NCES Releases Profile of Military Servicemembers and Veterans

The National Center for Education Statistics has released a new Statistics in Brief publication: Military Service Members and Veterans A profile of Those Enrolled in Undergraduate and Graduate Education in 2007-08. This Statistics in Brief uses nationally representative data to determine the representation of military students in undergraduate and graduate education and to examine how their demographic and enrollment characteristics compare with their nonmilitary peers.

The publication draws upon two nationally representative studies of postsecondary students, the 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08) and the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09), in an attempt to answer four questions:

1. How many military service members and veterans were enrolled in undergraduate and graduate education in 2007-08, and what percentage used GI Bill education benefits to pay for their education?
   
2. How did military undergraduates' and military graduate students' demographic characteristics compare with those of their nonmilitary counterparts'?
3. How did military undergraduates' and nonmilitary independent undergraduates' enrollment characteristics differ?
4. How did military and nonmilitary graduate students' enrollment characteristics differ?

Some of the report's key findings include:

• In 2007–08, about 4 percent of all undergraduates and about 4 per-cent of all graduate students were veterans or military service members. About two-fifths of military undergraduates and one-fifth of military graduate students used GI Bill education benefits.
• Military undergraduates studied at private nonprofit 4-year institutions, pursued bachelor’s degrees, took a distance education course, and stu-died computer and information sciences more often than their nonmilitary peers. The percentage of military undergraduates who re-ceived financial aid (including GI Bill benefits) and the amount they re-ceived (including GI Bill benefits) generally exceeded or was not mea-surably different from those of nonmilitary independent undergra-duates.
• A larger percentage of military graduate students than nonmilitary graduate students waited 7 or more years between completing their ba-chelor’s degree and starting graduate school, were enrolled in master’s degree programs, attended part time, and took a distance educa-tion course.

A full copy of the report is available at the NCES website.

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