Thousands of veterans failing in latest battlefield: college (only 3% graduate)

[sinkingfeeling]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/02/12509343-thousands-of-veterans-failing-in-latest-battlefield-college?lite

Among the approximately 800,000 military veterans now attending U.S. colleges, an estimated 88 percent drop out of school during their first year and only 3 percent graduate, according a report forwarded by the University of Colorado Denver, citing the analysis by U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor and Pensions.

Scores of former servicemen and servicewomen who are among the best in the world at defusing bombs, tracking the enemy, patching bloody limbs, or negotiating with wary Afghans become futilely lost when trying to author an English paper.

A number of colleges – Dakduk mentioned the University of Arizona, Syracuse University, Rutgers University, Purdue University, Columbia University and Dartmouth College – offer well-crafted services that truly help retired military folks thrive in the college classroom.

In August 2011, Velasquez transferred to the University of Colorado Denver after getting married. (He had been to Colorado earlier in his life and purposely picked the state for a new start). UCD, he learned, had a three-tiered system to help vets transition from military to college, stay in school and then move from graduation to the workforce. As part of that program, the school assigns an upperclassman to incoming ex-military students to mentor them socially and academically. It’s based on a similar program used at U.S. military bases.

[haele]

1. That might be due to the fact that for the longest time, the military was recruiting poor HS grads-

Specifically, young men and women who had few options in an ever-dwindling job market where they lived. The learning skills and quality primary and secondary education required for most accredited Universities and 4 year Colleges was usually not available to them. While the military does train these young people for the skills required to do the job, they usually don't teach the type of learning skills needed for classrooms.
The other question that this article does not address fully is how they come to these numbers - if they are tracking GI bill usage, they may not be getting an accurate picture on the amount of times a soldier or sailor returns to college and completes a degree or technical certification after one or two false starts.

This article would kind of like saying "80% of lower-income urban high school graduates going full time to U.S.College without academic or athletic scholarships drop out after the first year". While many end up going back to college later on after they mature enough or transfer to a trade school to get a better job, it does not address the issue many students, including myself, have had with an on-again/off-again education track.
Being in the military just makes it harder - especially since when you get out, you're expected to go to work. And anyone who has tried to work while getting a degree knows it's a brass-plated bee-otch organizing the requirements of maintaining life outside (housing, food, job, family) with standard college and course requirements that have been organized since inception around the concept of a student that has his or her "way paid" and can dedicate their lives fully to education.

Haele

[lonestarnot]

6. I would say that the last paragraph is most appropriate. Balancing work, school, and family (or

just self) is a tough fucking thing to do. Something has to suffer do to the reality of time management, or ill health effects of balancing the three, especially when one throws in poor transportation availability in certain areas of the country.

[Igel]

2. It's incomplete.

I'd want to know how they compare to peers.

For instance, compare drop-out rates for certain groups at UCLA versus UC-Riverside. The students that are at the bottom 10%--with a high drop out rate and crappy college GPAs--can be characterized in terms of high school quality, high school GPA, SAT/ACT scores, SES. If you look at that bottom 10% and find the equivalent students at UC-Riverside, you'd find that they' be in the top 50% and have both B averages and decent graduation rates.

Are the vets going to schools where students like themselves, measured in traditional ways, do poorly? Do well?

Then there are cultural issues. I've seen students drop out because they were "different" and didn't "join" the student body in any useful way. They were isolated and lacked social support; they didn't find the extra-curricular activities interesting and so they saw no point being on campus any more than necessary--which limited opportunities for study buddies and additional study time. In some cases they thought they were actively unwanted--so a minority student dropped out of my program in grad school because "nobody liked her" as evidenced by not reaching out to her.

Are vets in sufficient numbers to form their own peer and support groups--I'm not talking PTSD-type support, but just for camraderie?

Vets are older. They often have families. Do they have support mechanisms for families and ways of dealing with day care or the usual family stressors?

After that, the military should designate programs and run them on selected college campuses. They can't run them for a handful of people and colleges aren't going to set them up. But they shouldn't just be at the best colleges, but at appropriate colleges. You don't put somebody in the bottom quarter of their graduating class at MIT.

[Marinedem]

3. Meh.

I've noticed the exact opposite at my school.

Vets seem to excel here.

The vast majority of the ones I know have 3.5 GPAs and above

I'm going to be a Junior in the fall and I'm sitting at a 3.95.

I've talked to many of my peers and we all agree that it's due to our common experience.

The consensus is that we learned more in 4 years of service than in 4 years of high school.

Pathetic, really.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. While you ate correct

I have considered volunteering, to help vets with at least the English skills.

I have seen it with hubby's peers...

[mrmpa]

4. When I decided to go back to college...........

in my mid 40's (female) I chose a local school that had a program designed for the non-traditional age student. The advisor to the group was head of the counseling center, the head of the tutoring center met with us. She talked about programs available for help with math and writing.

The school knew that we had different experiences than the traditional age students, and set it up so that we could succeed.

The same goes for veterans, their experiences are different than the other students and the support needs to be there. Above all this support won't be found in for profit colleges.