This time of the semester, people are wondering how they will pay off their account and how they are going to earn money over the summer. After all, if you don’t pay for this semester, you can’t come back next semester. It’s an endless cycle.
Let me tell you about my Uncle Sam and my Uncle Sonny. I am their favorite nephew.
You see, Uncle Sam and Uncle Sonny put me through my undergraduate degree without it costing me a cent. No, I am not talking about loans that I have to pay back at some point.
I am talking about working for the Uncle Sam of the United States military and the Uncle Sonny of the Sonny Montgomery GI Bill. And, yes, they do pay well.
Many people will stop reading this article as soon as they figure out I am talking about being in the military. Many people hang up on recruiters, too.
But even if you have never considered the military and never would, give me one shot at explaining how the military pays for people to go to school. I know you have heard recruiters say this, but how can you be sure? They are recruiters, after all.
After high school, my not-so-great GPA would have landed me in a community college, if I was lucky. So I decided to listen to the recruiters and take the military route.
I went into the military because I wanted to travel. I was certainly able to do that. I spent four years in the U.S. Marine Corps and went around the world twice.
When I applied to State, the university overlooked my high school GPA because I was a veteran. After that the money started to roll in.
The Montgomery GI Bill-named after MSU alumnus Sonny Montgomery-was paying almost $800 a month straight to my bank account, and that has only gone up. It was enough to cover tuition, along with a little extra.
I was picky about choosing a part-time job. But then I hit on a perfect one: the Mississippi Army National Guard.
First, it paid an extra $150 each month for working one weekend per month. Second, it paid $1,000 a semester in tuition assistance. Third, it extended my GI Bill benefits another 12 months so I could stay in school an extra year. Each summer, I also worked for two or three weeks in the Guard and made somewhere between $700 and $1,000.
I didn’t pay a dime for my bachelor’s degree.
I get other great benefits, too. I could actually take college classes while deployed on a ship in the Persian Gulf. On active duty, the military paid 75 percent of my tuition.
Of course, not every benefit was monetary. The military also gave me a chance to develop the self-discipline that I did not have in high school. I needed that discipline to graduate from college.
Is the military right for you? That is something you will have to decide for yourself.
The military does offer a variety of choices to coincide with your tastes. Are you the “weekend warrior” type or the “full-time-travel-the-world” type? Maybe a program that lets you serve after you get your degree-as an officer-is better for you.
Whether full-time or part-time, the military is a viable option for paying for college.
However, like any other job, they expect you to work for them in return. I felt that the benefits were worth it.
Look them up online and see what jobs they have that relate to what you want to get a degree in. Talk to people who have been in the military. Maybe you can be Uncle Sam’s and Uncle Sonny’s favorite nephew or niece.
John Summerlot is a graduate student in counselor education. He can be reached at [email protected].