Enrolling More Veterans at High-Graduation-Rate Colleges and Universities

Rethinking Criminal Justice Education: Applying Experience Credits towards CJ Degree Completion – Generates Dollars, but Does It Make Sense?

“…The number of Post 9/11 veterans is estimated to be approximately 5.1 million (United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 2018). Only 68 percent of these veterans are in possession of a bachelor's degree (Hill, Kurzweil, Pisacreta, & Schwartz, 2019) indicating a population that is underserved by the traditional university system.…”

“…Non-traditional student recruiting has not been a primary focus of these schools, thus, other institutions who had to compete harder for students, particularly the for-profit institutions, stepped in to fill the void and aggressively market themselves to the growing population of veterans seeking educational opportunities. Second, because traditional colleges and universities did not have a history of outreach to the veteran population, a perception emerged that these institutions were inaccessible to nontraditional student populations (Hill et al, 2019). Again, community colleges, less competitive universities, and for-profit institutions stepped into the void, and by 2019, the veteran population was overrepresented at these institutions and underrepresented at competitive, public and private colleges and universities (Hill et al, 2019).…”

“…Second, because traditional colleges and universities did not have a history of outreach to the veteran population, a perception emerged that these institutions were inaccessible to nontraditional student populations (Hill et al, 2019). Again, community colleges, less competitive universities, and for-profit institutions stepped into the void, and by 2019, the veteran population was overrepresented at these institutions and underrepresented at competitive, public and private colleges and universities (Hill et al, 2019). Lastly, elite institutions were less likely to offer criminal justice as an academic program, thereby eliminating a significant portion of the veteran student population wishing to pursue CJ as a major.…”

Expanding Opportunity for Lower-Income Students: Three Years of the American Talent Initiative

“…Another strategy to broaden the pipeline at ATI colleges is to focus on enrolling U.S. military veterans, a population that has long been underrepresented at high-graduation-rate institutions, despite evidence demonstrating that veterans thrive when they do attend. 41 Furthermore, as most veterans are eligible for GI Bill or other higher education benefits, expanding opportunity for student veterans is both mission-aligned and financially feasible. Forty-one…”

The Impact of Veteran Students on the Academic Performance of Nonveteran Students

“…It has been found that veteran students that do pursue higher education often perform better than their non-veteran peers. [5] A study was conducted concerning the comparison of graduation GPAs for veteran and non-veteran students and it was found that the resulting GPAs were 3.34 and 2.94, respectively. [6] This disparity shows the academic horsepower that veterans bring to the classroom as well as their potential positive influence on the non-veteran students.…”