Posts Tagged ‘New GI Bill’

No, you are probably not eligible for the new Post 9/11 GI Bill, although I recommend you make an appointment to speak with a VA benefits counselor before you separate to make sure.

Your medical retirement will follow an honorable discharge, which is one of the requirements for the GI Bill. You have served about 4 years, and I will assume that you mean 4 years of active duty service. The new GI Bill only requires 90 consecutive days of service that fall after the date of September 11, 2001, and the benefits reach 100% tuition when you hit 36 months of qualifying active duty.

However, the service that you use to qualify for the new GI Bill cannot also be used to qualify for another education benefit. In order for your active duty service to count toward the new GI Bill, you would first have to complete the service obligation your accrued for your military academy education. The same would go for an ROTC officer who didn’t complete his obligation.

That depends on what you mean by back-dated.

If you are asking whether you can use the benefits to pay for debts incurred for classes you have already taken, then no. You can only use the Post 9/11 GI Bill to pay for courses you are currently taking.

If you are asking whether you can be eligible for the new GI Bill due to military service performed before the bill was put into effect in August of 2009, the answer is yes. Any active-duty military service that falls after September 11, 2001 counts toward eligibility for the new bill.

I imagine that you were given 12 months of the new Post 9/11 GI Bill because you have completely used up your Montgomery GI Bill benefits, or because you had 12 months of MGIB benefits left.

The answer is no on using GI Bill benefits retroactively. If you didn’t apply for the GI Bill benefits for the courses before you started the term, then you can’t get the GI Bill for those courses. You can only get the GI Bill if you are currently taking qualifying courses.

No, your service before September 11, 2001, doesn’t qualify you for the new Post 9/11 GI Bill. Only active duty service performed after that date counts toward eligibility toward the new GI Bill, and you need at least 90 consecutive days of qualifying active duty service to qualify for any benefits. This active duty can be in the regular active component, or time deployed under Title 10 of the US Code if you are in the Reserves or National Guard.

There is no specific difference in how the new Post 9/11 GI Bill works when you are using it to pay for a doctorate than when you are using it to pay for a lower-level degree. It provides funds based on your tuition, to a maximum equal to the most expensive in-state tuition for an undergraduate degree at a public university in your state. If you are in a graduate program, your tuition is probably going to be higher than that, so you will have to make up the difference in some other way, such as your own money or through scholarships, loans, grants, and other sources.

Many doctoral programs through public universities are fully funded; the tuition is paid for through grants, fellowships, work-study programs, and other means. The way that this works with the new GI Bill depends on how it that funding is given. If your program reduces the tuition to nothing, then you have not need of the GI Bill, since the GI Bill pays an amount equal to the tuition. If the funding is paid to the student, in order to be used for tuition and other expenses, then you can use the GI Bill, and still receive the other funding on top of that.

You’re best advised to speak with a financial adviser at your university, to find out the specifics of how your program will work. That will allow you to make your decision on whether to apply for the GI Bill for that program.

No, you don’t have to start using the new GI Bill right now, if you can’t take classes. If you don’t take courses at your school, then the VA won’t send money to your school or to you, and the months won’t be subtracted from your remaining balance. You can start the benefits up when you are able to take courses.

Just make sure that you don’t enroll in the courses at the school and then fail to take them. You’ve got to properly withdraw before the courses start, so that the VA doesn’t pay any money.

No, I’m afraid that you probably can’t use both the Post 9/11 GI Bill and Georgia’s HOPE grant or scholarship programs. Or, at least, there’s little reason to, even if you could.

Both the new GI Bill and the HOPE programs pay for your full tuition. If you are receiving full tuition through the HOPE program, the new GI Bill won’t pay any tuition. The older Montgomery GI Bill, which paid a flat fee, is a different matter; you can receive it along with other tuition breaks or waivers.