New National Data on Military Veterans Enrolled in Higher Education

The “New GI Bill,” officially called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, will go into effect on August 1, 2009. The bill will provide education benefits, including the total cost of tuition and fees covering study at any public institution in a veteran’s home state, plus a housing stipend, for veterans who served at least 90 days of active duty since 9/11. The benefits are more generous than those currently available to veterans under the Montgomery GI Bill. In order to understand whether the new GI bill changes veterans’ college-going behaviors, the Institute of Education Sciences at the National Center for Education Statistics surveyed veterans currently enrolled in higher education to gather baseline data. The report, A Profile of Military Servicemembers and Veterans Enrolled in Postsecondary Education in 2007-08, found that only a little more than one-third (38 percent) of veterans used education benefits in 2007-08, and that two-year colleges were the most popular higher education venue for returning veterans.

FINDINGS

Demographics

• Veterans constitute about 3 percent of American undergraduates—about 660,000 students.
• Student veterans are most likely to be white (60 percent), and male (73 percent). Women make up 27 percent of student veterans. African Americans (18 percent), Hispanics (13 percent), Asians (3.2 percent) and other people of color (6 percent) are represented in smaller numbers among student veterans. 
• Student veterans vary widely in age: 15 percent are 19-23 years of age; 31 percent are ages 24-29; 28 percent are ages 30-39; and 25 percent are 40 years of age or older.
• In 2007-08, the largest percentage of student veterans were unmarried with no dependents (35 percent). Thirty-three percent of student veterans were married parents, while roughly equal numbers were married with no dependents or were single parents (15 percent each).

Enrollment Trends

• For student veterans, public two-year colleges were the most common institutional type, attended by 43 percent in 2007-08. Smaller percentages of student veterans attended public four-year institutions (21 percent), private not-for-profit four-year institutions (14 percent) and private for-profit institutions (13 percent).
• Forty-seven percent of student veterans were enrolled in associate’s degree programs in 2007-08, while 42 percent were enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs, 6 percent were not enrolled in a degree program, and 5 percent were enrolled in certificate programs.
• The largest percentage of student veterans attended school part time for part of the year (37 percent), followed by full time, full year and part time, full year (both 23 percent), and full time, part year (16 percent).  
• The most important factors student veterans cited in choosing an institution for higher education were location (75 percent), program/coursework (52 percent), and cost (47 percent).

The entire report may be read online. For more information about how colleges and universities are developing resources specifically designed to meet the needs of veterans, see www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/05/veterans.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Of student veterans receiving education benefits, those in the 24-29 age range were most represented (46 percent).
• Student veterans who were unmarried and had no dependents were most likely to receive education benefits (41 percent); single parents were least likely (12 percent).
• Student veterans were much less likely to cite a school’s reputation as a deciding factor in choosing to attend (29 percent), compared with nonmilitary students, both independent (41 percent) and dependent (51 percent).