New GI Bill helps student vets transition to college

As returning soldiers make the switch from combat to college, the new GI Bill serves as a financial crutch to ease the stresses of such a transition.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill, which was signed last year and went into effect this past August, provides financial support for education and housing to veterans who served on or after September 11, 2001.

"The military pretty much kicks you out and says, ‘Best of luck to you,'" said Marine Corps veteran Justin Payne, a senior finance major who also serves as the vice president of Terp Vets. "The new GI Bill covers both tuition and housing at the exact same time."

Payne, who served two tours in Iraq — one for eight months in 2005 and one for four months in 2007 —  said he and other veterans struggled due to extra responsibilities many undergraduate students don't have before the financial support became available through the bill.

"The first year that I was here, I actually had to take out a $6,000 student loan to compensate for the lack of housing, because I didn't get anything — you pretty much got chump change," he said. "This year I'm scot-free, which was awesome. I was able to buy all my books. I got my housing, so I don't have to worry about rent anymore. I can put food on the table, and it's overall turned out to be a much better situation than it was last year."

But due to an influx of applications for the newly available benefits, many student veterans do not have the luxury of being so at ease. According to an article published last month in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs must deal with each claim individually on four separate computer systems, resulting in a 90-minute process for each.

Just 52,000 of the 82,000 veterans enrolled this fall in universities nationally have already received their payments, while about 275,000 total veterans have applied.

Navy veteran Steven Olivera, a business graduate student and co-coordinator of the Veterans Program Office at the university, said the benefits outweigh the headache of the application backlog and resulting delays.

"Having the perspective of someone who gets phone calls about things not working out and e-mails about how the government is not doing their job and the university's not doing their job, the Post-9/11 GI Bill is a great update to something that was conceptualized decades ago to help educate those who have served," Olivera said. "Everyone's doing everything they can to make it as much of a seamless transition to this new benefits package as possible."

Payne said the government has since taken measures to stave off pressing expenses.

"To handle it, [veterans] can go to a VA regional office and they can pick up a check for $3,000 a pop to try and defer the cost," Payne said. "So those students that haven't yet been processed into the system are still floating on to the school, but the school is actually giving them a huge amount of leniency and helping them facilitate this."

Aside from the financial obstacles, there are also social difficulties to navigate on a college campus, said Army veteran and Terp Vets member Ryan Baker, a graduate student studying nuclear engineering who served overseas in Afghanistan.

"Most students come out of high school, they get to just party and worry about just themselves for the most part, as opposed to having to support a family," Baker said. "We come from a pretty different background, a little bit different background than most of the students, so … our priorities are different."

Baker said because of their unique situations, many returning veterans don't take getting a college education for granted.

"I guess we kind of feel like we've got this one chance, we've got to do it right because after that, you don't have the room for error if you're looking to support your family or move into supporting a family," he said.  "You can't really afford the time to mess up."

Payne, who is married, said this state of mind is true of most student veterans he knows.

"You're getting back in school, and you're somewhere between 23 and 25 ... I've already done the party scene for a while, so it's not like I'm coming back at school to party and hang out and socialize," he said. "You kind of get here and it's more focused on the work and the academia."

Student veterans also face an array of misconceptions from their fellow students concerning the nature of military service, creating yet another hurdle to overcome, Payne said.

"[It's] kind of insulting, because you don't join to go out there and hurt somebody or do damage to anybody or anything; you're going out there to try and protect, and it's a misunderstanding that has a really negative connotation to it."

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