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Maximize Your Education Benefits

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. While your TA maxes out at 12 credit hours that does not mean if you take more they aren’t covered, it just means you won’t receive any extra money for taking extra classes. This semester I am taking 18 credit hours and it is all covered by my TA, so take as many as you can (keep in mind not doing too many so that your grades drop) so that you can save as much of your benefits as possible. This last idea leads to the fourth point, which is to strategically use your benefits. This is so important and my best recommendation to you is to plan out your goals according to the funding you have. Personally, I knew I only needed two years worth of funding to get my bachelors so the thing I had to consider is how to make my benefits work for me if I want my masters. Think strategically and do your research! The last point the article addresses is to test out of classes. CLEP is a good option if you are a good test taker and willing to study to pass the exam. If you can, passing one test will save you from taking a 3 credit hour class so if that is something you are interested in look it up. While my commentary was not the most helpful as it really just agreed with everything in the article, I am happy to post it as it does reiterate the usefulness of these ideas. Also I recommend exploring that website for any other articles that interest you. As always, feel free to comment on my posts or shoot me an email with any questions! 

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