Marine's, family, friends, please read and act

[SSgt Ramsey]

Thanks NR..please post your phoncon results here for us all to read please....I'm very anxious for this to be changed obviously for myself and countless other Veteran's who are in the same boat....

[NoRemorse]

Voicemail, form email, still no call back.

they may have a full inbox come January.

[Quinbo]

Get a student loan or maybe a pell grant. Study hard and get a degree. Apply what you have learned to a profession. Earn enough money to pay off your student loan. Get promoted as an expert in your field. Move on to bigger and better things.

Hold out your hand and ask for money to pay your rent as well as all tuition and expenses while you learn to play with motorcyles. Apply what you have learned to working on your bike in the garage.

[Quinbo]

I've mulled this over a bit and really got to wondering? Where do they draw the line? Does everyone no matter what get a full VHA/COLA/Comrats plus full T/A regardless of their educational pursuits?

I'm a keen fan of fishing so can I take a certification course to become a certified koi inspector and then when that course is completed can I take a class and become a certified fly tyer? I could milk it out a little more and take a course in repair of johnson boat motors since my bass boat has a johnson. That might get my house note paid for about 4 years and all I'd have to do is go fishing.

I am not disagreeing but there has to be a line drawn. Certification courses great! There are many and an employer will cover the cost or most of it usually. If they don't then by all means you should dip in to your T/A and cover the rest. It doesn't mean the govmint should pay your rent while you attend the course.

College great! Great a degree! It has been recognized that the financial burden of college is something you need a little help with and you deserve it as a veteran.

Finding the loop hole and living off the government... not good.

[Vandrel]

MMI/UTI are not the same as going a getting a fishing certification or koi inspector.

The basic mechanic course through UTI costs roughly $20,000 and takes over a year to accomplish. Once the basic course is completed there advanced courses they offer that are directly tied to the manifacturers (Ford, BMW, Porche, Nissan, etc.) and offer students to become close to Master certification level in those lines of work.

For a student to attent UTI for just the basic course and 1 MSAT program would cost over $25,000 and take nearly 2 years to complete and sometimes longer depending on the MSAT. That's full time too! Most Associates cost $35,000 that's only about a $10k difference and post 9/11 guys get BAH they pocket, UTI guys would have to use the BAH to break even on school costs.

That alone is a degree but is not recognized as a "college boy" degree, it's a grease monkey's degree and has a 90% garuntee for employment with a manufacture or dealer at a advanced level position.


I was going to attend UTI but I found out the price and how much I would have to pay out of my own pocket even if I just went with the Montgomery GI Bill. Either way I would have had to pump out roughly $8,000 of my own money just to break even on the basic charges not including the fact that I have to buy my own tools (which are like college boy books) plus pay all other associated fees.

I did have a buddy go to MMI in Florida last year, have not talked to him since so I don't know what he used to pay for it.

[Quinbo]

Van we are really talking apples and oranges here.
Attending a course to increase your professional employablilty verses attending a course to improve your ability to work on your motorcycle in the garage.

[Vandrel]

Professional employment is the same thing as being a Master ASE certified technician and Ford certified. Guess what master tech's do? They supervise and manage the maintenance personnel who are snot nosed little 18 year olds out of highschool changing oil.

I suppose getting a bachelors degree in basketweaving or pottery trumps that?

Master techs generally start at around $30 an hour depending on the employeer, more if they have experience and work history. I think that classifies as professional employment vise the average no experience BA or AA grad who would be lucky for a $20 an hour position with no real experience other then reading text books.

[Integrity57]

This is really disheartening to read as I was hoping to attend WyoTech (one of the best mechanic schools in the nation) to get training in Diesel Maintenace and hopefully get a decent job offer since there really aren't any Aircraft maintenance job openings in my area, which is especially frustrating since I already have about a year's worth of training in it and haven't gotten to put to use what I've already learned. How ****ing stupid is it that politicians and the top brass of the services wouldn't take trade schools into consideration when making this new GI Bill? I guess they supposed that once we got tired of doing the "grunt" work in our respective branches that ALL of us would rather sit at a desk the rest of our working years.

[Vandrel]

WyoTech is in a worse situation then UTI, the basic Wyotech course is shorter then UTI which means less GI Bill to cover the costs.