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Will 2025 See an Increased Number of Veterans with Degrees?

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 wants educated soldiers (and airmen, sailors, marines, ect.) so they incentivize college. In the Army you get promotion points for having civilian education. I made points right away despite them being high when I got pinned, because of my civilian education. In addition, they also increased tuition assistance so now you can take up to 18 credit hours in a year, the annual cap increased from $4000 to $4500. With benefits continuing to increase both in active duty and out in the civilian side, I feel like it is a safe prediction that we will see more veterans with degrees this year and in the future. Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments, I’d love to hear if anyone has a different opinion on this topic!

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