What Will Be My Post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits When My Father Transfers Them to Me?
Q: My father is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army for 17 years and still serving. He has offered his GI Bill for my college education. I would like to know what the GI benefits will be when he passes them on to me. I would ask him myself, but he is currently deployed. This information help me decide where I want to go to college. Thank you.
A: What your father is offering you is a very beneficial education assistance package that can be worth upwards of $130,000 depending on if you choose a private school or not and the zip code of your school. He can give you up to 36 months of the Post 9/11 GI Bill if he has not previously used any of his GI Bill benefits before.
Once his transfer request is approved, go to the eBenefits website and submit VA Form 22-1990e. In return, you’ll get your Certificate of Eligibility that will show the GI Bill you have (Post 9/11 GI Bill or Chapter 33) the number of months you have left to use, and when they will expire (age 26).
To start using your benefit, be sure to hand in a copy of your certificate to the Registrar at school when you enroll for classes. They in turn will send in a Certificate of Enrollment to the VA and that starts the payment process for both them and you.
The VA will pay your tuition directly to your school. If you choose a public school in your home state, the VA will pay your tuition up to the resident level in full. If you decide to go to a private school, they would pay up to $20,235.02 per year.
As far as the payments you get, first is the housing allowance. It is based on the zip code of your school and the number of credits you take. Right now the average is around $1,300 per month. Depending on where your school is located, yours could be less or up to twice as much.
Once per semester, you also get a book stipend. It calculates based on $41.67 per credit, but does have a $1,000 per academic year cap.Some semesters it will be enough to buy all of your books with some left over, while in other semesters it may not be enough to pay for everything. In the end it all balances out.
As you can see, your Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits can be quite lucrative and should position you well financially coming out of college with little to no student loan debt.
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