Do I Get My Benefit Back for Dropped Courses?

I would suggest you do submit mitigating circumstances. The VA will want to know the reason(s) why you had to drop courses or they may withhold future Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits until they know. Be proactive and send them the information surrounding why you had to drop courses.

While they probably will collect back the tuition and fees, they might not collect any of the housing allowance. You get the same amount for a housing allowance whether you take 7 or 12 credits, so it will really depend on if the courses you dropped, brought you to a half-time or less status (6 credits or less). The book stipend is on a per credit basis also ($41.67 per credit hour, up to $1,000 per year), so you will most likely have to pay some of that back too.

As far as recouping your benefits back, no. Once you “spend” them, they are gone – even if you repay back the amount for the dropped courses. It is an incentive to finish courses that you start. If you drop or fail courses, then you wasted that benefit and did not get anything in return.

About the only way the VA will credit back your benefit is if you were in school, you were mobilized and you had to drop course. Then you don’t have to pay anything back and you get your GI Bill benefit credited back to you.