The Post 9/11 GI Bill is a major veterans educational benefit that includes money for tuition, housing, and books. In some cases it can cover the full Cost of Attendance for a degree. But misunderstanding the details of eligibility and benefits for Post 9/11 GI Bill (also called Ch 33) can devastate veteran and military families when they don’t get money they had counted on.
Mistake #1: Thinking the GI Bill Is a Scholarship
Some veterans misunderstand the nature of the Post 9/11 GI Bill. They assume it’s a scholarship or tuition fee waiver for all veterans or veterans’ family members. This can be a costly mistake.
In 2009, Congress created the Post 9/11 GI Bill (sometimes referred to as Ch 33 benefits or PGIB) as an earned educational benefit for military members. Ch 33 increased benefits significantly over the previous Montgomery GI Bill. Service members can earn 36 months of benefits if you have enough qualifying days of service after September 11, 2001.
If you serve at least 36 months (1,095 days) of qualifying service, you’ll get 36 months of benefits at the full amount.
If you served less than 1,095 days of qualifying service, your benefit level will be less than 100%, but you’d still have benefits for 36 months of schooling. For example, if you served 90-179 days of qualified service, you’d be eligible 36 months of benefits at 50% of the full benefit amount.
To see all the cut off points for GI Bill benefit levels, go to this VA page on Post 9/11 GI Bill percentages.
You could also qualify for 100% of the full benefit if:
- You served on active duty and received a Purple Heart on or after September 11, 2001, or
- You served on active duty for at east 30 continuous days, and were discharged because of a service-connected disability.
Mistake #2: Assuming All Military Service Counts Toward GI Bill Eligibility
You have to serve a minimum number of days on active duty in order to earn each level of GI Bill benefits, but not all active duty time counts.
The following time is NOT qualifying:
- Time as a cadet or midshipman at a service academy
- Time assigned to a civilian school for classes that were the same in substance as classes offered to civilians
For members of the Reserves, Army National Guard, Air National Guard qualifying time gets especially detailed, and can depend on what type of orders you were on. Since its over 20 years since I was a reservist, let me refer you directly to the VA website here. (Note the negative sentence construction.) Again, this is time that does NOT qualify towards GI Bill.
https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11
Academy and ROTC Graduates CAN Qualify — But After Their Service Obligation
One last category of non-qualifying time is service days that are already being applied to the following programs:
- Service Academy Graduation*
- Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) Scholarship
- Loan Repayment Program (LRP)
So, if you are under a service obligation for having commissioned through a service academy or ROTC scholarship program, you don’t start building Post 9/11 benefit eligibility until AFTER that service obligation ends.
But if you went to an academy or had a ROTC scholarship, you CAN earn benefits by staying in after your service obligation. This is an important distinction for officers, because the older GI Bill programs excluded academy and ROTC scholarship graduates and this outdated guidance persists in some circle.
*Graduates of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy are not part of this exclusion. Neither are U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduates from 2001-2012, when the law was updated to include USCGA.
Finally, only active duty service after September 11, 2001 qualifies for the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Service before that doesn’t count. If you served in an earlier time period, you might qualify for the older Montgomery GI Bill or under programs for disabled veterans (either state or federal), so be sure to investigate those options.
Mistake #3: Missing the Window to Transfer Benefits
Unlike under earlier versions of GI Bill, qualifying service members can also transfer Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to their spouse or child. This is an incredible opportunity to use your military service to pay for your kids to attend college, but it’s only possible in a very specific time window and only while you are still in the military.
To be eligible to transfer benefits, you must be on active duty or in the Selected Reserve and
All of these conditions must be met:
- You have already served at least 6 years of service when the transfer request is approved,
- You agree to add 4 additional years of service,
- The person receiving benefits is enrolled in DEERS
What does this mean? Regardless of how many years of service you have when you transfer, you have to agree to serve an additional four years. If you leave the military before completing the four years of service, the transfer of educational benefits will be invalid.
Every year I see military families, who realize benefits they expected would pay for college aren’t actually available. Either the service member didn’t successfully transfer benefits or they left the military before serving the required additional four years. Usually there is no recovery from this, because the law creating Post 9/11 GI Bill specifies the timing of benefits transfer and the additional service requirement.
After the service member leaves the military, they retain the ability to reallocate benefits among family members, but cannot designate a new beneficiary.
Mistake #4: Assuming GI Bill Will “Stack” with Other College Aid
Veterans’ educational benefits like GI Bill don’t count as income for Federal financial aid. But the majority of financial aid actually comes directly from colleges and they absolutely CAN consider GI Bill benefits when they put together an aid package.
Often, a student receives scholarships or grants as part of their college financial aid offer. The family might assume these grants will stack on top of GI Bill. But after the student certifies their GI Bill benefits with the college, some or all of those scholarships disappear.
What happened?
In-State Tuition Invalidates Grants for Out of State Students
Students using GI Bill at public colleges are eligible to pay no more than in-state tuition. If the college initially gave the student scholarships as an out of state students, they frequently removed this money after recategorizing the student to the in-state rate. In some cases, a student would remain at the in-state tuition rate; even if they stop using GI Bill. Federal law does not require colleges to keep the student at in-state rates, so ask lots of questions rather than assuming. You should also ask if the college would reinstate out of state scholarships if the student stops using GI Bill. Again, there is no requirement for the college to do so, but some will.
Tuition-Restricted Funds Cancel Each Other Out
A tuition-restricted scholarship only pays for tuition and not for indirect costs like food and housing. Since the Federal government is the last payer, a tuition scholarship might reduce what the VA pays, not the student’s out of pocket costs. If you don’t know what a specific scholarship can pay for, talk to the college, usually starting with the veterans’ support office or the Bursar.
GI Bill Benefits Lower Demonstrated Need
GI Bill can reduce need-based financial aid. Some colleges have large endowments and use that money to meet all or most of a student’s demonstrated financial need. Because this is the college’s own money, they can (and often will) consider to what extent GI Bill covers the full cost of attendance.
It’s worth asking lots of questions about financial aid letters and how they would interact with GI Bill. In some cases, using GI Bill early will trigger in-state tuition rates. In other cases, it might be better to hold GI Bill for later semesters, in anticipation of annual tuition increases. The financial aid office, the Bursar, and any veterans’ support office would be your go-to resources for college-specific answers.
Mistake #5: Defaulting to an Equal Distribution of Transferred Benefits
It’s pretty common to split transferred GI Bill equally between each child in the family. This could actually cost the family money in some situations.
Instead of assuming equal distribution is best, game our several possible scenarios, including the possibility of only paying in-state tuition at public colleges or receiving supplemental Yellow Ribbon benefits at private institutions. If one child pursues a more expensive education like professional aviation or graduate school, GI Bill benefits might cover more expenses in those situations (but also keep an eye on the requirement that children use transferred GI Bill before age 26. You might also consider which of your children are more likely to earn college scholarships and which might not.
Depending on family status and age of the children, using GI Bill benefits for the veteran or spouse would improve employability and raise income they can later use to pay for their children’s tuition.
There is no one single answer to how to best use GI Bill. I think it’s a stronger tactic to think of Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits as a family resource, rather than as a pot of months to divide equally. Consider how federal and institutional aid interacts and educational goals and needs of your whole family.
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