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Do I Need to Take 12 Credits for the Full Semester to Get the Post 9/11 GI Bill Housing Allowance?

February 16th, 2012
by Ron Kness
I have a half a semester class I am taking. That class is going to put me over 12 credits so I will be full time. Do I need to have 12 credits the whole semester to get full pay or is a half a semester class ok since I will have over 12 credits at the end of the semester? Thank you for your help. — Johnny

No Johnny, you need to have 12 credits or whatever number your school uses as full-time to be classified as a full-time student. The number can vary among schools.

So what is going to happen Johnny is your monthly Post 9/11 GI Bill housing allowance will be based on the number of credits you are taking each day. When your half-semester class kicks in , then you will get the full housing allowance for the zip code of your school from that point on until the end of the semester.

The one thing you did not say is how many credits your half-semester course is worth. If it is over 5 credits, that would put you under the minimum or 51% of the full-time credit floor. In that case, you would not be authorized any housing allowance for the first half semester.

But if your are still taking at least 7 credits without that half-semester class, then you will get 7/12th of the full amount until your half-semester class starts and then it would bump up to the full amount. That was a change brought about by the GI Bill 2.0 where you are now paid by the number of credits you are taking in addition to the zip code of your school. You might want to keep that in mind when scheduling classes in the future – you have to be at least at that 51% mark to get any housing allowance and at 100% to get the full amount.

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Posted in Housing Stipend, New GI Bill | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Do I Need to Take 12 Credits for the Full Semester to Get the Post 9/11 GI Bill Housing Allowance?”

  1. Haeley says:
    April 21, 2012 at 9:37 am

    The GI bill reads that you get BAH for an E5 in the zip of your school if you are enrolled over half time, not that you get a percentage up to 12 credits and then full for 12+ credits, so now I am confused. Do I have to be full time to get this benefit?

  2. Ron Kness says:
    April 25, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    No you don’t. As long as you are taking at least 51% of the number of credits your school consider to be full-time, you will get that percentage of the housing allowance. For example, if your school considers 12 credits as full-time, you have to take at least 7 credits to even qualify for the housing allowance. The amount you would get by taking seven credits is 60 percent of the full housing amount, because the VA would round up from 51%.

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