Differences in the GI Bill

[jcscribner]

Well, I am one of those few who are getting out soon back into the real world. Having some experience in virtually all different military jobs (infantryman to "burning your own dung"), I think I'm ready to get out. It seems that the economy crisis has also hit the military, as alot of MWR support and other soldier support is slowly disappearing. On top of that, it seems the DoD is making alot of budget cuts as we can't even complete equipment orders without division disapproving it. So I want to get out and go to school.

I finally got alot of ACAP briefs done, one of them related to the benefits of the GI Bill (montgomery and the post 9/11).

It almost seemed like they were trying to sell off the 9/11 bill, which I also figured out it's not even approved yet, and don't get me wrong it sounded delightful that they would pay to highest state college (which in Arizona is up to 14 grand!), but the whole BAH thing is pretty low (I would only be getting 800$ a month for full time). My military buds are saying that I should just stick with the Montgomery one. They pay you directly, but at a maximum of around 1300$ a month. What should I go for? I mean, I trust my buddies with my life, but they aren't very bright when it comes to processing information.

PS: are the Army's CLEP credits accepted throughout colleges in the US? because they are free for me to take and I like that price.

[JanusthePhoenix]

Take CLEPs for free while you can! If I had only known how easy it was to rack up credits that way...I could have thrown a rock from the deck of my ship and hit the test center. Most colleges at least accept the general exams (Nat. Science, Social Science, College Math, Humanities, English Comp) and that's a very easy way to knock out your freshman year's worth of creds. Of course the Big 3 don't put a cap on those at all.

RE: the GI bill, it depends on where you live and how expensive your tuition is. In places with low BAH, it may be worth it to stick with the MGIB. If you live in Miami or you're going to Stanford or something, the new one will probably come out on top. I still have to talk to somebody about this to double check, but in my area the MGIB is the better choice by a margin of over $10K, at least according to my figuring, but then I also got the kicker. YMMV, so 1) figure out the total worth of your MGIB, then 2) total up the tuition value of whatever college you're going to plus BAH for that area and the book stipend, then 3) compare the two to see which one is more valuable.

Also keep in mind that the 9/11 bill pays direct to the school, so it saves you paperwork if that's a big deal to you.

Good luck, and welcome to "the real world".