In this article, David Vacchi explains who veteran students are and their transitions from soldier to student. He states that there is confusion about classifying who a student veteran is and goes on to give his classification of a student veteran “A student veteran is any student who is a current or former member of the active duty military, the National Guard or Reserves, regardless of deployment status, combat experience, legal veteran status or GI Bill use” (Page 17, Vacchi 17).
Veteran students don't have the same financial struggles that plague other traditional students. With the help of the government, veterans are covered by the GI Bill when its come to paying for college. Some colleges though haven't made the proper accommodations when it comes to accepting GI Bill tuition money. Most traditional student are required to pay for classes before the beginning of the semester, which isn't as always possible for veteran students. “Administrators must acknowledge the inflexibility of the federal government’s fiscal year and plan to accommodate student veterans using the GI Bill by not expecting payments until well after the first day in October during the fall semester” (Page 20, Viacchi).
There are many problems for schools when it comes to accepting veterans that traditional students don't face. Most traditional students applying to college are coming straight from secondary school and are up to date with tests and forms. Veteran students typically are coming at an older age years since they have graduated from secondary school. “The list of entrance obstacles for veterans is greater than nonveteran students. The perceived relevance of entrance test scores for veterans who completed high school several years in the past and for admissions personnel may be very different” (Page 19, Viacchi).
This article helps my counter argument, by arguing that although student veterans have less stress to handle when it comes to paying for college, they have many more factors of stress that follows them from the battle field, and lack of accommodations made by universities. Other factors that this article state, is that not all colleges are able to accommodate veterans and will look be less inclined into accepting them as students.
David Vacchi is a doctoral student at UMass-Amherst, researching the impact of college on student veterans. He retired as a U.S officer who has served for twenty years in the U.S military.
Vacchi, David. "Considering Student Veterans on the Twenty-first-century College Campus." About Campus, 18 June 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/abc.21075/citedby>.
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