When New York University Professor Liang Zhang started doing research on veterans in higher education, he wasn\u2019t surprised to see that the Post-9\/11 GI Bill generated a significant bump in college enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what he wasn\u2019t expecting to learn as part of his new \u201cVeterans Going to College\u201d report is that the largest growth has been among veterans earning advanced degrees \u2014 particularly older veterans who already have a master\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear why, exactly, more veterans are pursuing advanced degrees under the Post-9\/11 GI Bill, because the U.S. Census Bureau data that Zhang used for his research did not ask about intent. But the professor has a theory: The Post-9\/11 GI Bill is more \u201ctransparent\u201d than its predecessor, the Montgomery GI Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow college is all free. On top of that you get housing benefits. I think that part makes (graduate school) more attractive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple veterans who responded to a Military Times query agree. The Post-9\/11 GI Bill, enacted in 2009, represents a significant expansion of education benefits. Without having to pay into the benefits, as with previous iterations, student veterans get up to 36 months of in-state tuition covered at public universities and stipends for textbooks and housing. At private universities, the GI Bill caps at a certain amount \u2014 $22,805.34 for the 2017-18 school year. Students at some schools who have entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs can also receive help through the Yellow Ribbon Program, a supplement to the GI Bill that reduces or eliminates costs not covered by the GI Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know for a clear fact that I probably would not have been able to go to school for graduate work without any help from the Post-9\/11 GI Bill,\u201d said Laurence Bennett, a 46-year-old Army veteran with an MBA. Bennett, who paid into the Montgomery GI Bill when he joined the military in 1997 and later switched to the Post-9\/11 GI Bill, is about to start on a second master\u2019s degree in project management at DeVry University\u2018s Keller Graduate School of Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel that if I used the (Montgomery GI Bill) there would have been no way to finish a degree. With rising costs of school tuition and loans, it would have helped but possibly not enough,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhang, who teaches at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, said Monday his research showed about a 10 percent increase in overall veteran college enrollment. Among veterans with at least one master\u2019s degree pursuing a second master\u2019s, doctorate or other advanced degree, there has been about a 30 percent growth.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This result was somewhat surprising because veterans with master\u2019s degrees were eight years older than the average veteran in his sample group, and older people are less likely to attend college, he writes in the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom another perspective, however, because education improves one\u2019s decision making, better educated veterans may be more likely to make informed decisions and take full advantage of the generous education benefits offered by the (Post-9\/11) GI Bill,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhang\u2019s study also found that the Post-9\/11 GI Bill\u2019s effect on college enrollment was much larger immediately after the bill\u2019s adoption and has plateaued in recent years. In addition, he found that there has been a consistent and positive impact on enrollment across all age groups studied, ranging from 20 to 60 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much like Bennett, Army veteran Maureen Elias, 40, said she would have never attempted to go to graduate school without the Post-9\/11 GI Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no way I would have chosen to go into $60,000 or more into debt,\u201d the former counterintelligence agent and mother of three said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elias earned a bachelor\u2019s degree at Campbell University in 2012 and will graduate in December with a master\u2019s in mental health counseling from Bowie State University. After separating from the Army in 2006, Elias and her husband, also a veteran, started to seriously consider going to college once they heard about the Post-9\/11 GI Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause Campbell University is a private university and had a high tuition cost, we received more money through the tuition payment and monthly stipend with the Post-9\/11 GI Bill instead of using the Montgomery GI Bill,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also seemed like a much less complicated formula for payment because tuition was paid directly to the school. We were thrilled when we found out we also got a book stipend because we learned very quickly that college books are expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhang acknowledged there could be changes coming to the Post-9\/11 GI Bill soon, with the passage through Congress of the \u201cForever GI Bill,\u201d which will bring even more expansion to the education benefits. And while he can\u2019t say what the effect will be at this point, as President Trump has yet to sign it into law, Zhang said there could be similar effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBasically, the punch line is that the expansion matters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Post 9-11 GI Bill has generated a significant bump in college enrollment. But the researcher of a recent New York University study wasn’t expecting to see that the largest growth has come from veterans earning advanced degrees \u2014 particularly older veterans who already have a master\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["military-benefits","pay-benefits","education-transition","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","veterans"],"primary_category":"military-benefits"},"5":{"categories":["education-transition","military-benefits","pay-benefits","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","veterans"],"primary_category":"military-benefits"},"6":{"categories":["military-benefits","pay-benefits","education-transition","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","veterans"],"primary_category":"military-benefits"},"7":{"categories":["military-benefits","pay-benefits","education-transition","veterans"],"primary_category":"military-benefits"}}},"categories":[9,142,143,103,35,18,25,146],"tags":[8543,8533,8542],"coauthors":[3414],"class_list":["post-109346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-transition","category-education-report","category-good-news-report","category-military-benefits","category-newsletters","category-pay-benefits","category-veterans","category-retirement-e-report","tag-gi-bill","tag-student-veterans","tag-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PRFNEVDRR5CXZJZHSNJR3ZJYEI","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/education\/2017\/08\/15\/report-more-vets-getting-advanced-degrees-under-post-911-gi-bill\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n