Report: Veterans Who Use GI Bill Have Lower Incomes After College Enrollments

I believe upon exiting military service you should be given the option to recoup the money that you put into the GI bill.. not every veteran wants to go to college.. some already went before service.. and could use that money to start a business of their own.. otherwise the army is just stealing soldiers money.. kinda a robbing peter to pay Paul ordeal..

The painful reality is that there are huge numbers of scam educational entities who exist to scam veterans out of their GI Bill money and other education benefits, scam loans, and some even poach money off the veterans which they get from various VA programs. The wisest option is to undertake aggressive education opportunities on military bases which on active duty or reserves and push hard to get your bachelor's or master’s degree before you earn your DD-214. Once you separate, try to stay with colleges courses taught through state-operated colleges, and avoid private colleges initially.

If you are high speed, low drag you will easily score a Masters while still in your initial 6-year enlistment, and if you select your school and program carefully, you could do your 6 years on active duty and leave at the age of 23 or 24 with a Ph.D./EdD/DBA which will position you to enter a .gov operated community college or regular college to fill in any/all gaps in the liberal arts side of your education once you leave active service at the end of your 6 year enlistment contract. The trick is to "double up" on your education while you are on active duty, so you earn 45-70 college credits per year of active-duty time by taking college courses during off duty periods of time. If you have a 6-year enlistment, and you have some technical schools and transfers, this will learn you with a juicy 4-year period to capitalize on off duty education opportunities on base. At a minimum, this will give you at least 180 credits, and if you are properly motivated... probably closer to 280 credits, in ADDITION to whatever military credits you gain for boot camp and your technical training (which in and of itself, can be huge).

Once you separate from the service, start at state operated community colleges to widen your education beyond the education you will have when you leave active-duty service (with your 4/6/8-year degree). Then, transfer from the state-run community college to the traditional 4/6-year regular colleges, and once you complete your additional 4/6-year degree (which any veteran can nail down in a third that time), only then consider spending money at a private college.

It is important to understand the economics of the community college and state college education, and you may well take a course at a CC and then repeat the same topic at the 4-year state college, and then take it again at a private college, each time of having the goal to learn the topic deeper and deeper. When you are on enlisted active duty your priority will be to complete you 2 year and 4-year degree as fast as possible, and then to be in graduate school while still on active duty, and ideally to separate with a freshly minted MBA before your DD-214 is issued. Even if you leave active duty with a terminal degree or Doctorate, humble up and still attend a two-year program where you relearn at a community college or state college. Transfer credit is fine, but actual learning is more important and must be a constant lifetime pursuit.

A harsh way to look at it, if to examine the costs of leaving the military and entering welding school or entering a degree program at a community college and then bridging to a four-year state-run college to get a 4-year degree in Mechanical Engineering. The welding school gives you one, very specific skill that you can use to get a job (welding, brazing, heat treating). But the same amount of money spent at a state-run community college taking math, writing, science, physics at cut-rate prices, and build up a body of credits to earn first a 2-year transferable degree to then move to a four-year college, and then forward to graduate school. As state funded colleges are drastically less expensive than that of a private 4-year college, the value you get dollar for dollar is profound. Plus, at state funded colleges, most veterans can get tons and tons of free money for tuition, fees, and books, and in many colleges, veterans utterly attend for free (your DD-214 gets you a tuition and fee waiver). There is no reason to go into debt for state run colleges if you have a DD-214, and at private colleges most veterans can cut about half the cost through grants and scholarships, without touching they GI Bill, or other VA benefits… which means with the money you do have available, you can earn one hell of an education with zero debt, and very little cash out of the veterans pocket, just some patience. Most private colleges even go to tremendous effort to recruit veterans who have a proven track record in the state operated schools as these extremely valuable veterans-students elevates the performance of all their students in the same courses. Indeed, many private (highly expensive) colleges even recruit cohorts of veterans to go through the same courses and programs as veterans have a knack for teamwork at an uncommonly young age, and when they are placed into a cohort and the non-military students of the same age see their dedication to purpose, they emulate what they see the veterans doing to support each other. The example is often used of when you can get any course to have 10% veterans, there is a probability the course GPA across all students will be 3.9 or better, with zero course failures.

The painful reality is that there are huge numbers of scam educational entities who exist to scam veterans out of their GI Bill money and other education benefits, scam loans, and some even poach money off the veterans which they get from various VA programs. The wisest option is to undertake aggressive education opportunities on military bases which on active duty or reserves, and push hard to get your bachelor's or Master's degree before you earn your DD-214. Once you separate, try to stay with colleges courses taught through state-operated colleges, and avoid private colleges initially.

If you are high speed, low drag you will easily score a Masters while still in your initial 6-year enlistment, and if you select your school and program carefully, you could do your 6 years on active duty and leave at the age of 23 or 24 with a Ph.D./EdD/DBA which will position you to enter a .gov operated community college or regular college to fill in any/all gaps in the liberal arts side of your education once you leave active service at the end of your 6 year enlistment contract. The trick is to "double up" on your education while you are on active duty, so you earn 45-70 college credits per year of active-duty time by taking college courses during off duty periods of time. If you have a 6-year enlistment, and you have some technical schools and transfers, this will learn you with a juicy 4-year period to capitalize on off duty education opportunities on base. At a minimum, this will give you at least 180 credits, and if you are properly motivated... probably closer to 280 credits, in ADDITION to whatever military credits you gain for boot camp and your technical training (which in and of itself, can be huge).

Once you separate from the service, start at state operated community colleges to widen your education beyond the education you will have when you leave active-duty service (with your 4/6/8-year degree). Then, transfer from the state-run community college to the traditional 4/6-year regular colleges, and once you complete your additional 4/6-year degree (which any veteran can nail down in a third that time), only then consider spending money at a private college. It is important to understand the economics of the community college and state college education, and you may well take a course at a CC and then rake the same topic at the 4-year state college, and then take it again at a private college, each time of having the goal to learn the topic deeper and deeper. When you are on enlisted active duty your priority will be to complete you 2 year and 4-year degree as fast as possible, and then to be in graduate school while still on active duty, and ideally to separate with a freshly minted MBA before your DD-214 is issued. Even if you leave active duty with a terminal degree or Doctorate, humble up and still attend a two-year program where you relearn at a community college or state college. Transfer credit is fine, but actual learning is more important and must be a constant lifetime pursuit.

With the schooling, training and experience that many “jobs” in service require/provide, it makes more sense, at least to me, for a degree to be awarded without further civilian study for having those “jobs” while in service…as for me I came out of the military more highly trained and with more experience than my nurse counterparts..