<p>We have 3 years of GI Bill benefits which my husband, a vet, won't be using. We made the arrangements to have it transferred to our kids and are hoping to use it for a private college for our son. </p>
<p>Wondering if anyone had any insights on what private colleges (Ivies, etc.) actually offer SIGNIFICANT yellow ribbon support? We noticed that Stanford, at 55 THOUSAND dollars a year, offers three thousand dollars a year. That'll really help! We'll just sell the house and live in a cardboard box to come up with the rest!<br>
My understanding was that yellow ribbon funds could be used so that the university would match the difference between in-state tuition at a state school and the tuition at the private college but the numbers we're finding (five thousand dollars a year at Swarthmore) don't compute. Has anyone been able to make sense of this, or does anyone know if there's a GI bill number we can call to get help with this?
Thanks.</p>
<p>The program does not guarantee that individual schools will meet the yellow ribbon contribution, it is totally up to the school as they voluntarily make the contribution. You may have to check the individual school to see what they will match.</p>
<p>Here is the link that will be able to help you. click the state, then they will give you a list of schools that participate and up to what amount the school will contribute. </p>
<p>for example: Cornell will contribute up to $99,999 but they only allocate 10 slots</p>
<p>What yellow ribbon funds do, is pay additional money on top of the current post 9/11 GI bill’s $17500/year to help cover tuition that exceeds $17500/year at both private colleges and oos publics. The VA matches those funds. So $3000 is actually $6000. You would also be eligible for any financial aid that you normally would. That’s probably why Stanford’s is so low. They have good financial aid. Also, you have to factor in the living allowance that is also paid which is currently an additional $2076/m for Stanford.</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s the info I was looking for. My next question is whether or not a child can apply early decision if we would only send them there if the Yellow ribbon program was available. I’m assuming that if a program has unlimited slots and they accept someone early decision that means that they’d be willing to give them the tuition match. Would that be a fair assumption? Also, would it be considered pushy to contact the Yellow ribbon official at the schools he is interested in and ask them for more info? (What I want to know is if there are 5 slots for the program each year, how many people apply for them? 5?6? 200?)</p>
<p>They assign the yellow ribbon money first come, first served until the allotted slots are filled. I would definitely get in touch with each school’s VA person to find out how their process works. Can you put “dibs” on the funds at appliction, on acceptance, or when you send in the enrollment deposit?</p>
<p>Also, do you know if the colleges distinguish in any way between actual military person and military dependent? I"m assuming if they want the diversity that vets bring to the classroom that they might rather give the money to the vet – but if they just want to accept GI bill money, then presumably it wouldn’t matter whether it was a vet, a spouse or a child of a vet.</p>