Military-Affiliated Students Help Make ECPI University What it Is

By Lt. Col., Ret. Bill Brown, ECPI University Executive Director of Military Education

Even since the reintroduction of the Post 9/11 GI Bill^® in 2009, there has been a lot of attention paid to military, veterans, and dependents wanting to attend colleges and universities.  The updated GI Bill, and today’s Forever GI Bill, have made it possible for many more people to attend college, and it has been great seeing all these new students join us at ECPI University.  With more than 27 percent of our students being military affiliated, we are proud to have earned the trust and respect of our military and veterans and we do all we can to support these great people.

I am often asked what makes ECPI University so successful at working with military and veterans, and I think it is simple. They know how to do their research before making a decision and have realized that ECPI provides them a pathway to reach their education goals in a way that they understand and can relate to. Military and veterans are trained from their first day in the military to ask questions, to analyze a situation quickly, and to know what right looks like. Many times, these skills meant the difference in success or failure in a wide variety of missions we all undertook during our military careers. Luckily, going to school is not a dangerous mission like the ones we performed in the military, but the approach to picking a school well-suited for military and veterans can be just as important to help students achieve their education and career goals.  

At ECPI University, our five-week terms and accelerated learning programs allow our military-affiliated students to earn an associate’s degree in just 1.5 years or a bachelor’s degree in as little as 2.5 years which is exactly what they are looking for. Moreover, while they are attending classes, they see that they are treated like the experienced individuals they are by faculty and staff, many of whom are veterans or military spouses themselves, and understand the unique abilities and characteristics they are bringing with them to class each day. 

ECPI University works hard every day to provide high-quality programs and assistance for our military-affiliated students to include having dedicated military admissions and financial aid teams, sponsoring SVA chapters, and recognizing them during commencements, Veterans’ Day, and on other important dates.  The Army has a saying that we will always be looking to improve our foxholes, and ECPI University is doing the same thing. We will continue to look for ways to offer support for our military-affiliated students, to listen to students on ways to make things more efficient, and ways to honor their hard work.  President Dreyfus has told me repeatedly that if there is something we can do better to take care of our military-affiliated students, then we need to do it!  If you have any ideas you would like to share, do not hesitate to send them to me at wbrown@ecpi.edu.