Military Friendly Schools Wanted!

As America celebrates Memorial Day, G.I. Jobs releases survey to find the nation’s most military friendly schools.

PITTSBURGH, May 20 /PRNewswire/ – G.I. Jobs magazine today announced that it has opened its survey that will determine which schools are most military friendly. The survey can be found at http://edu.gijobs.com.

Criteria for the Military Friendly Schools list include a school’s VA-approval of GI Bill benefits, CLEP acceptance, credit for military service, Reserve and Guard policies, access to flexible learning options, veteran programs, veteran student composition, and assets dedicated to recruiting military students, among others.

There is great benefit to schools which brand themselves as military friendly, for many reasons.

Dr. Dorothy Bassett, dean of Duquesne University’s School of Leadership and Professional Advancement, who sits on G.I. Jobs’ Academic Advisory Committee (AAC), points out one of those key benefits. “Military students offer a high degree of maturity, life experiences, diversity, leadership and worldliness to the classroom. Other students and faculty benefit from the different perspectives that service members and veterans bring.”

“Military students bring stability to a classroom typically filled with teenagers fresh out of high school,” emphasizes fellow AAC member Gary Carr, director of student services management at the University of Toledo.

Recruiting military students also improves the academic qualifications of a school’s overall student body, by increasing the pool of quality applicants.

Yet another benefit to recruiting military students is that they are more likely to graduate. According to the U.S. Department of Education, about 49 percent of all students who enroll in a degree program never finish. The cost of earning an education is cited as the main reason why students drop out. The new Post-9/11 GI Bill virtually ensures that this will not happen with military students.

With the federal adoption this year of the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, an estimated 8 million veterans are each eligible for an average $107,830 of tuition benefits over a four-year bachelor’s degree program. Total benefit is estimated at $859 billion and tuition payments are now made directly to schools. More than one million military spouses are also eligible for some benefits.

Most of the estimated 7,000 schools nationally, including undergraduate colleges, graduate universities, vo/tech schools and certification programs have always competed for military students. But the new Post-9/11 GI Bill has produced an all-time high in demand for military students.

The Military Friendly Schools list, which is an extension of G.I. Jobs‘ six-year-old Military Friendly Employers list, provides military and veteran students a way to discern which schools offer them the most benefit. “The Military Friendly Schools list creates a metric that sets the bar on how well schools welcome military students. It’s an especially important distinction in this Post-9/11 GI Bill era that enables military students to attend virtually any school for free,” said G.I. Jobs publisher Rich McCormack.

“The Montgomery GI Bill, enacted after World War II, catapulted the United States to superpower status, because it educated an entire generation. The Post-9/11 GI Bill can lift America again by completely removing cost as an objection and educating those who have put their lives on the line for our great country,” said McCormack.

Colleges, universities and other schools interested in getting onto the G.I. Jobs list of Military Friendly Schools must complete a survey by going to http://edu.gijobs.com. A four digit PIN is required and can be found on brochures mailed to more than 7,000 schools yesterday. PIN codes can also be obtained by calling G.I. Jobs at 877-445-6271 x128 or emailing educator@gijobs.com. Deadline for completing surveys is Friday, June 19, 2009.

The Military Friendly Schools list is expected to be released in the fall in G.I. Jobs’ annual Guide to Military Friendly Schools handbook, which is distributed to the troops. The list will also be promoted throughout the year in G.I. Jobs magazine, Military Spouse magazine, Vetrepreneur magazine, www.gijobs.com, www.milspouse.com, and in an annual poster distributed to military base education offices.

G.I. Jobs (www.gijobs.com) is published monthly by Victory Media, a veteran-owned business headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa. Victory Media also publishes Military Spouse and Vetrepreneur magazines.

SOURCE G.I. Jobs