Going to college isn't the same for veterans as it is for graduating high school students, who are often more worried about missing the next great frat party than actual responsibilities like working a full-time job or taking care of young children. That's why colleges tailored to helping veterans achieve academically are so vital to a life after service.
The Military Times put together a list of the best schools in the country for veterans. Their methodology included taking into account factors like whether veterans were charged at or below Post-9/11 limits, participation in the Yellow Ribbon program – under which the school and the VA partner to cover the difference between tuition and the GI Bill payment cap – extracurricular activities and national accreditation.
Here are their top five picks in each category:
Four-year schools
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Ranked as the best four-year institution in the nation for the second-consecutive year, this public university retains 72 percent of all veterans who attend. With top marks in nearly every category, and 94 percent of its students employed within six years of graduation, University of Nebraska at Omaha leads the field for a good reason.
University of South Florida
Close behind in second place, South Florida's public university also received top marks across nearly all categories.
Eastern Kentucky University
This university's commitment to veterans is evident from just a visit to their website, which provides extensive resources and guidance to students making the transition from military life.
D'Youville College
Located in Buffalo, New York, D'Youville is a private school of only a few thousand students – meaning veterans in attendance receive special attention.
Rutgers
In fifth place is Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, which has long had a commitment to serving its veteran students.
Two-year schools
Central Community College – Nebraska
Evidently Nebraska does a great job of taking care of and educating its veterans. Ranked as the best community college in the country for veterans three years running, the school provides a staff of fellow veterans for academic tutoring and advising, mentoring and counseling, as well as social events around campus.
Georgia Perimeter College
Big as far as two-year institutions go, Perimeter College's 21,000 students have a small, tight-knit veteran community that receives plentiful support from the administration.
Inver Hills Community College
This small public college's veteran resource center provides educational veteran benefits, assistance with VA forms, a comfortable Veterans Lounge and much more.
Clackamas Community College
The only Oregon college to make the top of the list, Clackamas is open to every veteran seeking a certificate program, technical degree or two-year degree.
Northwestern Michigan College
Rounding out the top five two-year schools is another small public college that prides itself on providing a smooth transition into student life for returning veterans.
Online & non-traditional schools
ECPI University
Nationally ranked for five consecutive years now, ECPI has earned its place at the top of the Best for Vets list, as well as Top Military Friendly Colleges and Virginia Values Veterans. With plenty of special accommodations for the GI Bill and military scholarships, it is the perfect school for those with a hectic schedule.
Park University
Open since 1875, this non-profit, private post-secondary institution has enjoyed an educational partnership with the military for nearly a century.
Central Texas College
Specially designed for military students, veterans and their spouses, this college understands and adapts to the unique challenges of juggling a job, an education and a home life.
University of Maryland University College
With a rich history of educating military history, UMUC offers both hybrid and on-site classes, along with countless education benefits, financial aid options and other forms of assistance.
Liberty University
Proud of their service to those who served, Liberty ensures that earning your degree can be done with the utmost convenience and efficiency.
Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone – whose name emblazoned international headlines in August 2015 after he and two friends subdued an armed terrorist aboard a train bound for Paris – will join five other veterans in attending President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
According to the Military Times, this will be the third time in five months that Stone, now a medical technician at the 60th Medical Operations Squadron at California's Travis Air Force Base, has made an official visit to Washington, D.C.
For subduing the gunman – a heroic action which resulted in a severed thumb and a near-fatal stab wound – Stone earned the Purple Heart and Airman's Medal. He was awarded Belgium and France's top honors as well. On Oct. 31, he was promoted to airman first class. He has plans to leave the Air Force before his enlistment is up at the end of the year.
Stone is just one of the six veterans invited by First Lady Michelle Obama to Tuesday's address.
Maj. Lisa Jaster will be there as well. Jaster, a 37-year-old engineer, became the first female Army Reserve officer – and just the third woman overall – to graduate from Ranger School.
Earl Smith, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, met Obama in an elevator before he became president. At the time, Smith presented him with his screaming eagle patch, first earned when he was a private, as good luck. Perhaps his presence in the crowd is the president's good luck charm.
The Military Times reported in a separate article that veterans will be a focal point of Obama's speech. While legislators are still upset over the stagnant reform situation at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Obama will point out the progress made in caring for veterans in their life after service, jobs programs and falling rates of veteran homelessness.
When winter weather arrives, many groups come together to help the less fortunate. This is also true of veterans, many of whom may be in difficult financial situations, but for whom many organizations exist to get them the help they may occasionally need.
With freezing temperatures finally descending on New England after the warmest December on record, demand for warm coats is on the rise, according to a report from Providence television station ABC 6. To that end, Operation Stand Down Rhode Island is ready to help, with more than 100 coats and other winter necessities – like gloves, hats, blankets, and more – to give away to both low-income and homeless veterans.
The giveaway will take place this week at the Providence VA Medical Center, the report said. This is actually the culmination of a similar coat drive in November; that time, the group gave away some 200 coats, but received so many donations that it was able to hold this giveaway as well.
Operation Stand Down Rhode Island has been in operation with the purpose of helping veterans in need for more than two decades, starting soon after the first Gulf War conflict in the early 1990s, the report said. It highlights the fact that the assistance it provides is "a hand up, not a handout," which is one reason many veterans may feel shy about seeking help, financial or otherwise.
When difficult times arise, veterans should know there are many organizations – both private and governmental – to which they can reach out for help in a number of areas. The trick, though, is that they will need to know which are best suited to help them, so doing a little research will often go a very long way.
Many experts believe that working with animals is a great way to help veterans and others who have been through traumatic and otherwise trying events cope with the issue. To that end, many services now exist to pair veterans with therapy animals like dogs and horses, and one such group recently received a very helpful donation.
A farm in rural Pennsylvania recently received a donated van and motorized scooter from a local family and American Legion post, which will help it to expand its services for veterans, according to a report from the Bucks County Courier Times. The farm, known as Shamrock Reins, provides horse-assisted activities and therapies for both veterans and their families. The Legion will also cover the costs of the van's maintenance going forward.
"This is huge," Janet Brennan, the founder and executive director of Shamrock Reins in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, told the newspaper. "This is really big for us. We want to make our services accessible to all veterans and their families. So, by us having a van, we'll actually go and pick them up."
Joseph Murphy, a retired Army veteran who served in Vietnam and member of the American Legion post, decided to get the donations as part of his dedicated work to helping veterans get the help they need, the report said. He also regularly attends job fairs in hopes of finding employment opportunities he can connect with veterans he knows. He also noted that the van and scooter that were donated actually came from the family of a World War II veteran who recently passed away himself.
These are just some of the many services available to veterans who are having a difficult time coping with civilian life once again. Those who are struggling can always reach out to help as long as they know where to turn.
For the last few years, Boston has been trying to do what a few other big cities already have: Effectively wipe out homelessness among veterans living there. And so far, they've made incredible strides.
Since July 2014, the Boston Homes for the Brave initiative has put more than 530 homeless veterans who were previously relying on emergency shelters into permanent housing, according to a report from public radio station WBUR. By the city's count, that leaves some 79 veterans still without homes, and of that group 25 have to be considered "chronically homeless," mostly due to mental illness or problems with addiction.
"Homeless vets are coming into the system basically one per day," Sheila Dillon, director of the city's Department of Neighborhood Development, told the station. "So our goal is to meet them at the door, find out what they need, and then get them back on track as quickly as possible."
This is a problem that many local governments are now starting to tackle in earnest, but there are still some 50,000 homeless veterans nationwide who remain in need of plenty of help. However, many organizations – governmental or otherwise – now exist to provide assistance to veterans in need.
Many veterans may come home from service with very useful skills, but they may perhaps be lacking for a way to use them to make a living. Now, one group in Maine is trying to help veterans put those skills to some very good use.
The Farmer Veteran Coalition of Maine has recently been created to teach veterans how to use their skills from service in the world of agriculture, according to a report from the Bangor Daily News. This comes at a time when 55 farms in Maine are already run by vets, with 12 other people operating under the state's Homegrown By Heroes program.
The group will also award $5,000 in grants to several disabled veterans to help them get their farming operations off the ground, the report said. Another aspect of it will connect young vets with older farmers who may not be able to do as much physically intensive labor as they used to.
The more veterans can do to connect with groups such as these, and vice versa, the better off they're likely to be going forward. These organizations often have many options available to help veterans reacclimatize to civilian life in a number of ways.
A joint announcement from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday, Dec. 8 confirmed a $5.9 million grant to assist homeless Native American veterans in their life after service. Permanent residences and support services will receive the majority of the funding.
"By targeting resources directly to tribes, we can better honor the service and sacrifice of Native American veterans who now need a roof over their heads," said HUD Secretary Julian Castro, according to The Washington Times. "These heroes deserve hope for a brighter future, and by offering permanent housing solutions, combined with needed services and case management, we can work with tribes to end veteran homelessness."
Twenty-six tribes are recipients of the grant money. They will manage and distribute the HUD housing vouchers to those who require them. According to the Times, the HUD-VA Supportive Housing vouchers are the result of a cross-agency initiative by HUD and the VA to quickly and efficiently house any veteran who has recently become homeless. Counseling and clinical support is also provided.
"Targeting HUD-VASH vouchers to veterans living on tribal lands opens new opportunities for helping Native American veterans exit homelessness as quickly as possible," said VA Secretary Robert McDonald.
Tulsa, Oklahoma station Fox 23 reported that since 2008, close to 80,000 HUD-VASH vouchers have been awarded and about 90,000 homeless veterans have been helped through the program itself. By assisting with rent and other services, the joint-agency venture has proven essential in putting an end to homelessness among former servicemembers.
Last year, Congress authorized an expansion of the program into Indian Country and directed HUD to work with Indian tribes and tribal organizations to make sure that qualifying Native American veterans – at least 500 of whom will benefit directly from the new grant – received all the veterans benefits they had earned.
Many Americans are, at this point, well aware that there is something of an epidemic in this country when it comes to homeless veterans. However, not as much is being done about it by state legislators as probably could be.
As a result, one retired Army specialist and his dog recently spent 24 hours outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston to raise awareness among average Americans and lawmakers alike, according to a report from Boston television station WBZ. The veteran, Stephen Bohn, and his dog, Minnie, did this to raise awareness of the fact that there are an estimated 50,000 homeless veterans nationwide, and sat through some bitter New England winter weather to do it.
"It was rough," Bohn said. "I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to play some macho, 'I was military,' it was rough. [But] I decided, hey, why not go and support them, see if we can make a buzz around here to change that and get these men and women off the streets."
Bohn was injured by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan but is not homeless himself, living in nearby Salem, Massachusetts, the report said. He further added that he got the idea by walking around the city of Boston and seeing numerous homeless veterans who had to brave the cold every night.
Fortunately, more lawmakers, at least on a local level, are starting to look for solutions to the veteran homelessness crisis, and a number of organizations have sprung up in recent years to put in their own efforts on this front. Consequently, while this is still a major problem nationwide, it is at least one that is now being confronted on a far more regular basis than it once was.
For years, the economic downturn created some rather difficult labor conditions for millions of Americans to deal with, but those worries have slowly gone away over time thanks to slow but steady recovery. However, this may not have been the case for veterans of the most recent wars in the Middle East.
That group, specifically, had an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent in 2014 – the most recent full year for which data was available – about one-fifth above the 6 percent unemployment rate for non-veterans, according to the Deseret (Utah) News. This was particularly troublesome for women who served in these conflicts, who were unemployed at a rate of 8.5 percent, compared to 6.9 percent for men.
"If you served for four years as an infantryman or driver, it may be difficult for you to see a future in the financial industry or as a mechanic," Kim Morton, a spokesperson for a nationwide veteran's initiative, told the newspaper. "In 2014, roughly 53 percent of post-9/11 veterans dealt with a period of unemployment in their first 15 months out of uniform. Some of those veterans found work only to leave the job within their first year."
Moreover, though, many veterans who have jobs often struggle with underemployment, and others believe that they are overqualified for the work they are doing, the report said. About 1 in 3 respondents to a recent study said that they are dissatisfied with their current work situations for the latter reason.
However, many groups exist to help veterans deal with the rigors of civilian life, and often that kind of assistance is just a phone call or email away. The benefits for veterans these organizations provide may not always be apparent, but they're often relatively easy to find.
Some big changes are coming to the way the Pentagon recognizes combat service. According to the Military Times, a two-year internal review conducted by the Department of Defense has recommended 37 changes that will bring the military's medals system into the 21st century.
Among the changes are a new "C" device that will indicate a medal earned while in combat. Veterans will recognize its similarity to the "V" device currently signifying valor. Along with the new combat denotation is a definition – applicable to every service – of what "meritorious service in combat" means, a change that will affect the criteria for the Bronze Star.
"We're ensuring that the Bronze Star goes out to those who are incurring the risk of combat or actually have a significant risk of hostile action," a defense official told the Military Times.
But the Bronze Star isn't the only medal cast under a new light.
CNN reported on Wednesday that the military was going back to take a close look at more than 1,000 medals awarded since the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, a review initiated by Chuck Hagel, then Secretary of Defense, intended to determine whether or not the actions cited in those awards were worthy of the Medal of Honor.
Seventeen Medals of Honor have been earned since U.S. troops first hit the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. The first seven were given posthumously, but in 2010 the Defense Department issued a clarification on what the "risk of life" qualification meant. Since then, CNN noted, all 10 recipients of the nation's highest honor have been living.
"There is no indication that any service members were not recognized appropriately, but the purpose of this is to ensure that those service members who performed valorously were recognized at the appropriate level," an official with the DOD told the news organization.