he nation's soldiers anticipated a widespread economic depression after the war. The GI Bill offered veterans up to $500 a year for college tuition and other educational costs---ample funding at the time. An unmarried veteran also received a $50-a-month allowance for each month spent in uniform; a married veteran received slightly more. Other benefits included mortgage subsidies, enabling veterans to purchase homes with relative ease. It also made what was called the 5220 club, veterans out of college would get $20 a week for 52 weeks.Despite the fears that some worried about, the G.I. Bill proved to be enormously effective although College campuses did become grossly overcrowded in the postwar years: approximately 7.8 million World War II veterans received benefits under the original G.I. Bill, and 2.2 million of those used the program for higher education. By 1947 half of all college students were veterans. Prefabricated buildings and Quonset huts were used as classrooms, and military barracks were often converted into dormitories. However, having spent a large part of their youth engaged in battle, World War II veterans were highly motivated. GIs in their late twenties and early thirties returned to the United States in droves, anxious to catch up with their nonmilitary peers, marry, settle down, and support a family. The benefits provided by the G.I. Bill facilitated these goals....
