begin to squelch the staggering 75,000 applicants for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, which raises up the question: what about the other 72,000+ military students? The answer was emergency funds, which would grant each of these individuals $3,000 in temporary financial aid benefits that would later be deducted from the total financial aid received by the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Combine this with several understanding colleges that are not dropping students because of overdue tuition bills, and you have a sustainable amount of money to hopefully cover textbooks and living expenses until all Post 9/11 GI Bill applications are taken care of. Housing funds is a whole other monster to conquer entirely.

Hawaii Pacific University is a military-friendly located in an ideal center point between the United States mainland and many other countries. The rewarding academic programs are taught by faculty trained and respected in their fields and accommodate students from all over the world, bringing a mesh of cultures into everyday student life.

Hawaii is located in the middle of the Pacific, gathering students from American, European, and Asian culture into one central point. This is beneficial for both foreign military career advancement and professional business careers that focus on international trade. In fact, one of Hawaii Pacific University’s most exciting programs, the Master of Arts in Organizational Change, is based on the grounds of diversity and innovative thought offered at HPU.