Grants For College-Veterans Go Back To School With Monetary Aid From The Government
How good has military scholarships become? The Veteran Administration’s Educational Call Center must now turn off its phone lines on Thursdays and Fridays…so it can process all the requests it gets Monday through Wednesday. The simple truth is one of the biggest users of online colleges are active and veteran soldiers, and the Federal and state governments have created a number of programs to assist them get this form of financial aid.
According to the Veterans Administration (VA), there are four basic types of government funding. Any former servicemen looking for a military grant to an online college should keep these in mind. Would-be students should also check the VA for private forms of funding. That said, the four main sources are:
Post-9/11 GI Bill: Also called the 21st Century GI Bill of Rights, this act was introduced by Senator Jim Webb. The law pays veterans’ college expenses to a similar extent the original GI Bill did after World War II. The act includes funding 100% any veteran who served three years of active duty since September 11, 2001. The act also provides the ability to transfer benefits to a spouse or children after serving, or agreeing to serve, ten years.
Montgomery GI Bill: This is the original bill from Roosevelt, with many of its parts still in effect. Among the things it also included were low-interest home loans and even one year’s unemployment after leaving the service.
REAP: This stands for Reserve Educational Assistance Program. This act is available to all reservists who, after September 11, 2001, complete 90 days or more of active duty service in support of contingency operations. This benefit provides reservists return from active duty with up to 80% of the active duty GI Bill benefits as long as they remain active participants in the reserves.
MGIB-SR: Which stands for Montgomery GI Bill—Selected Reserve, this program is available to members of the Selected Reserve, including the Army National Guard and Air National Guard. This benefit may be used for degree and certificate programs, flight training, apprenticeship/on-the-job training and correspondence courses.
As of January, 2010 the VA reports the following about the Post-9/11 Bill. 164,144 individuals enrolled under the GI Bill, and 130,309 of them received payments. That leaves 34,000 students still waiting, which is down from about 240,000 last August. It pays about 4,500 students per day. It takes, on average, 47 days to process payments from the day the school certifies enrollment. 352,281 people have applied and 292,896 have received one.
The VA also reports that $517 million of scholarships and grants has been paid out to students and $385 million to schools. An additional 65,282 payments totaling $193 million of college grants and scholarships were made to students this fall during the emergency payment period, which sent advance funding to destitute individuals who were still waiting on their first military scholarship checks.
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