UC Berkeley once again tops the list as one of the best choices for members of the armed services, falling within the top 15 percent of schools surveyed, according to the annual Military Friendly Schools 2011 List put out by G.I. Jobs magazine.
The magazine reported that though the Post 9-11 G.I. Bill has made it affordable for servicemen to attend college, there are approximately 7,000 colleges and universities offering programs designed for veterans.
According to G.I. Jobs managing editor Dan Fazio the survey ranks the top 15 percent of schools deemed military friendly out of the 7,000 surveyed.
This is the second consecutive year thatUC Berkeley has been listed as having a military-friendly environment. This year’s list also includes Stanford and Columbia universities.
The survey asks questions about the number and type of programs offered for veterans, such as classes, counseling and financial resources. Among other things, UC Berkeley offers a one unit class for veterans designed to help with the transition from military to civilian life, as well as counseling services. The campus also supports the student veteran associations Cal Veterans Group, Haas Veterans Club and Boalt Association of Military Veterans.
In addition to the class and support groups, the number of professionals available to UC Berkeley veteran students makes it a desirable place for both active, reserve and retired military personnel to attend.
“If you are going to spend your military benefits, you might as well spend them on the very best,” said Corporal Dustin Mooney, a reservist in the Marine Corps and a psychology major at UC Berkeley. “Since we are the minority it is a great way for us to assimilate after coming from a structured environment. At Berkeley people are here presenting opportunities of things you can do. They are not telling you what to do.”
Ron Williams, the program director for the Re-entry Student and Veterans Services at the UC Berkeley Transfer Re-entry and Student Parents Center is responsible for providing the information reviewed by G.I. Jobs. He said one of the reasons the program works so well is because “it is not just people who want to help but people with substantive knowledge about the veteran’s experiences.”
“This does more to dispel the myth that Berkeley is hostile to current and former service members,” he said.
The data is compiled by the G.I. Job Friendly Schools team, which researches both government and private entities administering education benefits to veterans. In the past the survey only included information from administrators, but this year it was expanded to include student veterans at 300 schools.
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Great article. I’d love to see more like this. I’m a Department of the Army Civilian, and talk up Berkeley whenever the opportunity presents itself. Invariably I get a very positive responses rom Soldiers & their families. (In Cal ROTC 1963-1967, we weren’t the most popular folks on campus.) …also, the unrelated rhetoric gets boring – this has to do with supporting the men & women who have been doing a job their country asked them to do, and doing it well.
Every qualified California
student should get a place in University
of California system.
That’s a desirable goal for a public university. However, UC Berkeley
Chancellor Robert Birgeneau displaces qualified Californians with $50,600
tuition Foreigners.
UC tuition increases exceed the national average rate
of increase. The University of California Board of Regents jeopardizes
Californians attending higher education by making UC the most expensive public
university in the United
States.
Self-serving tuition increases are used by UC President Mark Yudof
to increase the pay of 80,000 eligible faculty and others. Payoffs like these
point to higher operating costs and still higher tuition for Californians.
I agree that
faculty in higher education and senior management, like Yudof and Birgeneau,
should consider the students’ welfare and put it high on their values.
Deeds
unfortunately do not bear out the students’ welfare values of senior management
and the UC Board of Regents.
Opinions to UC
Board of Regents, email
[email protected]
Do facts matter, or do you just get to invent myths to strengthen your case?
* No one pays $50,000+ tuition at UC Berkeley.
*Berkeley is unquestionably #1 rated public university, yet 80+ public university presidents have higher salaries than Birgeneau
* UC Berkeley faculty are paid, on average, about 20% below their market value
This is good to hear. I am in Santa Monica College and using the GI Bill, and plan on transferring to a UC System school. I will keep Berkeley in mind for sure!
Great article :)