Some New Advice On How To Play The College Game

Last year I made a post giving out some advice on how newly-discharged veterans should play the college game. A lot of our readers added their own advice and it turned out to be a pretty helpful post for some people.

However, some things have changed over the last year that make some of the advice I doled out invalid. Accordingly, I thought it would be productive to create a new post that gives out new advice based on experiences I have had and of course changes to veterans benefits. As with the last post, if you have anything to add please do so.

1. The GI Bill is undergoing some major changes in August and they probably won’t be good for many student veterans. Accordingly, make sure you know how the changes effect you.  Both Jonn and I have discussed the problems with the new-new GI Bill and hopefully those of you who are going to school now have at least heard about those changes. The biggest changes are for active duty veterans who go year-round. This group of veterans will no longer have break pay and along with other groups of veterans will face new compensation caps on tuition for private universities (both non-profit and for-profit).  They are complicated and I can’t comment on each individual veterans’ situation so the best thing to do is to talk to your university’s veterans services office to find out how your school and your degree plan is effected.

2. Stay away from for-profit schools…for now. I am sure most everyone here has seen an veteran-oriented advertisement from a for-profit university like University of Phoenix or Kaplan attempting to lure you into applying to that school so that you can use your GI Bill benefits. Some of you have maybe even talked to a military recruiter from one of these universities. However, I highly recommend you stay away from these universities for the time being for the simple fact that at this time most employers don’t view degrees from these institutions as equal to ones from public universities. Additionally, some corporations won’t even consider you for a position if you have a degree from one of these institutions.  I am not going to get into whether or not this is right or wrong. I believe some employers have been influenced by propaganda from the public education propaganda complex. I also think public universities have many of the same problems as for-profit universities right now, its just a matter of severity. To me, hearing supporters of public universities criticizing for-profit universities is like hearing a car thief call a rapist a criminal.

3. Don’t join a fraternity/sorority. I debated whether or not to put this one and I am sure there are people here that will be pissed off by my feelings here. The simple fact is that today fraternities aren’t anything like how they were portrayed in the movie Animal House or even the movie Old School. They are worse. First of all, they usually cost a lot of money to join, upwards of a couple of thousand dollars a year in many cases.  Some may have scholarships to join or maybe even waive the fee because your a veteran but that is not usually a case. On campus, fraternities usually have high incidences of drug use, alcohol abuse, and, most disturbingly, sexual assault (both male and female my friends). Accordingly, many colleges have been pushing back against the excesses of Greek life. For years, a fraternity used to be a good networking tool but with the recent public problems with Greek life in addition to the quality of people that Greek life attracts on many campuses these days it probably isn’t as great a tool as it was years ago. Additionally, I know many veterans want to eventually work for law enforcement, especially at the federal level. The backgrounds checks for those organizations are pretty intense so do you think its going to help or hurt your employment opportunities if you are identified as a member of an organization whose members have a history of drug abuse and sexual assault? If you want to be part of something, join a professional society, veterans club, political club, or hell even a recreational club.

4. There will be people on campus who are terrified of you because you are veteran. Even if you were a food service specialist who spent your entire deployment in a DFAC on a big FOB and who never heard a shot fired in anger the minute certain people hear you went to Iraq or Afghanistan they will assume you killed more men than cancer. Its stupid, silly, and stereotypical (hey alliteration) but it is a reality. This will change the dynamic in regards to how you interact with your professors and certain students. There isn’t much you can do about it but you still need to be aware and conscious of it.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are resources available for veterans who might be behind in math or writing skills. Don’t be too prideful to use them. I almost made that mistake myself.

6. Internships. Do them. It doesn’t matter if you are a political science or an organic chemistry major, internships give you professional experience and in some cases job opportunities when you graduate. Additionally, you can usually get credit for doing internships which means you can still get your BAH through the GI Bill.

7. Go to job fairs and don’t look like a bum. I went to a job fair this last semester and I was worried about the fact that I wasn’t wearing a full suit and only a shirt and tie. However, I wasn’t too concerned after I saw many people in pajamas or gym clothes….after they had gone to the gym and smelled like shit.

8. For the sake of all the other veterans on campus, don’t act like an ass and give one hundred percent to your education. The more veterans succeed in college the more respect we will earn on campus and in society. We already kick ass in terms of GPAs and graduation rates but we can also do better.

Category: Veterans Issues