In these days of the all-volunteer military, you've probably seen recruitment ads on television that tout the benefits of the Montgomery GI Bill. Or, if you live in a major city, you'll surely have noticed the red jackets of AmeriCorps, those primarily college-aged nonstudents who give up a year of their time to community service in communities all over the country in exchange for limited tuition assistance.
While these are two of the more visible examples of college tuition assistance available in exchange for the completion of a public service commitment, they're not the only two. In all the examples in this article, either the federal or state government pays for all or a part of your education, while you give a period of service as a payback. Clearly, from the government's position, this is a winning strategy — it gives higher education to people who otherwise might do without and gets services in exchange. But for many people who enroll in these programs, it also helps to solve what otherwise might be an unsolvable problem: how to pay for the education they need in order to begin the career they want.
You and your child should ponder a few points before embarking on this road toward financing your student's education:
- Your student may have very little control over what type of service he does and where he does it. While the military, the Public Health Service, and AmeriCorps try very hard to put people where they want to be, not everyone can play in the Marine Corps Band, fly fighter jets, or be in the Army Corps of Engineers.
- Once your student actually begins to receive money, his window to back out of the deal closes quickly. Although the various branches of the service allow a freshman ROTC scholarship student to cancel his scholarship, once you move beyond that first year, your child has pretty much committed to fulfilling his military service obligation. The same holds true for loans with service obligations from the Public Health Service; although you can buy out of your service period, the cost far exceeds the actual amount you received.
- The amount of money your student receives may not be enough to pay for the education he wants. Benefits from the Montgomery GI Bill generally pay for a four-year education at a public college or university, but you'll come up short if your child's greatest desire is to attend a private four-year college. Even with additional benefits available, you still won't have enough, and you'll have to make up the difference, either through savings, current earnings, or loans.
If you're still game even after the warning, read on and find out more about your options.
Marching In The Military
The military provides one of the best bargains around in educational funding. This is true whether your child enlists in a branch of the military or any state National Guard right out of high school, enrolls in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at her college, or is fortunate enough to obtain a nomination to a military service academy (West Point, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy, or the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy). In exchange for either active or reserve service in one of the four branches of the military or the merchant marine, your child will receive enough funding from the government to provide at least a bare-bones postsecondary education. In many cases, the educations provided by the military are some of the finest available.
Programs For Active Duty, Reserves, And Veterans
Several programs are available to military personnel who have completed a period of active duty and/or reserve duty, and other programs are open to veterans or their families. Among these are the following:
- The Montgomery GI Bill: This bill provides a cash education incentive to either active duty personnel (after they've served one tour of active duty) or veterans for up to 36 months of postsecondary education, including, but not limited to, two- and four-year colleges, vocational and technical training, correspondence courses, apprenticeships/job training, and flight training. The amount your student receives is pegged to the length of his service and whether that service was active duty or reserve/National Guard duty. In addition, amounts he or she is eligible to receive are adjusted annually for increases in the cost of living.
- Tuition assistance: Enlisted servicemen and servicewomen may use this aid to pay for secondary and postsecondary courses during the time that they're on active duty (including reserve and National Guard duty). These benefits have an annual limit, but they may be supplemented by amounts from the Montgomery GI Bill.
- Army/Navy/Marine Corps College Funds: This program is supplemental to the Montgomery GI Bill and may increase the amount of money the military will contribute to your child's education. Awards aren't automatic, and they're not available to everyone; they're made based on academic merit.
- Community College of the Air Force: Open only to active-duty members of the Air Force, it offers primarily technical and scientific courses leading to an associate's degree. The Air Force pays up to 75 percent of the cost of the courses.
- Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance Program: This program provides up to 45 months of educational assistance and/or vocational training to the eligible children and spouse of a veteran who has died or become permanently and totally disabled from a service-related incident, or who died after becoming permanently disabled, or who was either a prisoner of war or is currently missing in action. Benefits are provided to veterans' children only between the ages of 18 and 26, and to the veteran's spouse for a ten-year period from the date that spouse becomes eligible or from the date the veteran dies. If you think you, or your children, may qualify for this, you should contact your local Veteran's Administration Office for all the details.
ROTC And Service Academy Scholarships
These scholarships are available to college students who attend one of the five service academies or a college with an ROTC program. Upon graduation from either the service academy or the ROTC program, your student is immediately commissioned as an officer in one branch of the military, and he or she is committed to serving for a specific period of time, depending on the size and duration of the scholarship. A graduate from West Point, for example, is committed to at least five years of active duty and three additional years of reserve and/or National Guard duty. Because ROTC programs vary between schools, you should check with the ROTC recruiter at your student's school about the after-graduation commitment for this program.
- ROTC scholarships: These scholarships may vary in length from two to four years, and in amounts up to 100 percent of the tuition, fees, and expenses of a particular institution. These scholarships are intensely competitive; don't assume that, because your student signs up for ROTC as a freshman, he or she will automatically receive one of these scholarships. You can find out about the general outlines of the ROTC scholarship programs at www.armyrotc.com or www.military.com. For more specific information about a specific program, you should contact the ROTC recruiter at the particular college your student is interested in.
- Service academy appointments: These appointments provide a wonderful education and the assurance of a job at the other end. For that reason, they're few and far between, and they require far more legwork on your, and your student's, part to make it happen (not to mention the nomination of your U.S. representative or senator). In fact, all the service academies recommend that your student begin the application process in the spring of his or her junior year of high school. If your student is so fortunate as to get one of these appointments, he or she will receive the cost of full tuition plus a living stipend for the four years it takes to complete that undergraduate degree.
Helping Others (And Yourself) With AmeriCorps
A part of the Corporation for National & Community Service, AmeriCorps encompasses a network of national service programs and projects in a variety of areas, including health, education, environment, disaster relief, youth mentoring, elder care, and affordable housing. In fact, the list of programs under the umbrella is massive, and chances are good that whatever your, or your student's, interest, you'll probably find something there to suit it.
AmeriCorps can provide services in all these areas by tapping into the better nature of its volunteers. In exchange for an approximate one-year commitment (either full- or part-time), AmeriCorps may provide a volunteer with a modest living allowance plus health insurance, training, and a student loan deferment during that year if that volunteer has existing student loans. Volunteers who successfully complete their commitment become entitled to a modest education award that may be used toward college or graduate school or to pay back existing student loans.
AmeriCorps is open to U.S. citizens, nationals, and lawful residents. Provided the volunteer is over age 17, the program doesn't have any age or education restrictions; you, or your student, may choose to serve at any time.
The services that AmeriCorps volunteers provide are, without a doubt, priceless in terms of providing needed services at very low cost. But that fact hasn't prevented AmeriCorps from being caught in the crosshairs of annual budget fights between Congress and the President, who all agree that this is a wonderful program and then proceed to slash its funding. Because it does require appropriations from Congress to fund the programs and pay the volunteer stipends and education awards, you may not want to count on a huge number of available openings in AmeriCorps in the future. Still, if your student is determined to do something worthwhile with a year of her life and pick up some assistance for college, no matter how large or small, she could do a lot worse than spend a year here.
Getting Paid By The Public Health Service
The U.S. Public Health Service provides various sorts of educational assistance, from loans to outright grants, to students who are pursuing careers in health-related fields. These programs are designed to provide access to these professions for underprivileged individuals and to entice students into health-related professions that are currently experiencing shortages.
Programs that are offered may change to respond to changing needs. Among the scholarships and low-cost loan programs currently available are the following:
- Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students Program: Scholarships are available for financially needy full-time students enrolled in health professions and nursing programs who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Scholarship recipients are selected by their schools and awarded full tuition costs plus a reasonable amount for education and living expenses.
- Loans for Disadvantaged Students Program: This program provides low-cost, long-term loans to financially needy full-time students pursuing a degree in allopathic (Western) medicine or osteopathic (specializing in musculoskeletal therapy) medicine, dentistry, optometry, podiatry, pharmacy, or veterinary medicine. Loans may cover not only tuition but also reasonable expenses, as determined by the school.
- Health Professions Student Loan Program: Similar to the Loans for Disadvantaged Students Program, this program provides long-term, low-cost loans to full-time, financially needy students in dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, podiatry, or veterinary medicine only. Loans may not exceed the cost of tuition and a reasonable amount for education and living expenses, and they're awarded by the participating school.
- Primary Care Loan Program: This program offers long-term, low-interest rate loans to full-time, financially needy medical students pursuing a degree in allopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine. Students receiving loans through this program must agree to enter and complete residency training in one of the primary care specialties within four years of graduation. They also must practice in primary care medicine for the life of the loan. Participating schools award these loans, which are not to exceed the cost of tuition plus reasonable educational and living expenses.
- Nursing Student Loan Program: Long-term, low-interest loans are provided to full- and part-time nursing students pursuing any nursing degree, from diploma through graduate levels. Participating schools select loan recipients and the amount of each individual's loan amounts, not to exceed the cost of tuition plus reasonable educational and living expenses.
Many of these scholarship and loan programs may be used for undergraduate degrees, but others may be used only for graduate programs. For more information regarding these programs, call your school's financial aid office.
10 Ways to Spice Up Your Barbecue
Happy Graduation
New Workbooks Are Here!
Add your own comment