Just some questions.

[leroy8541]

Your military training, courses, and occupational specialty can all be considered for college credit. For example, a survey conducted by the American Council on Education found that the average number of academic credits awarded from an Army AARTS transcript for 1998 was 14 semester hours.

[leroy8541]

The Department of Defense announced in November 2001 that tuition assistance for active-duty members seeking off-duty education would rise and that reimbursement rates would be made uniform across all branches of service. The uniformity is important, said defense officials, because members of different services work side by side in a joint environment. Morale could suffer if each service offered different levels of education benefits.

In October 2002, higher tuition assistance rates finally arrived, but the uniformity that was sought fell victim to differences in budget priorities among the services.

The Coast Guard, an agency of the Department of Transportation, said it could not afford to adopt the new rates that Congress first authorized more than a year ago. Therefore, for fiscal year 2003, tuition assistance will remain unchanged, covering 75% of costs up to an annual cap per student of $3,500.

The Marine Corps, by contrast, boosted tuition assistance to the new level on 1 October, paying 100% of off-duty education costs, up to $250 per credit hour, and a maximum of $4,500 per student annually. The Army and Air Force adopted the same rate and ceilings.

To accommodate the change, the Marine Corps raised its tuition assistance budget to $28 million for 2003, a 50% jump from the previous year. The Corps said 20,000 Marines used tuition assistance for 59,000 courses in 2002. With 100% coverage, officials expect a 60% rise in participation. The new budget is set to cover roughly 95,000 courses.

[RoboRobinson17]

Join the Army National Guard - they'll pay for 100% of your college. I would have done it, but I didn't sign on for the money - I signed on to be the best.

Yours in Intensity,

Joe