Calling all US Military Fall 2011 Applicants!

Gryphon- Yes, I will be going to Tuck in the fall. I was kind of surprised about MIT's Yellow Ribbon Program (YRP) policy. I think they're a pretty military-friendly school overall, but I'm not sure why they would limit their YRP to 10 people. Just based on my perception, Carnegie Mellon, U of Michigan, and Tuck are extremely excited about military applicants. A member of the vet club at Tuck told me that the Admissions team asked the club last year for advice on increasing the number of vets applying to there.

As far as the visit, yes, it's extremely important. I self-initiated an interview in the fall. It's a day of tours, info sessions, class visit, and, of course, the interview. If you enjoy your visit in the summer, I strongly, strongly suggest self-initiating an interview.

Has anyone been received definitive information on how much public schools like UVA, Michigan, UCLA, UNC will cost students with the new changes to the Post 9/11 GI Bill?

The VA website for the 9/11 GI Bill still says ALL public school in-state TUITION and FEES...but UVA's webpage says fees are not covered.

Effective August 1, 2011
For Veterans and their transferees - Pays all public school in-state tuition and fees; Private and foreign school costs are capped at $17,500 annually;
The Yellow Ribbon Program still exists for out-of-state fees and costs above the cap.
https://www.gibill.va.gov/benefits/post_ ... anges.html

They pay all I'm state tuition even for grad school as long as it is a public university. Definitive is not exactly a term that applies to the VA, but that's what I got out of the language, my school's VA/FA office, and anyone else I have talked to.

Posted from my mobile device

new yellow ribbon list is out. looks like a dramatic drop from all schools across the board, public or private. sucks! Dartmouth used to cover $99,999.00, now they only cover $9,000.

BLUF: A lot of schools are recalibrating their support after the most recent changes to the Post 9/11 GI Bill in order to game the system and extract the maximum amount of government money.

Attached slideshow I got from a briefing at the JAG School yesterday about the GI Bill. There were a lot of unhappy Colonels at the end of this briefing. A lot of them had to pull out combs at the end to restore their combovers to their proper form.

but lowering the yellow ribbon lowers the total overall amount they can recieve. If they only contribute $9,000 they are only guaranteed $9,000. I guess if the person attending really wants to attend, they will get their money one way or another. If they are willing to defer just 25% of the remaining tuition not covered by the GI bill, they will be guaranteed all of that tuition money. Man, all the changes are making me wonder if they regret their decisions.

Also, Is the yellow ribbon contributions per academic year, or per calendar year?

Kind of yes and kind of no.

When the initial Yellow Ribbon came out only a few schools dived straight in. The others were more tepid and kind of looked around at the landscape to see who was doing what. After all, there was little incentive for HBS to get in if the highest ranked school that was participating was Haas (a very good program, but one that a lot of guys would pass on for HBS with the expectation that HBS will yield dividends that will offset this initial loss).

The guy giving the briefing also indicated that if you're Yellow Ribbon you stand a lesser chance of getting other financial aid from the school. Consider the following two scenarios (let's just assume YR is $18K per year):

We'll say a year of B-School at Stanford GSB costs $50K.

Scenario 1 (GI Bill + YR + School): GI Bill gets you 18K. Now 32K remains to be split among the school and the YR program. They split down the middle and so the school forks over 16K.

Scenario 2 (GI bill + Financial Aid + YR + School): GI Bill gets you 18K. School offers 10K in Financial Aid. 22K remains to be split among the school and the YR program. They split down the middle so the school provides another 11K. 10K + 11K = 21K.

For school, Scenario 1 better than Scenario 2. After all, why not tap theVA for every dollar you can get if you're the school? The school can then take the money that they would have given you in Scenario 2 and offer that to someone else that doesn't have VA support, leave it in their financial aid pot for next year, etc.

Though not related to business school, I learned that some colleges actually raised tuition in states with a lot of military people because they realized they were leaving money on the table. If your tuition didn't tap the full amount that the GI Bill was willing to cover then, as a school, you were not getting all the money you could get. This seemed like a stretch to me because there are a wide variety of factors that go into tuition hikes since they affect all students at an institution and you might conceivably deter some students from coming. Alternatively, if your school only really costs $15K and you raise tuition to $18K for everyone then even if there are fewer students than can afford it outright, you now have an extra $3K from those that are paying that can be allocated to help those students that might not be able to afford it...or so the theory went.

It was kind of hard to get anywhere in the briefing because all the JAGs, being lawyers, were constantly peppering the guy with questions.

why do lawyers even care? They have their degrees. I want to graduate with absolutely little or no debt, which makes me want tuition covered in any combination possible. So does the privation tuition and yellow ribbon cover per calendar year or academic year?

Probably because lawyers like to talk in general, and some of them may be considering getting an SJD or a non-law masters degree down the road. The SJA at my last command used to ask me all kinds of questions about the post-9/11 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program because he wanted to go back to school for something outside of law once he hit retirement.

Yes, many of the lawyers and judges mouths were slightly ajar throughout the presentation. I refer to this as "verbal idling", which is very similiar to a car that is turned on and ready to go. They interpret moments of silence or other momentary pauses as a cue to ask a question.

In all seriousness, many of them were older field grades curious about transferring benefits to children, although since the GI-Bill also covers non-accredited professional training opportunities I was taken aback by the number of inquiries into whether the GI-Bill covers culinary schools in Tuscany and southern France.

As to whether the VA allocates money based on the calendar or academic year, I left the briefing uncertain. For full-time B-School purposes I was led to believe that the VA would make a lump sum payment (18K+YR portion) at the oustset of the school year. VA would also cut you a check for one-time expenses (books) and then send you a check each month for your BAH. It was highly confusing in that you apparently qualify for 36 months of support although these months don't have to be consecutive. For example, you could go get your MBA and soak up 24 months of benefits, and then five years down the road decide you want to do some other school or approved training and you would still have 12 months worth of benefits remaining. The benefits expire 15 years after the day you leave the service and you can't transfer benefits to any unborn children or spouses you haven't met yet. The dependents have to exist in DEERs while you're in the service.

lonesoui- I think you may be mistaken regarding Dartmouth. It was confirmed to me by the Financial Aid office (and the following link) that Dartmouth would be providing $15,000 to the Yellow Ribbon Program, not $9000. Of course, this is assuming 100% eligibility.

https://www.gibill.va.gov/gi_bill_info/c ... tes/nh.htm

Is there another list out there that shows $9,000?

you're right, i was thinking of another school.

ah, it states $17,500 per academic year, which basically means they only apply $8750 per semester, which sucks for professional/graduate schools because of their higher costs. I'm applying for fall 2012 application, which basically means that the new list will be out 1 year from now, and I'm sure the yellow ribbon will be even lower. I wonder if people will get grandfathered into the old rate, or they have to adjust yearly to the new lists? regardless, this all makes me sad.

lonesoui- I believe you're looking at the figures wrong.

Here's a breakdown for a private school (Tuck, HBS, etc):
-The $17,500 is paid to the school by the VA for tuition for one year. This is completely separate from the Yellow Ribbon Program.
-The school decides how many vets it wants to enroll in the YRP and how much it will contribute
-In Tuck's case, Tuck will provide $15,000 per year for as many vets that are eligible. Again, completely separate from the $17,500.
-Because Tuck will provide $15,000 to the YRP, the VA will match the $15,000
-In total, a vet going to Tuck will have $47,500 of tuition covered each year ($17,500 tuition + $15,000 Tuck YRP + $15,000 VA match)

You'll also get the BAH, book stipend, etc. So if you're eligible at the 100% rate, an outstanding deal.

Hope that clears things up.

Thanks beagle, but what I meant was that $15k is good for a yrp. However, HBS only does $10k, AND limits to 60. Not saying that there are more than or close to 60 vets in the entire HBS, but $50k tuition - $17.5k private gi bill, and $10k hbs and $10k yellow ribbon match still leaves you with a little more than $12k in debt per academic year, and multiply that by 2 and you walk out of HBS with $24k in debt. I mean $24k is nothing compared to what you will be making, but I'm talking more along the lines of a school like Columbia, where they only give out $2,500. You'd graduate from them with over $55k in debt. Booth and Yale will leave you at $65k, because they have no yellow ribbon listed. Also, the public schools for out of state tuition is just as bad. All things are not considered, such as financial aid, grants, and scholarships. But I want to concentrate on coursework and not finances. The great thing is my personal/living expenses will be 100% taken care of.

I got in off the Tuck waitlist today!!!! I accepted UT McCombs' offer two weeks ago and have been making all these Austin relocation plans....now what do I do??? I had been waiting for this call since March; I thought my ship sailed!!!!

CONGRATS!!! What do you want to do when you graduate? Where do you want to live? If you want to live in Texas, McCombs is your choice hands down. Have you made a list of pro/cons for each? Where did you feel like you "fit" better?