GI Bill at a UC?

<p>I was recently accepted to UCSB and still waiting in acceptances at UCB, UCSD, and UCSC. </p>

<p>I was curious if there are people out there who are currently using the GI Bill at a UC and what their experience has been with it. Are there some things that the GI Bill doesn't cover that I need to know about and save up for? Any experience would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Have you tried contacting the VA rep for those schools?</p>

<p>i’ve been using it at a CC and i imagine it would be the same at a UC. I’m transferring to a UC next fall also. tuition and fees are paid directly to the school and you never see it. you will get a stipend for books and your BAH as usual. i was told by other veterans currently at UCs that this is how it works and that their out of pocket expenses are nil. </p>

<p>i was wondering about grants though. i will be receiving a good amount in grants and just wondering how much of this I’m going to get taxed on since none of it will go towards actual education expenses since the GI bill covers the whole thing.</p>

<p>That’s a good point about grants I never I thought about. I just got my Fafsa back and was offered 13000 in scholarships and grants. I’m going to add that to my question list for when I finally sit down with people who know how the system works.</p>

<p>I’m not 100% sure, but this is how I think it has been explained to me:</p>

<p>The GI Bill in essence replaces any institutional grants up front. For example, a school A’s cost of tuition is $20,000 and offers $10,000 in school grant $5,500 in Federal loans.</p>

<p>In summary that would leave $4,500 left for the student to cover (savings, work, parents, outside grants, whatever). However, once the veteran initiates their GI Bill, and has tuition covered up to $17,500, then the school readjusts it’s institutional grant offer. VA Benefits will always be applied to school expenses first, before the school applies institutional aid.</p>

<p>So, the school takes your $17,500 from the VA and offers you to take out $2,500 in Fed loans or pay out of pocket. Therefore they’ve gotten out of offering anything from their side to the student (veteran).</p>

<p>Of course if your tuition and fees are less than that of the VA amount you are eligible for, then everything is covered in that way and no one has to offer anything else.</p>

<p>Any amount received from the VA is considered non-taxable.</p>

<p>Hope that helps a little bit.</p>

<p>i was afraid of that. i was hoping to pocket the grant money and set a bit of it aside in case i want to pursue a masters or phd later down the road. maybe i can just use the GI bill part of the year and survive off grants for the other part. that way i can at least conserve my GI bill. right now at community college i feel like my GI bill is going to such waste because tuition is next to nothing.</p>

<p>That makes a lot of sense, turtle. It seemed too good to be true that I would have tuition, books, and housing covered and a free extra G a month from the government.</p>

<p>

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. ;)</p>

<p>

I was thinking that exact same way until I started to get the FA offers in from schools and having extensive talks with the FA counselors about how the GI Bill would be incorporated into it. The school will obviously protect their interests (and pockets) first. The VA is becoming this way as well.</p>

<p>

I know exactly how you feel as I will most likely start my GI Bill in CC this Fall too (and I’ve started a thread asking about the usefulness of using the Bill for CC), but the way I figure it, even if tuition at CC is a fraction of that of a traditional 4-year, if you can’t afford it without financial hardship, then it is best to initiate your VA Ed benefits. After all, that’s partly why it was designed - to help alleviate any financial strains on veterans who choose to go to school, but are now in a slightly financially harder position since living away from home for 4+ years and qualifying as independent students vs dependent students.</p>

<p>Right now, I work full time and so does my wife. But If I changed my hours to part-time to go to school full-time, then there is no way for us to afford a lot of the things we have been able to for the last couple years. Of course we can make life adjustments like moving into a smaller place, sell our cars and/or rely more on public transportation, shop cheaper and wiser for foods and other consumable (not that we don’t already), but there comes to a point where it can be considered a financial hardship to make so many adjustments. Therefore, I will be choosing to either go to school part-time and still work full-time, therefore perpetuating my length of stay at the CC to be able to transfer, or initiate my P911GIB going to school full-time/work part-time and actually make more money than if I didn’t. I think I’ll be wise about it and save the difference so that it can be applied to future educational expenses that the VA might not cover, say if, my benefit has been all used up.</p>

<p>Someone else in the other thread put it a good way along the lines of “If you need it, then you need it and you should use it to afford the school, but if you can help it, it would be best to save it.” I know my family will need it if I choose to go to school, so IMP it won’t be going to waste.</p>