Okay so Boot Camp is done, and you’re training for your next assignment, but you want to know what to do next. College is at the top of your list. Joining the Air Force and having them pay for your education was one of the benefits of signing up.

Knowing that if you wait it will get easier and easier to put your career on hold, you’ve decided to pursue your education, but now it’s time to see where you can get the money promised to get into college.

Well your brilliance has led you to this post so here are the nuts and bolts.

Pull out that trusty pen, or reach for that Ctrl +P combination and print this out for your records; and let’s get you the answers you need.

First of all here are the sites you’ll need.

https://www.my.af.mil/

AFVEC online TA process

Keep these handy, I’d recommend bookmarking them.

1. First, click on the top link; it’s your link to the Air Force Virtual Education Center. Here you’ll create a log in identity if you don’t already have one.

2. Next: Click on the second link, here you’ll walk through six steps to complete the AFVEC Tuition Assistance process.

Thirdly, notify the college you’re planning to attend about the completion of your this form needs to go to your Financial Aid Advisor, and Admissions Advisor if applicable. They’ll need to help you complete this with class registration.

What amount of money can you expect, well at the time of this post here are the current funds allocated for Air Force TA

Very Important! Ask your college if they provide any additional benefits, such as a tuition discount for you as well. No need to leave any money on the table.

• $250 @ Semester Credit Hour, or
• $166 @ Quarter Credit Hour, and
• $4500 @ Fiscal Year, beginning in October each year, not January.

Note: This is on a First come First Serve basis, so apply as close to October for this as you can. When the budgeted money is gone you’ll have to wait until the next military fiscal year.

Or here are a couple more another options for funding college outside of your TA:

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.

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.

CCAF

I know you’re aware of the CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) A great educational asset for you; you can take classes through the CCAF even if you already have a degree. Your Tuition Assistance will be provided for this education, even if you already have a degree from the CCAF, or another two year college.

Great News! You do not need to have your supervisor’s signature to use your TA!

Word to the wise; be sure to let him or her know that you’re taking classes, this way they can support you.

Warning!! There are a few details to keep in mind when you’re planning to use your TA.

Here is what would prevent you from getting TA.

• You haven’t received your grades from courses completed and it’s been 60 days or more.
• Blank parts of your educational record, so demographic information like DOB, Phone, DOS, Your Unit, Office Symbol, address, e-mail, base current educational level etc. so be sure that you have each detail completed on your educational record!

Additional reasons you’ll not be granted TA.

• Your course starts more than 30 days in the future
• You’ve already begun your course
• The course is a lower division course and you’re an upper division student, (your classes are completed for your 100 and 200 level classes for your degree, but now you want to take a different 100 level class, you’ll be denied, unless this class is one at the CCAF).
• Your degree plan record is not in your records, once again be sure your educational file is complete and up to date.
• It would be so irritating to find out that you’re denied TA for something a little proof reading or double checking could correct.
• TA is not approved for courses taken (outside of the CCAF) for a second degree i.e. a second Associates degree

Now What If:

Okay so let’s say you’re in class and you realize that you have to drop the class.

Will you be penalized? Great question!

Communication is key; let your Education Center and the college you’re enrolled in know that you’re dropping the class so that this does not affect your TA.

Keep in mind you’re responsible for the tuition cost that applies for portion of the class you did attend.

Unless: You qualify for the waiver of tuition assistance reimbursement, ask your Education Office what the rules are for you on this. There can be a number of different scenarios.

Now depending on the rules of the particular college you’re considering you may have a low grade, but I’d petition the college to make sure that you’re grade is either an:

W- Withdrawal, the rules for this are typically within a given amount of time or…

I – an Incomplete, this typically will not be a part of your GPA. When asking for an Incomplete, make sure you have a convincing case so that the Administrator doesn’t just give you a low grade. Each college is different; find out what you need to do and who you need talk to so that this doesn’t affect you.

The fine print of an Incomplete: Find out what date you need to complete the course by on the Incomplete grade, typically the Incomplete is conditional on the fact that you need to complete the course in a specific amount of time, generally this is within 12 months from the end of the given session, or semester.

Unfortunately if you fail to get a grade within the amount of time allocated then you’ll owe money for the Tuition Assistance used to cover the class.

If you found this helpful please pass this on to every service member you know, reserves, or active duty. Please re-tweet it, let me know what you think, and Digg this post.

Let’s get this information out to everyone. I’ve come across so many Soldiers who are not sure how to get the money they were promised when they signed on the dotted line. I want to make sure that you know how very grateful I am that you’re willing to serve and protect our freedoms. Please take a copy of my free gift to you. See the panel on the right.

Sophie

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Have you ever considered college but weren’t sure exactly what to look for when you’re in the military?

Well, the good news is that you’re not alone. Most of the military personnel I’ve worked with were wondering the same thing. There are so many colleges vying for your attendance. They know the funding is available and so they don’t have to worry about getting payments from the students for the most part.

Now there are some colleges and universities that cost considerably more than what you as military personnel are allocated for college funding.

For example: most military are currently given about $250.00 per credit hour to apply to a college, but many universities will have tuition that is more like $550.00 per credit hour, with about a $4500.00 per fiscal year cut off.

Now that being said often there will be a discount on tuition that will bring the cost lower, I’ve seen this discount range from 25 to 50% of the traditional tuition.

So when you’re considering different colleges here are some things to be sure you ask your Admissions Advisor or your Educational Advisor to make sure that you are getting the most benefit possible for your service to our country!

Thank you by the way, I truly appreciate your service!! In my experience I don’t think you hear that quite enough. I’ve worked with the Yellow Ribbon Project, this is a program established to help military personnel acclimate to being back in the USA after being abroad serving our country.

I’ve seen thousands of military personnel who let me know that they don’t hear that very much. Your service means the world to us civilians who are able to work, live, eat and breathe in freedom all do to soldiers who are not afraid to put their life on the line daily.

Thus when you’re considering college here are some important questions to ask a college you’re considering.

1. What additional benefits do you offer military personnel and family member

Find out are there additional military benefits other than what you have in your TA, GI Bill or other military funding you qualify for. Often there is, if not don’t be afraid to check out several colleges that will be able to offer additional benefits to you.

2. Ask your Admissions Advisor, why should I choose you?

Many universities or colleges will interview you, and this is good, the college needs to ensure that they’re getting quality students. However, make sure this is not one sided bring a list of questions that you want to know; don’t just go for the one you first come across! They need to prove to you that they’re a college or university that is worthy of your attendance.

Sample Questions you might want to ask:

• What do you do to help military personnel who have extenuating circumstances?

As you know there always things that come up while you’re in college, family, friends, health concerns, someone who passed away etc. Well, this is of course increased for someone who’s in the military; you have so many more variables even if you’re State side. Find out what support system they have in place to help you.

• Ask about Tutoring.

You might find this very helpful to help you get the most out of your classes as you balance military service, family responsibilities, college, and or a job. Take all the study aides you can get. This will really help you succeed even if you feel pretty confident that you have everything under wraps, additional support options never hurt anyone… at lead that I know of. 

• How will you help me if and when I am deployed?

Get Details, I’m sure you know how important this is, I Betcha you could tell examples and experiences of soldiers overseas attempting to finish their classes and they’d a lot of trouble. I’ve seen a few examples, myself.

The last thing you want is, to find out when you’re overseas that you are out on your own with little to no support!

I know you can come up with other vitally important questions to bring to the interview for the colleges you’re considering.

3. Ask around, talk to your Educational Counselor, and find out what other military personnel are saying about this college or university.

Some of these will be much better equipped to work with military personnel than others. Ask the hard questions and find out what they say. Don’t just read the information on the web site and talk to an Admissions Counselor, do your homework, finding yourself overseas and struggling to get homework in on time and find you that there is not enough help to get you through.

4. Look at correspondence versus online learning what’s your best option?

Sometimes, correspondence is a great way to go for soldiers, there is no hassle with the online connection or as many technical concerns. Now if you know you’ll have a steady connection to the internet as you’re overseas then look for an online option, this could be a great fit for you. Just be sure you look at all the angles you can think of when you’re considering a college.

Now after you’ve found a college the next thing to do is find out how to get funding, see my blog for answers on this one. Depending on what branch you’re in will determine how you set up your funding. See http://www.sophiemaddox.com for posts specific to putting together funding for you, like this one for the Army; http://www.sophiemaddox.com/2010/02/02/army-ta-help/

If you found this helpful, please share it with as many military personnel as possible, (Digg, comment, re-tweet this or send the link in an e-mail to friends and family). Help spread the word about how to navigate the college admissions process when you’re Military Service Personnel.

Sophie

P.S. Don’t forget to grab a copy of my Free thank you gift to you for comments, and sharing this with others.

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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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