Hitting the Books Before Military Service. Policy Options for Recruiting in the College Market
Abstract
The armed services prefer to recruit "high- quality" youth (those who have a high school diploma and score in the top half of the score distribution on the Armed Forces Qualification Test) because of their better performance and lower attrition. However, with wage growth greater for college graduates than for high school graduates, high-quality youth are increasingly interested in attending college. This trend is forcing the military to look more closely at its traditional recruiting market recent high school graduates and high school seniors and focus on those individuals who are in college, have recently left college, or have immediate college plans. The services already have implemented several educational assistance programs to make military service more attractive to college-bound youth; these programs will continue to be important. However, to be fully engaged in the college market, the services must refine existing programs to enhance their effectiveness and consider what the next generation of programs should look like to target various segments of the college market. RAND Corporation researchers recently conducted a study to help the services in this effort. Key findings were: that incentives are effective in rerouting individuals from the college market into the military. They include: the Loan Repayment Program (LRP), i.e. repayment of federal college loans, increases in enlistment bonuses and college stipend benefits, programs that allow college dropouts to enlist without first returning to college and of these, the LRP was found to be the most cost effective for the military.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA428103
Entities
Organizations
- RAND Corporation