More Than 1,100 Colleges Join Yellow Ribbon Program for Military Veterans

Washington — A total of 1,165 colleges have joined the Yellow Ribbon Program, a federal effort to help military veterans attend college, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs told The Chronicle today.

Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, the government matches the amount of financial aid pledged by participating colleges above the base educational benefits provided in the new GI Bill. Qualifying veterans receive an amount equal to the cost of attending an in-state, public four-year college.

The program can also help veterans pay the cost of attending out-of-state public colleges, private institutions, and graduate programs.

Of the participating colleges, 750 are private nonprofit, 254 are for-profit, and 161 are public.

The department is still processing Yellow Ribbon agreements for a handful other colleges as well, said the spokesman, Steve Westerfeld.

The number of participating colleges has more than doubled since June 11, when the department announced that 573 colleges had committed to the program.

Participating colleges can limit the aid they offer. Last week two student-veteran advocates criticized institutions that had limited the number of veterans they will support through the program to only a portion of their overall student-veteran population. —Austin Wright