And shame on Princeton and Harvard, too!

Yesterday, we wrote about three Ivy League universities that do right by veterans, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and Columbia University. To recap, the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill covers only part of a university’s tuition. For a public university, that figure is $8,900 annually. For a private university, that figure is $19,200 annually. As you likely know, tuition to Ivy League institutions far exceeds such figures. Cornell and Dartmouth cover the full remaining cost of tuition. And while Columbia does not cover the full cost of tuition under its “Yellow Ribbon Program,” they do something pretty remarkable that we discuss later in this piece. It makes Columbia too deserving of our high praise. But we mentioned that our love fest with the Ivies with respect to their admissions policies towards our troops ends there. And it does.

Because Brown University, shame, shame, shame on you! Brown University gives more money than a few other Ivy League universities towards annual veteran tuition. They give $10,000 annually per student, which, in our estimation, is just enough money to ensure that veterans have to apply for financial aid. And we all know that colleges aren’t really need blind. Simply by virtue of the fact that admissions officers can read on the application if students need financial aid means they’re not need blind. And if a university admitted an entire class of students who needed financial aid, they’d have to dip into their endowment. Colleges rely on tuition dollars. So we find this to be quite sneaky of Brown. Also, Brown caps the number of students under their “Yellow Ribbon” program at 30. Only 30 students can get this additional $10,000 annually per year. Any additional vets will have to find the money to cover the cost of their tuition elsewhere. Like out of thin air. On paper, Brown may present as one of the best Ivy League options for veterans but it is our opinion that this is nothing more than spin. Brown University, a university with a reputation for hostility towards its ROTC program, has earned a ‘D’ in our book.

But at least they offer $10,000 annually per student, even if that money is kind of pointless for the aforementioned reasoning. Princeton University offers $4,000 annually per student. Princeton gets a ‘D’ in our book. They’re spared an ‘F’ because at least they don’t cap their number of “Yellow Ribbon” participating students. Harvard University is spared nothing.

Harvard contributes $3,000 annually per student under the “Yellow Ribbon Program.” And they have a cap of 50 students. Harvard gets an ‘F’. Their reputation of being good to veterans is, in our opinion, entirely undeserved. Yale University is indeed better than its arch rival in this department.

Yale offers $10,000 annually per student. They have no cap. We’ll give them a ‘B.’

Columbia University often gets high praise because they have a high number of veterans on their campus. And this is absolutely true. It’s indeed something to be proud of. They have no cap. Columbia, by the way, contributes $8,000 annually per student, which isn’t as good as Cornell and Dartmouth, but Columbia does something that is exceptional that many other schools do not…and it’s why they’re able to admit so many vets. Applicants to the College of General Studies don’t count towards Columbia’s “US News & World Report” rankings. So many schools don’t admit veterans because they don’t want to hurt their all-important “US News & World Report” ranking. Even though Columbia doesn’t cover full tuition like Cornell and Dartmouth, we’re going to give them an ‘A’ for daring to use this workaround for the sake of our vets. It’s something to be proud of.

And as for the University of Pennsylvania, they contribute $10,000 annually per student. While they’ve got a cap of 30, they do use a similar workaround to Columbia and it’s for this reason that we’ll give them a ‘B’ like Yale.

Is our grading system unfair? If so, tell us why. Do you at least agree that Brown, Princeton, and Harvard aren’t as good to our veterans as Cornell, Dartmouth, and Columbia?