Veterans Benefits GI Bill

For the first time ever, Veterans Benefits GI Bill has put together a Top 25 Military-Friendly Colleges list for the military student community. By providing this list, we hope to further educate the active duty, reserve, veteran students and their family members, whether current or prospective, on the best colleges and universities available.

Veterans Benefit GI Bill chose our Top 25 Military-Friendly Colleges based on: the financial aid options available to service members, such as participation in the Post 9/11 GI Bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program and scholarships; the percentage of overall student recruitment budget allocated to recruiting military students; the school’s proximity to a military base and/or availability of distance learning programs friendly to personnel; the school’s academic accreditations; available military scholarships and tuition assistance; participation in the MyCAA program; and whether the school’s featured in other top military-friendly college lists.

The U.S. Department of Education sponsors a free-to-the-veteran education program to assist low-income, disabled, and first-generation college bound veterans which is designed to help them “knock the rust off of their academic skills” and then enroll in the school of their choice. There are approximately 46 such Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) programs located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The best way to find out if there is a VUB program in a specific city or state is to go to the National Association of Veterans Upward Bound Project Personnel website.

The National Association of Veterans Upward Bound Project Personnel (NAVUBPP) is the professional association for Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) staff personnel. Veterans Upward Bound projects, supported by NAVUBPP, are designed to help develop the personal potential of military veterans. The VUB staff and instructors assist veterans by improving, developing upon, and extending the educational access of opportunities that veterans are eligible for. This is determined through academic needs assessment, instruction, enrichment, and other academic support activities.

The 3rd Annual Guide to Military Friendly Colleges and Universities is now available to view. This guide includes colleges and universities gathered together from the editors of the KMI Media Group that provide military-friendly benefits, programs, and support. This uniform, pertitent information should help prospective students select a school to begin or continue their advanced education. Some of the schools in the guide offer a broad range of educational choices; others are highly specialized.

Yesterday, the VA processed 8,716 Post 9/11 GI Bill applications and 8,220 applications to other military benefit programs. This is a jump from the amount being processed weekly just a couple months ago. In addition, they have closed the call centers on Thursdays and Fridays to open up staff to process the applications faster. While this is not the most optimal situation, already improvements are being shown for the Post 9/11 GI Bill in 2010.

Spring 2010 is just around the corner! Need help with your Post 9/11 GI Bill? The best first step–and one you’re probably following if you’re here–is trying to keep up with the latest Post 9/11 GI Bill news from November forward. By staying up-to-date, you’re sure to remain informed on how your veterans educational benefits are working for you in Spring 2010.

Veterans Benefits GI Bill has followed the VA website changes, emergency funds, and other last-minute fixes to the new GI Bill conundrum for the past several months. Some of the news, unfortunately, has been bad news–like banks turning military members with emergency checks away, or at best, telling them to delay–but then there’s also the promise if a better semester coming this Spring thanks to the automated system being built for the VA’s website. No more applications-in-the-slush-pile, waiting to be done by hand!

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.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs website has improved in the past month for the Post 9/11 GI Bill page. In addition to offering a vast amount of information concerning the Post 9/11 GI Bill, information about other educational benefit programs are included to help compare the benefits a military personnel should apply for. Several benefits are a “one or the other” package, such as selecting between the Post 9/11 GI Bill or the MGIB, so it is important to invest in this research before making a final decision on education benefits.

Several readers have expressed concern about their application for family transferability for the Post 9/11 GI Bill. The U.S. Department of Defense has received an overwhelming amount of applications pertaining to the transferability option of the Post 9/11 GI Bill.