• Post 9/11 GI Bill
• Montgomery GI Bill
• Scholarship programs

The Post 9/11 GI Bill is the newest of the financial aid programs available to the military. In many ways, it’s similar to the MGIB, but the differences are enough that students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the program. Once a student decides they’re going to apply for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, they may not revert back to the MGIB, so it’s important to get all your answers prior to application. At the same time, the VA has to go through thousands of Post 9/11 GI Bill applications, so the sooner you’re prepared to apply for it, the more likely you will receive it the semester that it’s needed!

What are some of the perks of the Post 9/11 GI Bill vs. the MGIB?

• Students studying at a campus may receive BAH, or a housing allowance, and may also receive funds for covering textbooks and other miscellaneous materials.
• Students may attend vocational schools with government funding.
• Military-friendly schools like Saint Leo University may opt to offer additional financial aid assistance for tuition that is not already covered through the state-determined allotment of the Post 9/11 GI Bill; this is called the Yellow Ribbon Program.

To learn more about the Post 9/11 GI Bill, including whether you qualify, what you need to do to apply, and the benefits you may be eligible for, visit the Veteran Benefits GI Bill Blog to learn about the Yellow Ribbon Program; alternatively, you can check out the Department of Veteran Affairs’ VA GI Bill page.

Military-Friendly

Saint Leo University offers academic degree programs specifically tailored for military students. The university also provides financial aid counselors who can assist students with the sometimes confusing Post 9/11 GI Bill process.

Veteran Benefits

Veterans also can benefit from online degree programs. With full-time careers and family obligations, veterans may find it difficult to take advantage of their education benefits in a traditional classroom setting; but thanks to Saint Leo University’s Center for Online Learning, they can enroll in college without sacrificing any part of their busy lives.

Blended Learning Models

Saint Leo University maintains education centers on or near military bases in seven states.  That makes it convenient for students who prefer a classroom learning experience, or courses that “blend” online and classroom learning.  Associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degree programs are offered.  Military students can pursue their academic goals––from start to finish––at a prestigious university that has been educating students since 1889.

If you are a member of the U.S. military who is thinking about pursuing a college degree, why not consider enrolling in Saint Leo University’s military-friendly online degree programs today.

Saint Leo University’s administrators are eager to assist veterans ready to enroll in college when the new Post-9/11 GI Bill comes into effect August 1.

“It’s great for the military and it’s great for our country,” Saint Leo University President Dr. Arthur F. Kirk Jr., said in a recent interview with Spirit, the university magazine.
Because of the bill, SLU expects new enrollments at its main campus in central Florida, as well as at its continuing education centers and teaching locations at or near military bases in seven states.

Military tuition rates at Saint Leo are set on a state-by-state basis, but in all SLU locations students covered by the new GI Bill will find the basic benefits, or the basic benefits plus special university and federal aid, will cover their educational costs.

The basic benefits of the bill are sufficient to meet SLU’s military tuition rates in Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, California, and at Florida teaching locations beyond the main campus, and through the Center for Online Learning.

For the benefit of new GI Bill students who will attend the main campus, or who enroll at teaching locations in Georgia, Saint Leo University is joining the Veterans Administration’s new “Yellow Ribbon” program for certain colleges and universities. These institutions, or at least some of their teaching locations, have higher tuition fees than provided for by the new legislation. But the “Yellow Ribbon” institutions are partnering with the VA to provide enough added student financial assistance to bridge the gap. That way, these military students and veterans will still be able to attend the private or public institutions of their choosing and attain the degrees they desire.

Prospective students with questions on the new GI Bill can visit a special Veterans Administration Web site for the most comprehensive information available, at www.GIBILL.VA.gov.
Saint Leo has staff members covering each teaching location who are able to help with questions about applying for the new GI Bill at SLU. Call 1-800-707-8846 for information.

Yellow Ribbon Program

Saint Leo University announced after the May release of the Post 9/11 GI Bill application that they will be participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program. The Yellow Ribbon Program is a provision of the Post 9/11 GI Bill designed to aid students in the over-the-top tuition expenses that are not covered under the Post 9/11 GI Bill’s regular benefits.

The Post 9/11 GI Bill was designed so that qualifying active military, military reserve, and veterans could receive tuition assistance up to the in-state undergraduate tuition costs at the college of their choice. For universities with higher tuition costs higher than an in-state university equivalent, the Yellow Ribbon Program steps in to mitigate the extra expenses. Here’s how it works:

A college may, at their option, waive 50% of the additional expenses of their tuition; the VA, in return, covers the additional 50%. This is the maximum benefit of the Yellow Ribbon Program, adding up to 100% coverage of the student’s over-the-top tuition expenses. Some colleges may only waive 25%, in which case, the VA would cover 25%, and the student would be left with the remaining 50%.

For example: Saint Leo University’s main campus charges $8,498 per class. The Post 9/11 GI Bill only covers $8,186 of these expenses, leaving an excess of $312. Saint Leo University waives $156 of this additional expense through the Yellow Ribbon Program, and the VA in turn covers the other $156, leaving the student with a zero-dollar obligation.

It is important to note that the Yellow Ribbon Program is completely voluntary enrollment on a college-by-college basis. A college is not required to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program at all, or may opt for partial participation. Once a college has enrolled for partial or complete participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program, they must provide the benefits of the additional fee waiver equally to all students.

Saint Leo University is proud to support the U.S. military by signing up for complete enrollment with this wonderful opportunity. The official release for which colleges are participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program comes out in June, but for prospective military students considering Saint Leo University, this information is useful while preparing for early enrollment.

A student only qualifies for the Yellow Ribbon Program if they receive 100% of the benefits of the Post 9/11 GI Bill. If a student does not have enough military background and only receives a percentage of the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits, they cannot take advantage of the Yellow Ribbon Program.

1. Transferability to Dependents

The Post 9/11 GI Bill allows a member of the military to transfer up to half of their benefits to a spouse or child if they have been part of the military for a minimum of six years and agree to serve for another four years. The Department of Defense (DoD) has the final word of approval on this eligibility.

This transfer of benefits is meant to have a positive impact on recruitment and retention. Those that have already served for ten years and cannot serve for an additional four years due to disability may also qualify for transferring benefits. Another temporary ruling has been put into effect (until 2013) where if the military personnel was already scheduled for retirement before the four years are up in 2012, they may be eligible to transfer benefits provided they serve until their retirement date (more).

None of this is considered final yet because the rulings have not been officially signed (more).

Addressing these nitty-gritty aspects of eligibilty was likely brought up by several stories of specific issues that came up in an article released today on Navy Times. Two members of the military that served for 20+ years were faced with their benefits potentially not being available to their children due to injury and already-scheduled retirement. This is obviously a great injustice to someone that has served the country for several decades; the DoD and VA realize these kinds of issues need to be addressed.

2. Housing Stipends for Distance Learners

House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Bob Filner is currently trying to pass an amendment to the Post 9/11 GI Bill prior to the benefits beginning in August that allows distance learners to receive a living stipend. While this originally was discussed back in February, it was brought up again only a couple of days ago during the rush of May Post 9/11 GI Bill concerns.

Unfortunately, as it stands now, the final ruling (stated yesterday) was that distance learners will not be getting the living stipend. This has a large impact on online education and is one of many reasons why some people might still be applying for the older Montgomery GI Bill. Which leads into the next topic…

3. Post 9/11 GI Bill vs Montgomery GI Bill

Several issues have caused people to weigh the the benefits of the Post 9/11 GI Bill versus the older Montgomery GI Bill.

As an example, distance learners do not benefit from the living stipend, so if they are attending a distance learning program with low tuition costs (such as a community college), the flat fee provided by the Montgomery GI Bill (currently $1,321/month) might yield more than the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

Another case are military students attending college in California. Due to the fact that California has declared their tuition costs are zero to in-state students, the Post 9/11 GI Bill provides no tuition benefits to a California student. The flat fee for the Montgomery GI Bill could therefore be more beneficial if given the right circumstances (more).

4. GI Bill Eligibility and Tuition Rates

People are still looking for information regarding whether they qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill and what tuition is being offered by state. The following are some excellent resources that are from May 2009 for further reading:

• Post 9/11 GI Bill Tuition Benefits by State
• Find Your New GI Bill Fee and Tuition Rate
• GI Bill Official Website

President Barack Obama

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  You know, there are few things as fundamental to the American dream or as essential for America’s success as a good education. This has never been more true than it is today. At a time when our children are competing with kids in China and India, the best job qualification you can have is a college degree or advanced training. If you do have that kind of education, then you’re well prepared for the future because half of the fastest-growing jobs in America require a bachelor’s degree or more. And if you don’t have a college degree, you’re more than twice as likely to be unemployed as somebody who does. So the stakes could not be higher for young people.

And yet, in a paradox of American life, at the very moment it’s never been more important to have a quality higher education, the cost of that kind of education has never been higher. Over the past few decades, the cost of tuition at private colleges has more than doubled while costs at public institutions have nearly tripled. Compounding the problem, tuition has grown then times faster than a typical family’s income, putting new pressure on families that are already strained and pricing far too much students out of college all together. Yet we have a <a href=”http://www.saintleo.com/OnlineLearning/financialAid/Types-of-Financial-Aid.aspx” title=”Student Financial Aid” target=”_blank”>student loan</a> system where we’re giving lenders billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies that could be used to make college more affordable for all Americans. This trend, a trend where a quality higher education slips out of reach for ordinary

Americans threatens the dream of opportunity that America has promised to all of its citizens. It threatens to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. And it threatens to undercut America’s competitiveness because America cannot lead in the 21st century also we have the best educated, most competitive work force in the world. That’s the kind of work force and the kind of citizenry to which we should be committed. And that’s why we have taken an proposed a number of sweeping steps over our first few months in office, steps that amount to the most significant efforts to open the doors of college to middle-class Americans since the <a href=”http://www.veteransbenefitsgibill.com” title=”GI Bill Information for Veterans” target=”_blank”>GI Bill</a>.

Millions of working families are now eligible for a $2,500 annual tax credit tax help them pay the cost of tuition, a tax credit tax cover the full cost of tuition at most of the two-year community colleges that are some of the great and undervalued assets of our education system. We’re also bringing much-needed reform to the Pell Grants that roughly 30 percent of students rely on to put themselves through college. Today’s Pell Grants cover less than half as much tuition at a four-year public institution as they did a few decades ago. That’s why we are adding $500 to the grants for this academic year and raising the maximum Pell Grant to $5,550 next year, easing the financial burden on students and families. And we are also changing the way the value of a Pell Grant is determined. Today, that value is set by Congress on an annual basis, making it vulnerable to Washington politics. What we are doing is pegging Pell Grants to a fixed rate above inflation so that these grants don’t cover less and less as family’s costs go up and up.

And this will help prevent a projected shortfall in Pell Grant funding in a few years that could rob many of our poor students of their dream of attending college. It will help ensure that Pell Grants are a source of funding that students can count on each and every year.

Now, while our nation has a responsibility to make college more affordable, colleges and universities have a responsibility to control spiraling costs, and that will require hard choices about where to save and where to spend.

So I challenge state college and university leaders to put affordability front and center as they chart a path forward. I challenge them to follow the example of the University of Maryland, where they’re streamlining administrative costs, cutting energy costs, using faculty more effectively, making it possible for them to freeze tuition for students and for families.

At the same time, we’re also working to modernize and expand the Perkins Loan program by changing a system where colleges are rewarded for raising tuition and instead rewarding them for making college more affordable.

Now, just as we’ve opened the doors of college to every American, we also have to ensure that more students can walk through them. That’s why I’ve challenged every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or advanced training, because, by the end of the next decade, I want to see America have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

We used to have that; we no longer do. We are going to get that lead back.

And to help us achieve that goal, we are investing $2.5 billion to identify and support innovative initiatives that have a record of success in boosting enrollment and graduation rates, initiatives like the I-BEST program in Washington state that combines basic and career skills classes to ensure that students not only complete college, but are competitive in the workforce from the moment they graduate.

And to help cover the cost of all this, we’re going to eliminate waste, reduce inefficiency, and cut what we don’t need to pay for what we do, and that includes reforming our student loan system so that it better serves the people it’s supposed to serve: our students.

Right now, there are too many kinds of federal loans. First, there are direct loans. These are loans where tax dollars go directly to help students pay for tuition, not to pad the profits of private lenders. The other kinds of loans are Federal Family Education Loans. These loans, known as FFEL loans, make up the majority of all college loans. Under the FFEL program, lenders get a big government subsidy with every loan they make, and these loans are then guaranteed with taxpayer money, which means that if a student defaults a lender can get back almost all of its money from our government.

There’s only one real difference between direct loans and private FFEL loans. It’s that, under the FFEL program, taxpayers are paying banks a premium to act as middlemen, a premium that costs the American people billions of dollars each year.

Well, that’s a premium we cannot afford, not when we could be reinvesting that same money in our students, in our economy, and in our country.

And that’s why I’ve called for ending the FFEL program and shifting entirely over to direct loans. It’s a step that even a conservative estimate predicts will save tens of billions of tax dollars over the next 10 years.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the money we could save by cutting out the middleman would pay for 95 percent of our plan to guarantee growing Pell Grants. This would help ensure that every American, everywhere in this country, can out-compete any worker anywhere in the world.

In the end, this is not about growing the size of government or relying on the free market, because it’s not a free market when we have a student loan system that’s rigged to reward private lenders without any risk.

It’s about whether we want to give tens of billions of tax dollars to special interests or whether we want to make college more affordable for 8.5 million more students. I think most of us would agree on what the right answer is.

Now, some of you have probably seen how this proposal was greeted by the special interests. The banks and lenders, who have reaped a windfall from these subsidizes, have mobilized an army of lobbyists to try to keep things the way they are. They are gearing up for battle. So am I.

They will fight for their special interests. I will fight for American students and their families. And for those who care about America’s future, this is a battle we can’t afford to lose.

So I am looking forward to having this debate in the days and weeks ahead. And I am confident that, if all of us here in Washington do what’s in the best interests of the people we represent and reinvest not only in opening the doors of college, but making sure students can walk through them, then we will help deliver the change that the American people sent us here to make.

We will help Americans fulfill their promise as individuals, and we will help America fulfill its promise as a nation.

Air Force Students

The Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program, or the “Yellow Ribbon Program,” is a provision of the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 meant to assist with tuition costs that exceed the in-state college tuition normally provided. This provision allows colleges to enter an agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs to help fund any cost that exceeds the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition rate. This is especially important for private colleges that might be charging more per semester than a student’s local college campus. Colleges may contribute up to fifty percent of the additional expenses that exceed the Post 9/11 GI Bill’s benefits and the VA will match the same amount, dollar-for-dollar.

The college must be the one that applies Yellow Ribbon Program; while a student can suggest it, it is the college’s responsibility to enact participation in the program. The college must also meet the following guidelines:

• Provide the Yellow Ribbon Program to students on a first-come, first-serve basis, rather than on the amount of time and money a student invests into their education;
• Continue to provide the service to students that are eligible as they continue their education in later semesters, provide their grades are high enough to qualify for financial aid;
• Offer the student the assistance as a grant or a scholarship, not as a loan;
• Openly state the amount the school provides;
• Openly state the amount of students that receive the benefit each year.

How does this concern the veteran student?

The Post 9/11 GI Bill will provide students with the same amount it would cost for them to attend an in-state university. This means that many veterans would not normally be able to attend private schools for their education due to the higher costs involved in private education, even though there are merited, reputable private schools like Saint Leo University and American Sentinel University that offer education specifically designed for veterans.

Some institutions will cover all excess tuition costs beyond the Post 9/11 GI Bill’s benefits, while others will only cover some of the excess tuition, leaving the remainder as a financial responsibility for the student. Colleges also mix the Yellow Ribbon Program with the exceptional benefits of no-interest undergraduate loans.

Am I eligible?

Only students getting the maximum benefits of the Post 9/11 GI Bill qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Those requirements are as follows:

• They served after September 10, 2001 for at least 36 months;
• They were honorably discharged from active duty for a service connected disability and also served 30 continuous days after September 10, 2001;
• They are a dependent eligible for Transfer of Entitlement under the Post-9/11 GI Bill based on a veteran’s service under the eligibility criteria listed above.

How do I know my college participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program?

A list of participating education programs can be found here. A list of the schools that have enrolled in the Yellow Ribbon Program will be available after June 1, 2009, the extended deadline for colleges to apply.

For additional information, read the letter from VA secretary James Peak explaining the Yellow Ribbon Program.