Helping enlisted veterans succeed at the nation’s elite colleges

A 2016 New York Times Opinion essay by columnist Frank Bruni highlighted the absence of enlisted military veterans at the nation’s most elite colleges. The essay cites data showing that there were fewer than five enlisted veterans in the undergraduate programs at most of the nation’s top schools, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke and MIT. These schools often preferred to admit former officers into their graduate programs.

Things have changed in the past seven years. Where the halls of America’s elite institutions were once reserved for former officers pursuing advanced degrees, a recent push, and the efforts of supportive administrators, have seen these schools open their doors to enlisted veterans. Those former enlisted have made the most of the opportunity.

An 1894 Army Officer’s guide notoriously stated, “Enlisted men are stupid, but extremely cunning and sly, and bear considerable watching.” This anachronistic quote is a punchline in today’s military, which holds its enlisted service members in high regard. But its spirit lived on in the halls of America’s elite colleges until very recently. Simply put, these schools did not admit enlisted veterans because they questioned whether their background would enable them to succeed in top academic programs.

This elitist perception could not have been further from the truth. As a Naval Academy graduate, a former nuclear submarine officer, a Wharton MBA, and a former McKinsey consultant, I can state that the smartest, most capable group of people I have ever worked with were the sailors on my submarine. The only difference between us was that I had gone to college after high school. This is a common sentiment among officers across all branches about their enlisted personnel. Fortunately, some of them decided to do something about it.

Service to School, a veteran education nonprofit founded by former military officers and a former admissions officer, and where I am CEO, piloted its VetLink program in 2017 to support enlisted veterans in achieving their full potential at America’s top colleges. VetLink partnered with supportive college admissions officials to develop a tailored application for enlisted veterans that translates their military training and experience into academic and professional accomplishments. In this way, an admissions reviewer with no military experience could understand how impressive these applicants’ achievements were.

The results have been phenomenal. Given a tool to appropriately value enlisted veterans’ experience, several schools gave a few enlisted veterans the opportunity to make good on their potential. These veterans made their presence felt on campus and showed the utility their military experience brings to the classroom. In the last year alone, these veterans have gone on to win Marshall, Truman and Princeton University Sachs scholarships. This never would have happened had schools not given them a chance.

This success paved the way for a precipitous increase in enlisted veterans’ admission to some of the nation’s top undergraduate programs. Seven years ago, you could count the number of veterans at these schools on one hand. Now, we see well over a dozen admitted to each class at schools such as the University of Chicago, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. All told, the program has seen over 50 enlisted veterans matriculate to Chicago, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton, respectively, with over 30 attending Yale, Stanford and Brown each. Furthermore, the acceptance rate for VetLink applicants is often five times that for traditional applicants.

The partnership now boasts 29 of the nation’s most selective colleges, including six of the eight Ivies, which shows these schools’ faith in the capabilities of our nation’s enlisted veterans — a far cry from where we were in 2016.

We must never use privilege as a proxy for capability. About two-thirds of enlisted veterans do not have parents who attended college; they were thus far less likely to do so themselves after high school. Without proper college guidance, many veterans have fallen prey to for-profit educational institutions that won’t set them up for success and waste the taxpayers’ investment in their GI Bill. We now see a reversal in this trend as more and more are achieving their full potential at the nation’s best colleges.

The military and the American taxpayers have given those who served an opportunity, and it’s great to see the nation’s finest colleges doing the same. Enlisted veteran students have certainly made good on it. Service to School is doing all it can to ensure the trend continues.

Alec Emmert is the CEO of Service to School, a nonprofit that has supported some 15,000 veterans interested in pursuing higher education. He served on active duty in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear submarine officer and previously worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.