Skip to main content

What Can Military Friendly Schools Do Better?

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). When I reached out to the veterans center I could see why they got a gold rating for being military friendly. The only critique and biggest one I have is that I wish when enrolling they are automatically notified so they can reach out to you. I think it would be smart of the universities to assign each student veteran a sponsor to help provide them the information they need. I was very confused in the beginning and thought that I had to figure everything out with the VA, so even if it is just an automated email giving veteran students the contact information for the veterans center, I think there should be a link between enrollment and the veterans center. Please let me know in the comments what you all think!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Post 9-11 GI Bill vs. Montgomery GI Bill

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...

College is For You

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...

Student Veteran Education Benefits

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...