What is Tuition Assistance?

Over the past few years of advising students to get into college, I’ve worked with students all around the world including military personnel.

I discovered a bit of a communication gap between the information that all military receive from their Recruiter about their educational benefits as they sign up for the military and a couple of years later when they decide it’s time to use their educational benefits.

Often the soldier I’m working with isn’t sure where to begin the process of getting the money needed for college.

This post is for the Army students, active duty, or reserve students who would like to know exactly how to access the money they have for college.

Is the college Accredited? http://www.sophiemaddox.com/2009/11/05/accreditation/ Here’s a great post on how to know if the college is accredited.

How do you choose a college? http://www.sophiemaddox.com/2009/12/04/your-best-college/ This will help you with the decision process.

After you’ve decided on a college, I would do is to have a conversation with your commanding officer. Tell him or her what you’d like to do, and ask them to help you with your SOU. They need to sign a Statement of Understanding, form allowing you to use the educational benefit money you need. See below.

Now the reason for this is so that you’re not taking on too many responsibilities. You don’t want to fail a class just because you cannot manage your MOS and your class studies. I’ve even worked with some units that have a clause you have to repay the money if you don’t pass the class.

The biggest question I received outside of how to set up the funding for college is whether you can use your GI Bill and your Tuition Assistance at the same time, and the answer is yes you can.

But what is not so very clear is that if you use them together the benefits coordinate, what that means is that if you use them together then you’ll have less money in the long run.

In other words if you use them together, the total amount you’re eligible for with your GI Bill is less when you use them together. Your TA amount is taken away from your GI Bill amount thus decreasing what you are eligible for.

What I would strongly recommend students to do who needed additional funding for their college is to apply for Financial Aid.

Now this is when I would often get a raised eyebrow or two, followed by this question. If I have tuition assistance why would I take out a FAFSA Loan?

Well with FAFSA you don’t have to accept everything you qualify for, the application tells you what you’re eligible for, what you can get if you want to.

Let’s say you want to use your TA to cover college but you know you’ll have several hundred dollars in books you’ll need and you know you need to get a new computer for school too. Well if you qualify for a Pell grant and perhaps a State grant, then you can use this money to get the books and computer. You can say ‘No thank you’ to the loans and just use the grants and the Tuition Assistance together.

The next thing you need to consider is when are you planning to go to college?

Warning! Plan ahead the TA is a budgeted amount of money for the Army and this money is replenished at the beginning of the new fisical year in October. So I would apply as early as possible for your funds.

What if your TA runs out? Now The TA is not an endless amount of money that you can use for college once you apply, the amount is caped you’ll want to talk to your Educational Advisor and find out what that amount is for you. If you’re not sure how to contact your Advisor, then ask your commanding officer where your unit reports to for Educational Advisors.

So if you run out of money for the year but you still have some classes you need to complete this year, then you have two options, either utilize the FAFSA loans you qualified for, or use some of your GI Bill to bridge the gap. Here is a video on how to navigate the FAFSA website easily http://www.sophiemaddox.com/2009/12/15/fafsa-video-1/

You don’t have to worry about the benefits coordinating if you have used all of the funds you have allocated for the year. You can use some of the money you have from your GI Bill just for those classes. Don’t reapply for the GI Bill after these classes, but keep in mind that when you return the next time to use your GI Bill there is a separate application for that, carefully search the site to make sure that you’re filling in the right application.

Here’s the information from a couple of web sites where you can set up your TA and your GI bill.

Now there is a lot of information but it’s so important. Take a few minutes and learn how and where you can get money.

ARMY Tuition Assistance

Follow these simple steps to get started:

1. Register at www.goarmyed.com and set up your username and password, even if you don’t intend to start classes immediately.

2. Select your university as your home school and contact your education counselor for program validation.

3. Obtain a Commander’s signature on the TA Statement of Understanding (SOU). Sergeants First Class (SFC) (E-7) and above may sign for themselves in place of the Commander. Each term you must recertify the TA SOU online.

4. Once your program has been approved in coordination with your Military Admissions Advisor, you may use the Integrated Course Scheduler to select the courses applicable to your degree plan.

Important note: To ensure your TA voucher is accurate, you must obtain correct course information from your military admissions advisor.

For more information about the automated TA process, visit www.goarmyed.com. To learn more about your Tuition Assistance “Top-Up” benefits, visit the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs website.

How to Order Military Transcripts

If you have AARTS credits you’d like to apply towards the college you’re considering, you’ll need to secure an official transcript. Visit the AARTS website for instructions on how to do this. http://aarts.army.mil/

GI Bill:

As a Service member, previous service member and/or spouse you are entitled to educational benefits and funds. Additionally, you are in a great position, to have access to several different service scholarships and grants, be sure to ask your college of choice about what scholarships or grants you might qualify for outside of the FAFSA mentioned above.

Here is the information about the benefits you might qualify for.

Your number one resource for discovering your eligibility is:

http://www.gibill.va.gov/GI_Bill_Info/benefits.htm

However if you prefer to speak to someone, call this number for Education benefits information,

1-888-442-4551 .

Here you will find all the GI Bill educational benefits you can qualify for.

Keep in mind that if you know your benefits have expired, you have nothing to lose contact them anyway; there is a chance that these Chapter 30 benefits can be reactivated.

Here are a couple of examples of those who could qualify to have their benefits reactivated.

• As a reservist or in IRR status you were called up to support directly / indirectly – Operation Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom Operation
• While serving in the reserves you were called up to support directly / indirectly – Operation Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom Operation
• After discharge from the service you were found to have a disability as a result of work in the service and have been profiled by a VA Representative
• To check if you qualify for VA Education benefits in any of the above circumstances contact the VA at: call 1-888-442-4551
• or go to: http://www.gibill.va.gov/GI_Bill_Info/benefits.htm#FEDBEN

Here is what to do if you’re filling out the GI Bill information:

Read carefully when filling out your paperwork.

1. Soldiers using GI Bill for the first time or if you’re reapplying: You can either file electronically or by mail.

a.      To file electronically go to this link http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/about_vonapp.asp

b.      At the end of the electronic filing you will be prompted to print out the filing. Keep a copy for your records in a safe place and make an additional copy for your college. The GI Bill takes time to process, so if your college has a copy then they can verify that you’ve completed this when the VA contacts them.

2. If you decide to mail in your application, print out the VBA22-1990   then mail it, see the address below.

a.      Veterans will need a copy of their DD214

b.     Active duty put in either Active duty or Top-Up.

Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office

400 South 18th Street

St. Louis, MO  63103

For Education benefits information, call 1-888-442-4551.

3. You will receive a Letter of Eligibility or Certificate of Eligibility within 1 week.  Don’t forget to make yourself a copy and to provide a copy to your college of choice.

*Please Note, your GI Bill benefits can take up to 5-6 weeks to get started, and you will need to verify attendance with them on a monthly basis to keep your benefits coming to you.

How do you get your DD214?

If a soldier needs to obtain a copy of their DD Form 214 (Member’s 4 copy), here is where you can access resources to get that:

• The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has provided the following website for veterans to access their DD Form 214 online: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html
• You can contact the VA Regional Office your home of record when you’ve separated
• If you’ve filed a copy with the courthouse in the city you lived in when you left the military be sure to check with your the courthouse in the town.
• Visit the VA website at:  www.va.gov

Change your discharge!

How do you upgrade your discharge from “General/Administrative/Medical or anything other than Honorable to an Honorable discharge?

Look for a form called DD Form 0293, the good thing is that this form is pretty easy to understand and you can use it to upgrade your discharge if you qualify.

Great News for Additional Benefits, as a student you can have additional discounts and funding options available to you simply for being a student. Ask around at the movies, book store, grocery store etc. for benefits they offer to students.

Believe it or not some students have received a surplus of funds for college, and are actually paid to go to college.

Here are some more resources for you to be able to get scholarships and more:

General Educational Benefits Available: (for military service members, veterans, spouses, and retirees)

• http://www.todaysmilitary.com/app/tm/get/collegehelp/support
• http://www.gibill.va.gov/GI_Bill_Info/benefits.htm

Check out what additional benefits you can qualify for based on your military service affiliation and background.

• http://www.military.com/Education/ScholarShip/newsearch

Here is a scholarship site that helps you to navigate more than 400,000 scholarships, this site will help you apply and sort them for you and the best part is that it’s FREE to see what you qualify for.

• www.fastweb.com

Okay I know there is a lot of information here, take your time going through it, keep this page as a favorite so you have easy access to the information for future reference.

If you find this helpful please pass it on, Digg Re-tweet and tell others to come check out this site. I’ve found so many Service Members who are not sure how to get the money they need for college.

Sophie

P.S. Don’t forget to get a copy of the FREE thank you gift for you on the right.

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