August 17, 2009

School of Nursing signs on to GI Bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program

Veterans enrolled at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing can experience lower tuition bills as the school becomes one of 700 colleges in the new Post-9/11 GI Bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program. The initiative, which allows colleges to enter into dollar-for-dollar matching agreements with the federal government, helps to pay veterans’ educational costs above those covered by the base GI Bill benefit.

The program is an expansion of the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act, the most generous veterans’ benefit for higher education since the WWII GI Bill. The act provides payment for tuition and fees, a housing allowance and a stipend for books and supplies to eligible veterans who have served on active military duty since Sept. 11, 2001.

The maximum tuition and fees benefit available under the law is capped at the level of the in-state charges at the most expensive public institution in a state, with Maryland’s cap set at $458.13 per credit hour and $2,380 per semester for fees. Institutions that charge higher tuition may elect to enter into an agreement with the Veterans Administration to fund up to 50 percent of the tuition and fee costs that exceed the state cap. The federal government then matches these institutional contributions dollar for dollar. The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing will offer $2,500 for up to 10 eligible veterans entering the baccalaureate, master’s or doctoral programs.

A school official said that “students with a military background will enter the school with a leadership capacity, commitment to service and the ability to work as a team—qualities essential to the nursing profession.”