1. Lengthy wait times persist at Texas VA medical facilities

The University of Texas at Tyler ranked as one of the leading four-year public universities for student veterans, according to a university news release.

UT Tyler ranked sixth out of all four-year, public Texas institutions and 67th when considering all schools, according to a report released by The Military Times, an independent publication.

In terms of state schools, it beat UT Arlington and UT Austin but fell behind Texas A&M University, Texas State University, Texas Tech University, UT El Paso and Angelo State University, according to the 2014 results.

Representatives from about 600 schools including two-year, four-year and online institutions responded to the 2014 survey.

“The UT Tyler Veterans Resource Center is proud to support the university in achieving this ranking by The Military Times, and we are equally proud to be ranked so highly out of 600 institutions,” Christopher Cox, UT Tyler Veterans Resource Center coordinator, said, according to the news release. “To be among this outstanding group of universities validates UT Tyler’s continued effort to help and encourage our student veterans.”

The publication evaluated schools in five categories: university culture, student support, academic quality, academic policies and financial aid. For the first time, the publication placed an emphasis on academic success, quality and rigor, according to a website about it.

University culture and student support were worth the most and financial aid was worth the least, according to the news release.

Other factors including enrollment, academic support, extracurricular activities and student-to-faculty ratio also were considered.

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