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bumblebeetoona wrote:

LSATfromNC wrote:I am not exaggerating, a majority of vets I know get disability. Two others I know get partial for their knee's. All they say is their knees hurt sometimes (which may be true, but who does not have an occasional pain), yet one of them actively plays basketball more aggressively than I ever could.

To the bolded - why does this bother you? You must realize that everyone with a service-related condition can file, not just people in wheelchairs with missing limbs.

My other gripe is older people who get disability payments for simply getting old. Let's see, I'm 60 years old (example, I'm not 60 ), my hearing is going, oh I know, let me claim the cause was going to the range every so often that way I get a higher disability percentage. Because we all know its not natural for hearing to get worse as you get older..... This was a real life example I know of.

Nobody gets a check just for getting old.

I understand ANY vet can file, that does not mean they are truely injured. I have no problem with the system taking care of vets who need help. But it is the people who use that help who don't need it that piss me off. They are taking away resources from those who truly need it. I have a problem with it because many of them are young and perfectly healthy, they simply want to get paid, and I have heard people blatantly state this. Have you honestly not heard of vets scamming the system?

You can get a check for getting old. If you can somehow tie it to your service you will get paid. Even when I was active people talked about how much they would get when they got out. Who at an army base has not heard "oh, you'll get 20% guaranteed just for being airborne."

Granted I know many people do need it. One guy I know fell into a vat of NBC chemicals which randomly cause his organs to fail. He appears perfectly healthy at times, yet at others is quit the opposite.

LSAT from NY I think I can understand why you would be frustrated by what seems like people milking common injuries for money when some of the truly injured usually do not.
But this is the VA's stance on the issue. Every veteran--EVERY veteran is allowed medical care at a VA hospital not just war vets, not just injured service members. so when a veteran shows up at the VA with a documented issue in their medical record no matter how small the injury is at the time it's documented the VA takes the stance that they will take care of that injury because it is service connected. Also they don't just take care of whichever injury the service member first reported with they actually connect the dots on injuries.
So if you originally had a knee injury on your left knee and 5 years later your right knee starts hurting they assume it's a residual effect of the injury to your left knee. And if you do later start having right knee pain then they will upgrade your disability to reflect a left knee injury and now a right knee.

I'm not saying that every person that presents in the clinic or the VA hospital is truly injured to the point where they deserve a large compensation, but the truth is that by being in the military you are giving up your body and allowing it to take a beating and bruising that most average people would never have to endure. And to pay that service member back for sacraficing his body the VA is very lax on rules regarding compensation. If you took the time out of your schedule to go to the clinic to report it then it's good enough to evaluate for compesation due to the likelihood that it'll cause you problems in the future. The problems an injury will cause you throughout the course of your life is really VA's focus.

I hate that we've gotten off topic but I just wanted to weigh in. I think this is something that we're all quite familiar with.

Are you able to buy back eligibility? For instance, if I am rolling over 20 months to the new program, am I able to buy back 16 months to increase my total benefit to 36 months? I remember hearing this somewhere. I spoke to a VA counselor, however that question was obviously not on his script and he just said I don't think so (it sounded as if he was reading verbatim off the website....)

LSATfromNC wrote:Are you able to buy back eligibility? For instance, if I am rolling over 20 months to the new program, am I able to buy back 16 months to increase my total benefit to 36 months? I remember hearing this somewhere. I spoke to a VA counselor, however that question was obviously not on his script and he just said I don't think so (it sounded as if he was reading verbatim off the website....)

Talk to a regional VA office, ask if your previous certifications can be terminated retroactively if that will increase your current eligibility. Of course you would have to pay back whatever you had received for those certifications.

LSATfromNC wrote:Are you able to buy back eligibility? For instance, if I am rolling over 20 months to the new program, am I able to buy back 16 months to increase my total benefit to 36 months? I remember hearing this somewhere. I spoke to a VA counselor, however that question was obviously not on his script and he just said I don't think so (it sounded as if he was reading verbatim off the website....)

If you used up most of your eligibility on the old MGIB and you wanted to switch they will give you 12 months on the new GI Bill but you can not "pay into" the new GI Bill for extra months. Also if you are in the middle of your school and your benefits run out they will extend the months to you to cover that semseter. But there is no buy-up.

shit. If school starts on Aug 31st, does that eat up an entire month of benefits?

LSATfromNC wrote:shit. If school starts on Aug 31st, does that eat up an entire month of benefits?

No, they use days too. For example, I have 15 months and 19 days of benefits remaining under the old GI Bill.

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Penn is in.

Now if only I could get into Penn, GT or GW

How much is Penn contributing?

illmal wrote:How much is Penn contributing?

Right now the Law school has committed to 10k. The University could choose to add more, but with what the GI Bill pays out anyway this is huge. I could not be happier.

That's good news about Penn! How did you find that out?

illmal wrote:That's good news about Penn! How did you find that out?

Was kinda paranoid.about the whole first come first serve thing with YRP so I kept checking periodically wirh financial aid office, probably annoyed them a bit too

Can't blame you for bugging them; it's almost as bad as waiting for LSAT scores. Do they have a specified number of people who will qualify?

illmal wrote:Can't blame you for bugging them; it's almost as bad as waiting for LSAT scores. Do they have a specified number of people who will qualify?

So far not that I know of. But I also haven't asked.

anthonyc7599 wrote:Penn is in.

WOW that is great news. PA has one of the highest payout rates in the country. The max amount of tuition is just over $12k. So if Penn contributes at leat $10k and VA matches $10k that's just over $32k paid--cha..ching!!

If only I were smart enough to have gotten into Penn

Supposedly the final chart for participating schools is supposed to be up by 22 June. I hope these schools are ready

Has everyone gotten back the final letter telling them how much of their benefits they're receiving. All I've gotten is an email saying they got my application, and a letter telling me not to call and bother them because they're swamped. I do not have a warm fuzzy!!!

No word from VA about qualification % or anything. Still cautiously optimistic.

Yeah I heard back within a week of applying. But seems like not too many other people here have.

The University of Utah is participating. FYI

Cole S. Law wrote:No word from VA about qualification % or anything. Still cautiously optimistic.

Forgot to mention that my Certificate of Eligibility arrived a few days ago. Remarkably unimpressive: just a word document on laser printer letterhead. (unlike my home loan COE which was green and looked official.).

Now if the UCB Vets Affairs dude would return my email with answers to some of the school particulars.

Edit: Applied 1 May, West Region (Oklahoma Office)

All -

The VA website now has a pretty big preliminary list of Yellow Ribbon Schools up, although it appears to be incomplete. Some highlights include Duke participating for seemingly every one of their schools except the law school, and Columbia Law only offering $1k a year.

FYI, Michigan is in, with no limit on the number of students, but not sure of the dollar amount yet.

Also, in my discussion with Michigan, it became apparent that health care could be a very big cost, especially for dependents, if applicable (student + spouse + kid = $12k/year). Any ideas?

illmal wrote:All -

The VA website now has a pretty big preliminary list of Yellow Ribbon Schools up, although it appears to be incomplete. Some highlights include Duke participating for seemingly every one of their schools except the law school, and Columbia Law only offering $1k a year.

FYI, Michigan is in, with no limit on the number of students, but not sure of the dollar amount yet.

Also, in my discussion with Michigan, it became apparent that health care could be a very big cost, especially for dependents, if applicable (student + spouse + kid = $12k/year). Any ideas?

I thought that at least the students health care was covered as part of the fees that the new GI Bill pays for?

Not that I'm aware of, although I could be wrong. I asked the UM financial aid dean when I talked to whether health care could be classified as fees, and she said it wasn't.

Ok, the other day I bad mouthed California for the schools that were participating. The list has increased substantially (mostly through the addition of ITT and DeVry )

UCLA's School of Management is the biggest name, but there was really only one school that would make me rethink law school:

VA Yellow Ribbon Website wrote:Golf Academy of America Carlsbad All 200 $3,412.50