Today's blog features a story found at this link about how veteran students make their choices of which schools to attend.  For many students, the GI Bill, particularly the Post 9/11 GI Bill, gives them the freedom to attend school without having to work full-time while attending.  It also discusses the expectations of students from the schools they attend, and the preferences from two year versus four year institutions.

The one glaring part of this article that I took special interest to was the fear of some veterans that their education benefits would run out before they completed school.  Even with traditional bachelor's degrees requiring school for four years, some degrees take longer to obtain, five years in some more technical fields.  Additionally, the growing need for advanced certifications and graduate degrees in today's job market means that many veterans need to use funding to pay for graduate studies as well.  Currently, most of the funding for the GI Bill is sufficient for a bachelor's degree and not much else and doesn't take into account a change in degree and career plans or endeavors.

This is why it is more crucial now than ever to take advantage of tuition assistance and other benefits while you are still in the service.  This can only help to stave off the excessive--and growing--cost of tuition and help you prepare for the growing need for advanced studies beyond the graduate level.  Our book discusses this throughout, and it's incumbent upon those who are still serving to take advantage of additional benefits avaiable before you choose to leave the service.