DegreeGo Blog

The Post 9/11 GI Bill has had a shaky first semester, to say the least. Stories from military personnel like the Army of Dude are not at all uncommon and active duty, reserve, and veterans alike scramble to find some kind of sanity in the middle of the financial aid delirium. First semesters for programs usually have hiccups in them, and once these issues are ironed out, the new GI Bill will have a long-term positive result on higher education.

Some of the long-term positive effects include: more military members in high-level, corporate jobs; increased enrollment and diversity in military-friendly online schools, like American Sentinel University; and more military recruitment and retention as prospective students and families continue to pursue financial benefits from military service.

The Post 9/11 GI Bill allows active duty members to transfer benefits to their dependents as part of a military retention program. The rules surrounding transfer to dependents is simple, normally: the active duty member must have been serving for a minimum of six years and agree to serve an additional four years. The dependent, child or spouse, may use the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits the same way the active duty member would.

Things are more complicated than they seem, however. Due to military members that were scheduled for retirement and could not offer an additional four years of service, several additives were made to the family transfer program to assure these members would still be given the benefits of Post 9/11 GI Bill family transferability.

The Post 9/11 GI Bill has had some exciting things happen this last month. Here’s five June 2009 highlights for the Post 9/11 GI Bill:

1. The Yellow Ribbon Program List of Participating Schools. Military-friendly schools have agreed to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program. The Yellow Ribbon Program allows students to attend universities that would otherwise not be covered by the tuition expenses offered by the Post 9/11 GI Bill by splitting the additional costs of tuition between the participating college and the VA.