<p>I was wondering if a fellow veteran with some experience can give some advice on whether I should use my Post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits while in community college or not?</p>
<p>I have applied to colleges, but am thinking of community college first, then transfer as an option. One of my main questions with that is should I save my educational benefits for when I get to a traditional college or university or will it not make a difference if I use them for CC as well?</p>
<p>If I attended a CC, I would be really motivated to get all the required classes out of the way and transfer asap. I can continue to work part-time where I am working full-time now, and my wife will be working full-time. I know for sure I can afford the tuition without using my benefits, but I'm not sure how other things will go with other school fees and books, etc. I'm thinking that even if I don't use my G.I. Benefits, I can still fill out the FAFSA and possibly use any grants and scholarships through that.</p>
<p>I don't necessarily have plans to go on to a master's or professional degree, but if I can save some of my months of benefits in case I decide to later, then that would be nice.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I would strongly encourage saving them until you go to a four-year university. Especially if you are in a state like California. I live in California and here is my situation:</p>
<p>I used my benefits my first year in a community college because I didn’t know any better. After learning about all of the programs available to me, I’ve stopped using them. Now I can use them when I transfer (if I need to) or when going to post graduate studies (law,PhD, etc.). </p>
<p>In California they have a program called the Board of Governors Fee Waiver. If your income is below a certain threshold you get your tuition fees waived, which is awesome. Furthermore, through employment and FAFSA you will likely be able to afford books and living expenses just fine without needing BAH. Essentially, I now have 3 academic years worth of benefits left. I can use 2 of those after I transfer, and the other one for whichever path I take. In addition, if you obtain enough scholarships after you transfer you may not need them there either and apply all of them to post-graduate when tuition is much more expensive.</p>
<p>If your not in California, I’d suggest looking into similar programs in your state. Talk to you local community college’s Veterans Office.</p>
<p>Uncle Sam got his out of you, I suggest you get the maximum profit out of him.</p>
<p>Thanks a ton for sharing your experience. It will help a lot. I actually do live in California, so that’s some good news.</p>
<p>I think I will try to save the benefits then. I will fill out the FAFSA and may get grants to cover my time at the CC, if I choose to go there instead of directly to a 4-year. I will ask the Veterans Representative at the school about the programs you mentioned. I’m not sure if I would qualify for the Gov Fee Waiver through income as I currently work full time and make a decent income, but I’ll google that one and see.</p>
<p>You might ask this question to a financial aid adviser. Also, ask them whether the GI Bill counts as a source of income when determining Pell/Cal Grant eligibility. If not, I would go ahead and take the GI Bill benefits, and stick the money into a high-interest savings account or a CD.</p>
<p>Thanks for the interest and advice, hesdjjim.</p>
<p>I have already figured out that any benefit I receive from the VA is non-taxable income and is not required to be reported on my FAFSA - and therefore would not affect eligibility for Pell/Cal Grant. However, as much as I’d like to just put the money away and save/invest it, I would need to pay my rent with the living stipend given, so I wouldn’t be able to save much if any at all. I am married so will most likely not be able to live on campus which would disqualify me for the living stipend anyway.</p>
<p>I know this is a couple years late, but what did you end up doing? And living off campus does not take away the BAH, which I’m sure you have figured out by now. I am going to a CC and plan on using my GI Bill along along with the Pell Grant. So I should receive all of the Pell Grant money along with the BAH from the GI Bill.</p>
<p>It’s never too late to add to the discussion or learn more from it. I ended up using the Post 9/11 GIB for CC. VA paid everything - tuition, student fees, book stipend, and a housing allowance since I lived off campus. Glad I did. I ended up transferring to the local state university, so now I’m using my benefits there. If you had any questions, go ahead and ask here or in the veteran’s subforum.</p>
hay man im still active duty ill be ETSing here in dec. I plan on going to a cc in santa cruz then trans to a state or UC. im going for a AA trans from the CC over to the state was everything covered all the way up to that for you? how much did your military transcrips help you out in getting out of the cc asap.
then alex who would i talk to about finding out all the info on the route you took? va center or the actual CC VA rep
sorry im kinda lost in the sauce trying to figure this all out in 3 months. i have the plan stright just trying to find out how to get there.
You’re already doing things right by researching and asking questions. As far as my AA from CC (also in the CA Bay Area), I actually filled out the FAFSA and was eligible for the BOG waiver (Board of Governors waiver), which is specific to the state of CA, although I’m sure other states have an equivalent. The BOG waiver covers tuition at CC. So, my GI Bill at the time was giving me a book stipend (a few hundred dollars per term), student fees, and the housing allowance (equivalent to BAH for an E-5 with dependents within the school’s zip code). As a CA resident, the BOG waiver is a big consideration you should take when deciding if you want to use your GI Bill while at CC because basically the BOG covers everything except student fees and books. If you’re working part-time or have some savings or other source of income, then you may be able to cover those more minor expenses (minor compared to tuition costs) and save your GI Bill time for later. The con to using only the BOG waiver and saving your GI Bill is that you are not paid a housing allowance each month until you do use the GI Bill, which in Bay Area of CA is upwards of $3,000 per month.
The best people to get set up for VA educational benefits, which is any chapter of the GI Bill or other vocational program, is the VA “Vet” Center AT THE ACTUAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE or university you will attend, which will have one or more Veteran Certifying Officials. They know EVERYTHING, and can get you set up. You’ll have to apply for GI Bill eligibility online on the VA website. The VA will basically just check into your GI Bill application and make sure you are a veteran and eligible to receive benefits and at what percentage (i.e. 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%). If you served a full 4-year active-duty enlistment and received an honorable discharge, then generally you are eligible at the 100% rate. One the VA has processed your application online, then they will send you a “Letter of Eligibility” in the mail explaining your GI Bill coverage, which basically shows your eligibility percentage and how many months of benefit you have to use. THAT LETTER AND YOUR DD-214 (Discharge) is what you bring to the VA “Vet” Center on campus. They use the information on that and set you up in the school system. Then, they should set you up with an academic advisor that specializes in working with veterans and you get to choose an academic plan, basically choosing your academic goal (AA, AS, Certificate, etc) and choose the classes to get you to the end of that plan/goal. Once you and the advisor sign off on that plan, then you also BRING THAT ACADEMIC PLAN to the VA “Vet” Center on campus. Then they should guide you through the registration process (register for your classes). Then you attend you classes and ensure you pass. If you don’t pass the classes for which the VA has paid for, then you likely must reimburse (pay back) the money to the VA, along with a portion of housing allowance (BAH) as well. After your first term, you submit your next term’s registration/class schedule to the VA “Vet” Center on campus and they certify you for that term just like the previous term. It’s a cycle of that last step until you finish your program or transfer from CC - register for classes, maybe update educational plan, submit ed plan and class schedule to VA “Vet” Center.
As far as military transcripts: By submitting your DD-214, which is required to get priority registration and certify you for GI Bill benefits, you are granted a small handful of units right off the bat, which are basically classified as a combination of Military Science and Physical Education credits. The MilSci credits don’t help out all that well unless you’re majoring in MilSci, so the Vet Center on campus will turn those into a few elective credits for you. That should help you by cutting down a course or so of elective credit that you’ll need. The PE credit was a godsend for me because CA requires PE or “Lifelong Learning” or whatever they call it these days, but my DD-214 cleared me of this requirement. So, not only did I have 1 less class to take because of my DD-214, but that less class was PE! After years of PT at 5 and 6am and multiple deployments, colleges figure you’ve done enough PE, and rightfully so. So, basically your DD-214 clears you of a couple classes or so, one of which is a major requirement to graduate/transfer (the PE). This did help me get out of CC sooner, as I likely would have had to stay for an additional term if I needed more elective credit and PE. IF you took CLEP/DANTES/DSST exams while on active-duty (which are free while you are AD), then you can submit those to the CC or university as well and those will cover additional requirements. Same if you are bringing AP courses from high school. If you have any of those, then speak to the Vet Center on campus and they can guide you on processing those.
Hope this information is helpful, and if you have any other questions, then don’t be afraid to ask them here.
Hey, haven’t even enlisted yet but just planning out my future with the Navy. I found this thread with the same questions as you had in 2012. This has been MORE than helpful.
I’m glad to hear everything has been going smooth with the Post 911 GI Bill. I was really hoping that the benefits are exactly as they are told to you…
I’m going to save this post on my email and look back at it 4 years from now when I am looking to use my GI Bill.
Quick question: Does being a veteran give you any higher chances of being excepted into a certain university after completion of your AA in CC? Or is it strictly your GPA and courses taken?
Also, I’m think of going IT in Navy because it will give me something to bring outside of the military when I do decide to go to college. I don’t know if you’re Navy, but if you are, do you know any if being an IT in the military could really help on a resume?
Anyway, this post had more information than I could have hoped to find so thank you!
@NewNavyKid
It’s certainly good to save this information, but just keep in mind to stay up-to-date on any new GI Bill benefits, as some minor or even major adjustments are made as time passes.
Some colleges lean more on GPA and coursework taken in CC, which are usually the publics especially if the campuses are impacted by college major (too many applicants than the school can allow in). Many other schools, and particularly in the private realm, more than your academic credentials are taken into account. Now, this doesn’t mean that being a veteran in and of itself raises your chances of acceptance to these universities, but it’s more about how you market and express your military experience - how was it unique, how did it make you grow, what challenges or obstacles did you overcome, etc. Effectively expressing those facets of your military experience, is, in my opinion, where a veteran applicant can set him or herself apart in admissions. I think I’ve mentioned this more in length in the Veterans sub-forum here on College Confidential, so you should check around there for good info too!
I’m not the Navy per-se, but I was enlisted in the Marine Corps, which is a tail-off of the Department of the Navy. In any case, your question can be generalized for all branches of service. Choosing an MOS (military occupational specialty), or your “job”, that gives the service member hard transferrable and marketable job skills outside of the military is great, and can be found in a variety of MOS fields, especially IT. I tell people that if there’s one thing I would’ve done differently when I enlisted would be to choose a different MOS that gave me such an opportunity such as Intelligence (I enlisted as Infantry). Now, I learned a lot of great lessons in the Marine Corps Infantry and I certainly grew up quickly, but my career aspirations never developed into armed security, law enforcement, nor professional warfighter, so all the hard skills I learned in my job didn’t carry over so well once my enlistment ended. Choosing IT will certainly give you a leg-up career-wise, and as such will help on your resume once you leave the service. This would also give you a head-start academically if you chose to further your education in IT, such as obtaining a bachelors or higher level degree or credential. In fact, I’ve known a couple service members in MOSs like IT to have enough experience when they end their enlistments to either find a job in that industry right away, or spend a year in CC getting some refresher courses or obtaining a quick formal education in the form of an AA/AS and then getting right to work.
Sorry if I brought this thread back but you seem to know a lot about college information especially for veterans.
I am currently an Active Duty service member working as an IT for the Navy. My EAOS is in June 2017 and I have already decided to transition into the reserves so that I could attend college.
I have already decided to go to a CC (Ohlone) for an AS in Computer Science
Then afterwards transfer into CSU East Bay for a BS in Computer Science with a Network and Data Communication option.
and the IF I can manage a good GPA, I would be interested in Graduate school at CSU East Bay for Computer Science Network Administrator… but thats an IF… waaay waaaay in the future…
I have received 9 semester credit units from Central Texas College which I can use as electives and I plan on taking (hopefully passing) some CLEP tests with my year left.
Notes
I would already have a place to stay and live at during this time for college, rent can be covered from part-time work.
Questions I have are:
Should I use my 9/11 G.I Bill during my time at a CC?
Should I just get an AS then hop back into the field?
Other grants,scholarships or financial aids like the BOG waiver mentioned above?
Just any specific advice you can provide?
thank you for your time and I really appreciate your help in this matter.
Glad to hear you’re thinking and making a plan for your education after the military.
This was essentially my original question years ago now when I initiated this thread, and I’ll just insert my reflective/updated response from post #8:
Essentially, the question of using your Ch 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill in CC, at least in CA, comes down to if you can afford to live without the Housing Allowance while attending CC - assuming your tuition is covered by the BOG waiver. Only the specific individual knows his or her financial situation the best. For me, it would have been likely possible, but tough to cover housing and living expenses in my area without the Housing Allowance benefit, so I decided to use my GI Bill benefits at CC despite tuition being covered by the BOG waiver. If you feel part-time work will cover your housing expense (if needed), books, and other living expenses while attending CC, and you do obtain the BOG waiver for tuition and fees, then it would be extremely beneficial to save your GI Bill benefit time for a 4-year university and have benefit time left over for graduate studies. You don’t absolutely have to decide this now, since things can change between now and June 2017, and in fact you can take “term-by-term”: meaning, you can begin your first term at CC without using the GI Bill, and then if you think you would need or can use the Housing Allowance and other benefits, then you can have the Veterans Certifying Official at your CC certify your next term’s schedule to the VA to get your benefits. Then, in the term after that you can make the same decision to use your benefit for that term or not. During each new registration period at both my CC and 4-year university, the Veterans Certifying Official would email all the campus veterans explaining that anyone using GI Bill benefits in the current term would automatically be certified for the next upcoming term unless the veteran specifically told the Certifying Official that the veteran did not want to be certified (not use GI Bill benefit) for that upcoming term. The only caveat I have is that you only have a certain number of years (10, 15, I forget, but I’m sure you can find out how many years online) to use all of your GI Bill once you first use it. So if you don’t use all of it within those certain amount of years from your first certification, then you forfeit what is left. Also, when considering when to use your benefit or not, I’m told by my Certifying Official (and you should ask the Cert Official at your CC or 4-year) that even if a veteran has only 1 day of GI Bill benefit left at the beginning of his or her final term (graduating from program in that term), then the VA will cover the entire term as if the veteran had enough benefit for the entire term.
I think this is a very personal consideration because you’d have to consider your own personal costs and benefits to extending your education by 2+ years or going straight to work. For example, by continuing education for 2 more years (even if working part-time during that time), then you may be foregoing 2 years of income you could receive if working full-time. Also, you’d have to consider the specific career(s) you’re looking to get into: do companies and employers hire applicants with 2 years of formal education and some experience, or is a 4-year degree a requirement? Something you can also consider is that you are paid to go to school through your GI Bill, essentially from the benefit of 100% in-state tuition coverage and the Housing Allowance. So, if you do some number crunching, you may discover that you would actually be paid more (via tuition payment and Housing Allowance) to just continue going to school than you would to go to work full time, plus you’d be getting more education while being paid more - or you may find you get paid more to work than go to school. There are a lot of personal specific details to consider when answering this question, but those are some considerations I would suggest when you are trying to answer it.
I haven’t looked in a long time, but I imagine that there are tons of outside (private) scholarships to veterans that you may apply to as a way to help pay for tuition (if no BOG waiver), books, or living expenses, so those you should consider when answering your (and mine) first question if you should use your GI Bill at CC. Personally, to me, I placed a high value on my time, and felt that the benefit of a few hundred dollars here or a couple thousand dollars there was not worth the cost of my time in researching, completing, and applying for them without guarantees of the money. Of course, others may be thinking the same thing, which would’ve increased my chances, haha. I assume you’ll be a CA resident, so the BOG waiver is a huge possibility, but it is based on income and other factors. I’m sure you can look up more details online for BOG requirements, but if you work part-time while attending CC and earn enough income, then you may not be eligible.
As a veteran, whether you use your GI Bill or not, you receive priority registration for classes (by law in CA, I believe, but you’d have to submit your DD-214 to the campus Vet Center), so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about “full” classes, and you should generally be able to register for all the classes you plan to take if you’ve planned them ahead of time. With that said, MAKE AN EDUCATION PLAN. Decide on a program you want to accomplish (AS, Certificate, Transfer, etc), and do the homework (pun intended) to determine all the requirements and classes needed to complete that program. Write it down somewhere and follow it as close as possible, with updates as you go along. Both your academic advisors and Vet Center should be able to help you with this, although I did it mostly on my own and got my BA from a CA CSU in 4-years, which is not too common for someone to do these days because of campus impaction. I picked my intended courses for every academic term at the start of my undergraduate career, and updated them for final grade information, and adjustments to class selection (sometimes I switched which term I would take specific classes, or changed which class I would take for a requirement completely), and basically kept it as a very organic changing thing updating between academic terms. I stuck to the plan as closely as possible and adapted it when I needed based on new information. You will be required to make an “Ed Plan” when you first apply for VA Educational Benefits Certification through the campus Certifying Official, so you might as well make one right away. I can’t stress how important it was, for me, to have a physical plan written out that I could consult each term to assess my progress and make better decisions on which classes to choose, how to move my schedule around, etc, and how to get the heck out in 4 years so I didn’t run out of benefit while still attending school.
Get involved. Even if it’s just attending a club or two, do something other than strictly academics. While your academics should come as a priority, getting involved on campus socially is a great way for transitioning service members to acclimate to the new collegiate environment. I’m not saying to be the new boss on campus or to run for Associated Student President, but something as little as joining a study group or attend meetings for at least one club that interests you can potentially improve your mental state of mind. If you want to start by having like-minded and like-experienced people around you, then you can join your campus Veteran Student Organization to help that transition. With that, in both your classes and at these social groups you may be the only veteran in the room and your classmates will generally be younger than you and just at a different stage of life. Don’t be angry or misguided when you think other non-vet individuals are being ignorant of your military experiences and ignorant of life in general. Personally, I’m humbled and thankful at most times that these individuals don’t have to experience things that I did.
Lastly, enjoy your life in the present - whether in school or out. As veterans, we tend to appreciate the fact that we literally made it alive to see another day, and can relate all too well that tomorrow is not guaranteed.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you would like clarification on anything I’ve mentioned or have any other questions.