A FORMER FIRST lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, Stephen Graves is paying for his dual M.D./MBA program at Northwestern University with GI Benefits.
But the 32-year-old veteran, who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan, found the benefits don't stretch as far in medical school. The Feinberg School of Medicine student co-authored a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September that shows tuition aid given to veterans in medical school is lower than tuition aid for veterans enrolled in other graduate programs.
"Essentially the GI Bill covers all the tuition or up to a maximum amount per year, somewhere around $21,000 as a cap, so it doesn't cover the majority of out-of-state or private tuition," Graves says.
Congress sought to correct this with the post-9/11 GI Bill and the creation of the Yellow Ribbon program to provide additional funds for education beyond the GI Bill benefit. Under this program, colleges and universities may fund tuition expenses that exceed the annual maximum cap at private institutions or resident tuition and fees at public institutions.
Under the program, an institution can contribute up to 50 percent of those remaining expenses, and the Department of Veterans Affairs will match the amount. For example, if an institution offered an $8,000 scholarship to a veteran, the Yellow Ribbon program would match that sum.
But Graves noticed that participation in the Yellow Ribbon program was low at medical schools compared with business and law school programs throughout the country.
But the 32-year-old veteran, who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan, found the benefits don't stretch as far in medical school. The Feinberg School of Medicine student co-authored a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September that shows tuition aid given to veterans in medical school is lower than tuition aid for veterans enrolled in other graduate programs.
"Essentially the GI Bill covers all the tuition or up to a maximum amount per year, somewhere around $21,000 as a cap, so it doesn't cover the majority of out-of-state or private tuition," Graves says.
Congress sought to correct this with the post-9/11 GI Bill and the creation of the Yellow Ribbon program to provide additional funds for education beyond the GI Bill benefit. Under this program, colleges and universities may fund tuition expenses that exceed the annual maximum cap at private institutions or resident tuition and fees at public institutions.
Under the program, an institution can contribute up to 50 percent of those remaining expenses, and the Department of Veterans Affairs will match the amount. For example, if an institution offered an $8,000 scholarship to a veteran, the Yellow Ribbon program would match that sum.
But Graves noticed that participation in the Yellow Ribbon program was low at medical schools compared with business and law school programs throughout the country.
According to the study published in JAMA, "VA scholarship support for MD programs was less than for other professional programs at the same universities. This discrepancy may be due to MD programs benchmarking their support levels only to other MD programs or because veterans more frequently enter MBA and JD programs, prompting higher Yellow Ribbon participation."
On the flip side, the study showed the vast majority – at least 82 percent – of accredited law and business schools participated in the Yellow Ribbon program during the 2015-2016 school year, compared with 56 percent of medical schools. And in most instances, among J.D. and MBA students, the aid to veterans covered almost all of their tuition.
For prospective graduate students looking to maximize their veteran benefits using both GI Bill funds and Yellow Ribbon scholarships, here are few things to consider when choosing a program.
Benefits vary based on when a veteran was discharged. Since the GI Bill's creation in 1944 during World War II, it has been updated several times to help veterans pay for college and training. In 2017, Congress passed the Forever GI Bill, which eliminated the 15-year limit on educational benefits for new enlistees. As the bill's nickname implies, veterans will no longer have a time limit for completing their education. But the benefit is only for those who were discharged on or after Jan. 1, 2013.
"The very nice thing is that the GI Bill is constantly renewing and reinventing itself to take much better care of our service members," says KC Haight, director of military and veteran recruitment at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Read Full Article Here: Using Veterans Benefits to Pay for Grad School
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