GI Bill

Last week I reflected on the intricacies of applying to college in 2024. It’s a process, but it works, and the Common App makes applying to college a little easier for our young folk. This week, it’s the next logical topic, paying for college. In a period where it seems our government stays in perpetual flux; I want to heap a little praise on one means to pay for school. Specifically, there is one government benefit for our veterans that I think our nation gets right.

Of course, the topic of veteran’s benefits is subjective. I’ve blogged previously about my overall positive experience with the VA. Some haven’t been as fortunate. That being said, I think few veterans could debate the merit of the post 9/11 GI Bill. In my humble opinion, it is one of the best veterans benefits our nation has implemented.

What makes it so great? Again, opinion, but I think the transferability of the benefit to family members it the best feature. This feature acknowledges not only the veteran’s service but, in many cases, the long-suffering family members. On a more personal note, our family would not have been able to afford the university our oldest was fortunate to get accepted to without assistance from the post 9/11 GI Bill.

While there are caps to the benefit, most universities participate in the “Yellow Ribbon Program” where the school kicks in funds that the VA matches to a point. Not all schools have the same level of participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Fortunately, and quite by accident, we picked a university that has one of the best Yellow Ribbon contributions in the nation. As a result, the pricey private school, is almost a free ride. Definitely worth a veteran’s time to look at Yellow Ribbon contributions by institution; this information is readily available on the VA education website as shown in this week’s featured pic.

Another thing I discovered is that the Post 9/11 GI Bill pays 36 months’ worth of benefits. I naturally assumed this meant four years of college. What I discovered is most institutions don’t have 9-month school years. In fact, most are only about 7 months and 10 days. So, if you do the math, that is almost 5 (school) years’ worth of benefits. What does that mean for our family? My GI Bill will go towards nearly all of my oldest undergraduate education expenses and about a year towards our youngest.

Tapping into the GI Bill benefit was as easy as could be expected for a VA process. We haven’t had any issues over the past three years. Important to note, dependents using the benefit will have to make their own VA accounts and if there are any questions or issues, they will have to call the VA themselves. Even though the veteran earned the benefit, once transferred, it belongs to the dependent!

I hope the Post 9/11 GI Bill remains untouched by our elected leadership. I suppose there are areas the benefit could improve upon but from my observation it’s pretty close to perfect now. There are other education benefits for veterans with special circumstances I will review in upcoming blogs. This is one thing our government gets right!

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