<p>I'm a community college student and NOT a veteran. But I'm just wondering because I see lots of ex-military at community colleges.</p>
<p>Do veterans actually get accepted to universities? And is admission requirements the same? SATs and HS gpa?</p>
<p>Doesn’t the time away from the books make an effect on the student veteran? And how do colleges take that?</p>
<p>“Do veterans actually get accepted to universities?” No. They are forever barred from unis. C’mon.</p>
<p>Veterans are constantly training while in service – much of it in the classroom. While they may have preferential treatment in some college admission settings, veterans are much more focused than the avg 18 year old.</p>
<p>DS, I’m a veteran who applied to start in 4 year universities this Fall. I have been accepted to each one I have applied to with one deferrment. A lot of universities have verteran clubs on campus. Veterans DO receive classroom instruction during their AD time, so they aren’t exactly foreign to that setting.</p>
<p>The reason you may see an abundance of veterans in community college however, IMO is mostly because of financial reasons. Many veterans may be married, older, or otherwise considered independent for financial purposes. This both helps and limits them in terms of receiving financial assistance for going to school. For example, from the schools I applied to they may end up being too expensive (even with my GI Bill) to also support my wife or ended up being too far like OOS. This would default me to my local community college just to get the ball rolling and then transfer down the road.</p>
<p>Also, I know some veterans that it was hard for them to submit all the required docs to start school traditionally (like letters of rec, HS transcripts, etc) when they are 3000 miles from their HS and the schools they are applying to, even though that’s considered “back home” for them. Some of those folks decided it wasn’t worth the effort and didn’t want to deal with it, so they decided to do the local CC and then transfer route.</p>
<p>I know it may come as a shock to some people, but service members are very intellectual. Even those in the most basic infantry units. I have met the smartest people I’ve ever met in life so far from the military - besides my wife ;)</p>
<p>Many people join the military to get money to pay for college. As for time away from school, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with taking a gap year. Lots of people take time off before going to med school. And many grad programs, especially MBA programs want you to have work experience.</p>
<p>Obviously there are a handful at universities. I mean the majority of veterans, however, go to community colleges, especially in California.</p>
<p>When generalized questions are asked, it typically takes the assumption the responder is smart enough to know it doesn’t represent 100% of the subjects (veterans in this case).</p>
<p>Yeah, see turtlerock, that’s what I mean. A lot veterans that go to my community college are really smart. That’s why I was wondering. Is it really the training from being military?? </p>
<p>Cuz my friends that did join recently aren’t the brightest apples. One year down and he is blowing the money off on buying the whole ex HS gang a round of hookah, buying boners at stripclubs, and buying a new Camaro he won’t get to drive. All because he earns 80k… In 4 years…</p>
<p>On the other hand. A guy in my calculus 3 class and classical physics can understand the basic concept of things and breakdown theories to understand the purpose of a problem and such.</p>
<p>Erm, sometimes finances aren’t indicative of how intellectual someone can be. Often maturity is, which may be why your newly enlisted friend is making a few ill advised personal choices vs how your classmate is handling themselves.</p>
<p>In a few years, your friend may learn some things that they wouldn’t have otherwise determined if not in the military that they will use throughout life. Trust me, you will notice the changes if you remain friends.</p>
<p>In any case, off topic, you can be a super good friend to your military friend and suggest to them that they save their monies for more important things. Of course what they ultimately do with it is up to them because it’s their money, but you can make a small comment - as a friend looking out for your friend’s interests. When someone has income, but no committed expenses (rent, utilities, food, etc) it’s easy to find ways to just get rid of it.</p>
<p>I’m going to tell you something to tell your friend that I wish someone told me while I was in the military: Invest as much money as you can in a Thrift Savings Program Account (TSP). This is a voluntary retirement related account that all service members can open up to stash money away. If they are really just looking for somewhere to dump it, tell them to do that. They can choose what % of deposited money in the account goes to which types of investments (like government bonds, stock, commodities, etc) and by the end of their first enlistment, they’ll have a nice bundle of cash to help out, if say, they plan to start college. All they have to do is ask someone in their command and they will be piointed in the right direction to get one started.</p>