U.S. News Releases Rankings Of Best Colleges For Veterans
12 years ago

It seems like we see a new ranking of colleges every day of the week. Criteria range from academics and average postgraduate salary to “party school” reputation and Greek life. This year, U.S. News has released a new set of rankings for the first time. Using only schools numerically ranked in the 2014 edition of their “Best Colleges” edition, they have come up with a list of which schools are best for service members with their new “Best Colleges for Veterans” rankings.

Considering the length of the conflict our nation as been in, it makes sense that this ranking now exists. We have more and more veterans than in recent years, and many of them are seeking to further their educations when they leave the armed services. Personally, I really like that this ranking exists. It never hurts to bring issues like veterans’ education and affairs into the public eye.

As I said earlier, the rankings are based off the overall “Best Colleges” list. However, other factors are involved. Schools had to meet several criteria in order to be ranked:

– Must be certified for the GI Bill
– Must take part in the Yellow Ribbon Program
– Must be a member of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Consortium.

Those schools that met these criteria were then re-ranked numerically. Here are the top ten national universities:

1. Pennsylvania State University – University Park

2. Tulane University

3. University of Texas – Austin

4. Syracuse University

5. Texas A&M – College Station

7. University of Iowa

7. Indiana University – Bloomington

7. Miami University – Oxford

10. University of Vermont

See your school up there? If not, don’t worry. These days, most colleges and universities are taking great measures to become more veteran-friendly. Shout out to the Big Ten for having three schools in the top ten. Additionally, University of Nebraska – Lincoln isn’t too far behind at number 15.

Interestingly, I noticed a bit of a trend. Do these top ten schools look familiar? Not only are they ranked high on the “Best Colleges” list, but many of them feature prominently in party school rankings from various sources. If you went through what many of these veterans have, don’t you think you’d want to kick back and have a good time, too?

[via US News]

***

  2. Ben_Cartwright

    Taking care of the men who take care of the country, much respect to those schools.

    12 years ago at 3:31 pm
  4. Devil n A Saint

    I would to clarify one thing that kind of skews things, and that is the criteria the mandating of Yellow Ribbon Program. Each school determines if they want/need to. San Diego State gets shafted because it doesn’t need to as the school is priced enough to cover tuition without it. It was the first University with a fully self-funded Veteran Center, one of the first, if not the first Veterans Housing in the nation, and one of nine Universities with a full-time VA representative on campus. Add in the massive SVO, and being in a military town, it doesn’t get its due. Arizona, Ohio State, NCSU and Mississippi State all have good student Vet atmospheres, from what I have seen as well.

    12 years ago at 8:24 pm
  6. beanfickersupreme

    Got one year left in the USMC, thinking about turning down a 60k/year job for the opportunity to throw the fuck down for a few years

    12 years ago at 1:09 am
  7. RagnarDanneskjold

    I don’t know about the criteria for the list, but Alabama has been pretty good to me. RMFT.

    12 years ago at 8:18 am
  9. USArmy

    I love UT. Spent many years in Austin. My only issue is that, now that I am active duty, I wanted to further my education with them, but they don’t have online grad programs. I got to looking and they have no undergrad programs either. They only have distance learning classes, which don’t help much.

    12 years ago at 8:49 am
  10. OMFratRebel

    Say what you want about Tulane, but as an Ole Miss guy I will always love them. They’re as nice a host as you’ll ever meet, and we get to drink and watch football together in the Superdome in Nola. Consider me a fan of the Green Wave

    12 years ago at 2:08 am