How Did the Post-9/11 GI Bill Affect Veteran Students’ Undergraduate College Choices? An Application of Propensity Scores in Difference-in-Differences Models

The Post-9/11 GI Bill represents significant public investment in and commitment to veterans who have served in the armed forces and those who will serve in the future. Recent studies have examined its effect on veterans’ college participation. In this study, Liang Zhang uses data from four waves of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study between 2004 and 2016 to examine the effect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on veterans’ college choices. This analysis finds, most notably, that veterans who received federal education benefits attended colleges in more expensive locations after the implementation of the bill. Moreover, a greater proportion of veterans attended private for-profit institutions instead of public institutions. Also, the bill had no significant impact on choices in terms of institution level as measured by four-year versus two-year colleges, Carnegie Classification, or program type (online versus in-person).