Soldier to Student

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I want to talk about some topics I already have in the past. I try to post on my blog pretty frequently so sometimes it can be a little overwhelming navigating through the different topics. In this post I am going to link some of my posts that feed into each other. The first post I am going to link is “Four Grants That Could Apply To You” https://soldiertostudent.blogspot.com/2025/01/four-grants-that-could-apply-to-you.html   This post is great because it gives an overview of what benefits you should look into if you are an Illinois veteran. It can also help those from other states that have state funded grants, you just have to do a bit more research because they probably have a different name for it. The next one I am going to link is “ Post 9-11 GI Bill vs. Montgomery GI Bill”. https://soldiertostudent.blogspot.com/2025/02/post-9-11-gi-bill-vs-montgomery-gi-bill.html   This post compare...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I want to talk about what would happen if the Illinois Veterans Grant went away. Now I just want to preface this by saying this is all hypothetical and I am only bringing this up because it would be interesting to analyze the impacts it would have. Unfortunately I was unable to find the number of veterans using this grant, which I was going to use to illustrate the number of veterans who would be affected, but regardless of how many it affects I am going to talk about what we would see. First of all, veterans would receive no state funding. The Illinois Veterans Grant pays tuition and mandatory fees at all Illinois state-supported colleges, universities and community colleges for veterans who served a minimum of two years and enlisted from and returned to Illinois. I personally use this grant and losing this money would mean solely relying on federal funding for school. Right now since I am using t...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I want to talk about the debate that is university or trades. When getting out of the military there are plenty of choices to make as to what you can do with your future. While getting out and working is very popular, if you plan on attending schooling the question is, schooling for a college degree or trade certification? I think there are many pros and cons for both. I also strongly believe that it is a personal choice. For me it was a no brainer to go to university, I am a good student and I have no desire to work in trades. But for many trades offer the opportunity to work with your hands and make very good money doing so. Popular trade jobs include electrician, plumber, welder, mechanic, carpenter, and more. Trade school can vary between six months and two years. So which is the better option? I would argue trades honestly, which may be shocking because this whole bog is dedicated to universit...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I want to talk about college, and my personal feeling on how being back in school after the military is. I want to start by saying any personal feelings you have through this transition are so valid and real. It is different for everyone and there is nothing wrong with feeling a specific way when there are major changes happening in your life. I was so terrified to get out of the Army, it was familiar and all I knew for the past three years. I had a gut feeling it was the time to get out and get my civilian education but that didn't mean I didn't have doubts about going to college. I got my associates degree online but I knew online school was not the same as in-person. I can now say after successfully completing one semester and beginning my second that college is great. Classes are demanding but manageable, and you will find that you have a lot of time to do assignments and that you can p...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I am going to compare the Post 9-11 GI Bill with the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB). Both of these are federal education grants offered to qualifying veterans. To qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill you must have started your service on or after September 11, 2001, and one of these must be true: you served for at least 90 days total on active duty, you served for at least 30 days on active duty (without a break) and were honorably discharged with a service-connected disability, or you received a Purple Heart. To qualify for the MGIB, the required service start date depends on certain factors, like when you served on active duty and whether your military pay decreased. Y ou must have served between 2 and 4 years. The minimum amount of time you must have served depends on other factors. Both benefits provide 36 months of coverage but note, in certain situations, you may be eligible for more than 1 educa...

Did you apply for the Illinois National Guard Grant (ING)? Were you at all confused by the award dates? Did you have issues getting a clear answer from representatives on information your award letter stated? Then welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I want to talk about a problem I encountered with the Illinois National Guard Grant. I applied for the grant in August when I switched from active-duty to the guard. It also was a little over a week before the first day of school so I figured the timing would work pretty good. My original plan was to use the Illinois National Guard Grant for my undergrad and save my Illinois Veterans Grant for my masters. Well when I received my Illinois National Guard Grant award letter, the date did not make any sense to me. The letter began by stating “The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) has determined that you are eligible for the 2024-25 Illinois National Guard (ING) Grant Program for a portion of the ...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this blog post I want to talk about positive things military friendly schools offer and what could make them even better! First of all, what is a military friendly college? What does that mean? Military friendly is the standard that measures an organization's commitment, effort and success in creating sustainable and meaningful benefits for the military community. The website https://www.militaryfriendly.com/schools/ gives a rating of just how good schools are to veteran and military students. When I was applying to ISU I remember seeing they displayed the gold rank badge of Military Friendly on their website. ISU does have a Military and Veterans center on campus with many knowledgeable staff that can answer your questions. The military and veterans center does send out emails every once in a while with pertinent information as well as extracurricular opportunities like SVA (Student Veterans of America...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this blog I want to talk about if we will see an increase in the number of veterans with degrees this year and in the future. I did a little research and the percentage of veterans getting degrees is trending upwards which leads me to believe it will continue that way. As for the reason behind it my train of thought went in a couple different directions. The first is that post-service benefits seem to keep getting better. In fact the Supreme Court made a decision in 2024 that now allows veterans who served two or more qualifying periods of active duty to be able to access up to 48 months of combined entitlement. It also allows veterans to use benefits from both the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post 9-11 GI Bill. I think both of these changes could help encourage more veterans to go to college. The second reason I think we will see more veterans with degrees in the push from within active duty. The military wan...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. I want to address active duty TA in this blog and I hope to generate some discussion with this post. When I first showed up to my unit in 2021 I filled out an initial counseling where I put short-term and long-term professional and personal goals. One of my short-term goals was to sign up for college classes with a long-term goal of getting my associates during my contract. Short-term goals are supposed to be achieved within six to twelve months in the Army and mine was. With that being said I did waste almost 5 months procrastinating on going to the on-post education center and signing up. Once I did I realized that the process was not hard and taking classes was very manageable. In a fiscal year the Army will now cover eighteen credit hours (it recently changed, it was sixteen when I was in), with a credit hour cap of $250. The school I got my associates through offered four credit hour classes which meant I ...

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I am going to link a website called Best Colleges, specifically an article they wrote titled “5 Ways Student Veterans Can Maximize GI Bill® Benefits”. Please feel free to read through the article below and beneath the link I will add some of my own commentary.  https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/five-ways-to-maximize-gi-bill-benefits/   First I want to say that I think the article was well written and brings up great points. Point number one, is something those people who are considering doing all online classes should keep in mind. This is something I never looked into, but financially it may be worth it to take at least one class in-person. As for the second point, I completely agree and would love to dedicate a blog post into different forms of financial aid to look into. The article talks about FAFSA as well as scholarships and both are great options. The third point is another big one....

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. This blog is going to be dedicated to talking about a GI Bill success story. I was doing a bit of research on famous individuals who used their GI Bill to kick start their success and I found a famous figure who I figured most everyone would know. Clint Eastwood, a very successful actor and director! Born in 1930, Clint Eastwood was drafted in the 1950s during the time of the Korean War. He served his Army contract at Fort Ord in California as a swimming instructor. Clint was honorably discharged in 1953 and shortly after used his GI Bill to attend Los Angeles City College and study drama. This led to him landing his first contract with Universal Studios making $75 a week. His first couple years consisted of him acting in small roles in a string of B-movies. Then in 1959 he was picked up by CBS and cast as cattle driver Rowdy Yates in the long-running series "Rawhide." It was a big enough break that i...