Stephen Graves was in his first year at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 2014 when he discovered that the Post-9/11 GI Bill would cover more of his tuition were he enrolled in law school or MBA program.
It was one of those head-scratching “why?” moments that can inspire research, and that’s what Graves did. Now a fourth-year student in the dual MD-MBA program, the 10-year Marine Corps veteran and his team at Northwestern Medicine have released findings of a study investigating veterans’ tuition benefits for graduate programs.
The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed national tuition and financial aid data from medical, law and MBA programs at more than 100 schools.
“Scholarship Support for Veterans Enrolling in MD, JD, and MBA Programs” reported that much less of the cost was being covered for medical school than for juris doctor or master of business administration programs.
Tuition benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs program covered only about 45 percent of the tuition for medical school, compared to 85 percent for law and 100 percent for MBA programs, the study found. In real dollars, that added up to a shortfall of about $110,000 – roughly $27,500 each year – for veterans in MD programs after their GI Bill benefits were applied.
The GI Bill, the main source of federal tuition aid for veterans, is a scholarship program available to all honorably discharged veterans that can be used for most undergraduate and graduate education.
Medical school tuition typically is more expensive than tuition for law and business schools. However, Graves noted, medical schools studied also gave less direct support – approximately $22,000 a year compared to about $26,000 for business school and $33,000 for law school.
