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 could take four classes in a year and have the army pay for it. My biggest regret is not maxing out my TA every year. While I was able to get my associates I could have completed more classes towards my bachelors but lost out on that by procrastinating. When I was active duty I used to counsel my soldiers on using TA because I strongly believe it is something that is not utilized and should be. In a four year contract you can complete 72 credits with 60 credits being an associates degree, FOR FREE. This is a great way to save your GI Bill for your bachelors and masters. I wish NCO’s would encourage their soldiers more to use this benefit. In my old battery (company) there were maybe 4-5 other soldiers taking classes. That number should be multiplied by ten! I found that within a section if someone is taking classes then more soldiers will follow suit. So if anyone on this page is still active duty or is still communicating with friends/family that is active duty, motivate them to start taking classes now! I have not met one person that took classes during their contract that said it wasn’t worth it.
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...
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