Using Veterans’ Education Benefits to Finance a College Education

Julie Shield-Rutyna: I will record this webinar and we will send it to you tomorrow so that you'll be able to refer back to it or share with anyone else, you know, and we will also send you the slides. as well. And if we can just click to the next slide, Nick, I will do, give a little housekeeping. So you're able to control your audio, um, right from the bottom of your screen.

And then if you have a question, just ask it either in the question and answer section or the chat feature. And I will monitor that and I can pose those questions to Nick as we go along. Um, and if we don't get to it, we'll certainly answer that you're all your questions at the end. Um, there's also a live transcript feature and you can press the CC button and that will give you a live transcript of the words that are spoken.

So feel free to use that service. And if you need to leave, you can leave. And again, we will, um, we will send you the recording tomorrow. Um, if you want to. Oh, I think we'll go to the next slide. Mike might just say a word about MIFA, just so that you know who MIFA is. We have been around since 1982, and we help families plan, save, and pay for college.

We have the state's college savings plans. We also have loans, and then everything else we do is giving free guidance. To, um, to people of all ages about, um, planning, saving and paying for college. So if you want to come back and look at our other webinars, you can find them all at nifa. org slash events.

And we're always available for quick questions or longer conversations, um, to help you. Thanks. And Nick, with that, I will turn it over to you.

Nick Charette: Excellent. Thank you so much. So, you know, as we already talked about, this is our veterans education benefits, how to pay for college as a veteran presentation.

Here's the veterans upward bound team. Uh, we are a team of three, myself and Jen are the assistant directors. Um, I live on the South shore. She was on the North shore. So we kind of split the way that we work with students and, you know, work with our partners in the veteran community. Uh, geographically.

And then Kate is our communication and outreach specialist. So, uh, just a little bit more about me. Um, I am an Army veteran. I was in the Army for four and a half years. I did, uh, my first duty station was at Fort Drum in New York, the 10th Mountain Division. Um, I did one year in Korea at Camp Humphreys and I did my last eight months at the United States Military Academy at West Point in, um, um, you know, upstate New York.

Um, the reason I share this picture is I just, you know, want to let everyone know in attendance that, you know, I am a veteran who has used my VA education benefits and, uh, to put it simply, they really changed my life. So that's why I love doing what I do at Veterans Upward Bound. I like helping veterans understand their benefits.

and you know, choose a career and make sure that they are using these life changing benefits. So Veterans Upward Bound does offer a lot of services and I'm just going to quickly run through a little background and if any of these are of interest to you, you can reach out to me and I'll put my information in the chat at the um, at the end of the presentation.

In addition to helping veterans with their VA education or state veterans benefits, we also offer remedial and refresher courses. Currently, we are fully online due to the pandemic, but we do anticipate going back on campus in the fall. Our courses are designed to make sure that upon completion, you are testing at a college level so that you hit the ground running and you use your education benefits.

Um, for courses that kind of count towards your degree. We don't like seeing veterans go in and have to use their GI bill or voc rehab to fund those pre college courses. We'd like to see you take them with us for free and hit the ground running when you go to your school. Additionally, we have various workshops, we do one on one counseling, and we offer tutoring services for veterans who do request them.

Here's our agenda. At the end of each section, I'm going to just stop briefly and see if we have any questions. Uh, specifically the first and second subsection are a little bit more, uh, heavy. So I will stop there and make sure that if you have any questions, you want me to clear something up, uh, that I get to that while it's on your mind.

So here's our first section. It's a VA education benefits overview, just some quick stats on, you know, what veterans are using their benefits right now and, uh, where they're doing. Uh, just short of 1 million veterans reported using their, uh, GI Bill benefits in 2019, uh, which seems like a lot, but then if we look at the stat below, only 41 percent of Massachusetts veterans, guard, uh, guardists and reservists reported using some sort of VA or state education benefits through the year 2017.

Um, and often, you know, when we work with veterans who maybe their GI Bill expired or, you know, it's the expiration date's coming up, they cite uncertainty on how does it work. Um, and that's what Veterans Upward Bound is here for. We offer these free services to make sure that you understand your benefits and you're using them to the best of your advantage to pay for college.

So, here's a pretty big list of, uh, various VA education benefits. This is what may cause a lot of this, um, uncertainty that Veterans cite. Um, you can see the three bolded ones. They are the three most commonly used right now. So, if you are, you know, a Veteran or someone who works with a Veteran who, uh, qualifies or wants to use 32, 35, or 1606.

Please just have them reach out to us and we'd be more than happy to help them one on one.

So there's a lot of different, there's a lot of similarities and a lot of key differences between these three programs. There are things that make post 9 11 and VR& E very similar, but there's things that make them very different as well. So it's important to understand that, um, this is something I'm going to come back to multiple times in this presentation, but your benefits are individual to you.

So what, you know, a veteran whom you served with during your time may be using, you may not qualify for. Um, so it's important to understand the key differences between them and what you qualify for before using it because often, um, using a benefit is an irrevocable decision. So we want to make sure you're using the right one from the beginning.

So we're going to hop into the chapter 33 post 9 11 GI Bill. This is the most commonly used GI Bill right now. Um, you can see here the requirements are you have to have served at least 90 days total active duty after 9 10 2001, or you could have been discharged with a service connected disability after 30 days, but you must have an honorable discharge.

And also note the expiration guidelines at the bottom here. If you separated prior to 2013, there unfortunately is a 15 year expiration date. However, if you separate it after or during 2013 or later, there is no expiration date, which for those veterans is great, but for those before, they kind of got a raw end of the deal.

So, um, you'll see this, this is a little different from the other GI bills because the eligibility percentages are tiered in 10 percent as opposed to other GI bills that we'll cover later don't work this way. But this is just something to keep in mind, generally the rule of thumb is if you served more than three years, not including basic training in your, um, AIT or whatever your branches, um, advanced training was, you'd be eligible for 100 percent of your benefit.

This is a really important number to keep in mind, um, because everything is contingent on your percentage, including your tuition, your housing, your book stipend, and all that good stuff that we'll cover in these next slides. When picking a school, it's important to, you know, uh, keep in mind if you're going to a private school, uh, the payments are different than going to a state school such as UMass, Bridgewater State, Salem State, what have you, or a community college.

The VA will only pay up to 25, 000 per year to a private school, which, you know, could often turn veterans off from going to a school like Suffolk University, Northeastern, uh, Worcester. Um, you know, some of the bigger schools out that way. Um, there are ways to fund that and go to these schools if that's where you would like to go.

However, it does require some legwork. So it's something to keep in mind when planning for your finances and using your, um, You know, planning to use your benefit.

So now we're going to go into the books and supply stipends. Um, we're going to have an example after we go over this. If you are eligible for 100 percent of your post 9 11 GI bill, you are eligible for up to 1, 000 per year in your yearly book stipends, which comes out to approximately 42 per credit hour.

It's important to note that eligibility percentage that we talked about earlier, if you had an, you know, 80 percent eligibility level. This 1, 000 would actually be 800. So it's important to keep that number in mind if you're not 100 percent because all of your, your book stipend, your housing, your tuition will be, um, that percentage of the, uh, of what the actual cost is.

So let's go into a quick example. Let's say, uh, in the fall semester, you know, you're, you just got out of the military in July and you're starting at UMass Boston. in the fall. Let's say you take 12 credit hours. So the way that we find how much book stipend you're going to get, you take that 12 hours times the 4166 and it comes out to approximately 500.

Note that, um, after that 500 payment, you still have half of it left for students who only go to school in the fall and the spring. This usually isn't a problem. Um, You get 500 before the fall starts and 500 before the spring starts and that would take up your 1, 000 stipend. However, a lot of veterans like to go to school, um, year round, there's multiple reasons for it.

Um, you know, maybe you did five years in the military and you feel like, well, I want to finish my degree a little bit faster because I feel like I'm a little bit behind on life because I joined the military, you know, um, often too, uh, veterans are reliant on that housing allowance that helps them pay rent.

So they want to go to school year round. Um, this is something that I did when I used my GI bill, for sure, because I needed that rent money. However, it's important to plan ahead, um, with your book stipend, because if you use some in the winter, you're going to see in the summer, you're not going to have any funds left.

So let's, uh, keep going through this, through this example. In the winter, you went to, uh, you took one class, there was three credit hours, times that rate, it's going to be approximately 125. Note that you have 375 remaining in the spring. You take 12 credit hours again, and normally you would get that 500 payment that you got in the fall.

However, remember that you only had 375 remaining. So that's the maximum amount of money you're going to get in the spring. And then in the summer, any classes you take, you unfortunately will not get any book and supply statement. It's just stuff to keep in mind when planning your finances when using your VA education.

So we're going to quickly go over the monthly housing allowance. Um, training time is pretty much how they determine what your monthly housing allowance is going to be. Generally, uh, at most schools, anything 12 credits or more is considered 100 percent training time. And as you can see here, I won't read through each row, but as you take less and less credits, your training time decreases and therefore your housing allowance will decrease.

Training time is always rounded to the nearest 10 percent and the rate is always paid at the E5 with dependence rate at the main campus zip code. Um, and that rate is, you know, regardless of what your rate was when you separated from the military. If you were an E1 and you separated with a service connected disability, you will get the E5 rate.

Same thing for someone who was an E8 when they separated. It's across the board for all veterans. So now we're going to go into a quick housing allowance example. Uh, for school, we're going to use the example, um, let's say this veteran is going to UMass Boston. For the school, as we showed in the last slide, the max housing allowance benefit.

It's just over 3, 000. This veteran, we're going to say that they served 30 months on active duty, which would entitle them to 90 percent of their VA education benefit. And let's just say to make it, uh, you know, make this calculation a little different, uh, difficult. We'll say they took three classes at, uh, nine total credits.

That's going to be 75 percent enrollment. So how are we going to calculate this after we round that enrollment level to the nearest 10th? You're going to take that housing allowance, multiply it by your eligibility level, and multiply it by your enrollment. And you can see how that 3, 000 housing allowance quickly went down to 2, 177.

Um, you know, that's still a nice, uh, reward for using your GI Bill and getting, you know, paid to go to school. However, this is just stuff we like to let all veterans we work with know. Because, um, often, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty on how it works, and we see veterans think, I'm always going to get that full housing allowance, no matter how long I served, no matter how many classes I've taken.

So this is all stuff, um, that, you know, for your individual situation, Veterans Upward Bound can definitely help you, uh, understand. Housing allowance rates for online learning, it's an across the, uh, board rate, uh, it doesn't matter if you live in Boston, you live in Ohio, Arkansas, Los Angeles, it's going to be 916.

50, um, per month. Additionally, I like to let students know if you have the ability to go to one in person class, um, you're actually eligible for that full housing allowance rate that we talked about on the previous slide. Um, often that looks like, you know, a veteran going to a Tuesday night class and then taking the remaining three classes online.

Um, it is a significant, uh, increase VA will pay you. And it does a lot, um, for you financially. So you can really focus on your studies while you're going to school. Quickly, I also need to note that, um, there's a lot of confusion as well about how does online learning with COVID. Essentially, if your courses are meant to be in person, but they were forced online during the pandemic.

You will continue to receive the full housing allowance rate. However, if your courses, you know, are meant to be online, um, you're still going to get this rate. There's kind of no way around that with the VA. So now we're going to move on to the other common GI Bill, the Montgomery GI Bill. Um, many of you are probably familiar with this, as it is the GI Bill that you very likely opted to pay in.

Uh, 100 pay deductions for the first 12 months of your contract. Um, keep in mind this one does have a 10 year expiration time frame. And this GI Bill is actually going to be phasing out in 2030. Because, um, since the creation of the post 9 11 GI Bill, Um, the Montgomery really does, in most cases,

Here's the service requirements. If you remember from the post 9 11 service requirements we talked about, it was really tiered from, you know, 190, 80, all the way down to 10. But unlike post 9 11, Montgomery only has two eligibility groups. You either serve three or more years or fewer than three years. And as such, here's the payment rates based on your time in service.

I like to say here that, um, don't focus too much on the numbers. Try to remember more of the concepts and how the GI Bill works. Thank you. Um, because, you know, these numbers are kind of arbitrary until it comes to understanding what your exact situation is.

So, um, actually before I move on here with chapter 30, if you notice with post 9 11, we talked about housing, tuition, and book stipends, but the Montgomery GI Bill, there's only one payment, one stipend, um, with this monthly rate, you are expected to pay your school. Um, and with anything else that you have left, you could pay for books and rent.

So this is where a big difference between these GI bills comes in. The last VA education benefit we are going to discuss before doing a quick example is Veterans Readiness and Employment, which was just rebranded, uh, was formerly known as Voc Rehab. So, you'll probably hear me continue to refer to it as Voc Rehab, uh, out of habit just because it's, you know, it's, it's been called Voc Rehab for so long.

There are some requirements for it. You must have an other than dishonorable discharge, you know, like most other VA, uh, programs. You have to have a 10 percent service connected disability or higher. And you must be able to display to the VA that you have a significant employment need. With VR& E, all of your books, fees, supplies, and tuition are fully covered.

Um, and there is some basic eligibility as you can see, um, 12 years from the day that you are discharged from active duty is your, of, you know, your basic eligibility. But also that can be reset if you've got a service connected disability three years after you separated, then that 12 years will be reset again.

We need to, um, be upfront about VR& E. The VA will pay for you to go to college with this program. However, VRNE is different from the two GI bills we spoke about because the GI bills are an entitlement. Those are what you earned by virtue of signing that contract and joining the military. VRNE is an, uh, an employment program that you have to be approved for.

And in order to be approved, you actually go on, you know, an interview and you have to, you know, let them know why, you know. Um, the disabilities that you received during your service prevent you from, uh, you know, getting a gainful employment. Here's the monthly rates, uh, for those who are using VR& E to go to an educational institution based on training time and how many dependents you have.

And again, uh, the numbers, you know, for our purposes, aren't too important. I just like to put it up there to show you how it works, you know, VR& E throws in a new variable with, they're actually paying for your dependents as opposed to the GI bills. Additionally, this is a pretty common scenario for veterans who are eligible for the post 9 11 GI Bill.

They opt to use the VR& E instead. The reason for that is, if you remember back, we talked about the housing allowance with the post 9 11 GI Bill. If you do qualify for post 9 11 and VR& E, you can opt to use VR& E, but still get paid at the post 9 11 rate. Which is a, it's a pretty nice perk of the program.

And then again, uh, just to hammer it home at the bottom, remember that while VR& E will pay your tuition, or they may pay your tuition depending on if you're approved, um, it is an employment program at its core and it is not an entitlement like the GI Bill. This isn't trying to scare you away or anything like that, but it is a program for specific people.

So I'm going to pause right here and just see if we have any questions, uh, because the first section can be a little A little dense with the numbers and whatnot.

Julie Shield-Rutyna: So I don't see any questions. Um, but maybe that's because you, you were so clear and all those charts, but I'll just again, encourage everyone to ask as you go along and we'll make sure we get to them.

Nick Charette: Thanks. Excellent. So now that we just covered, um, how those three programs work, um, I feel it's, it feels kind of meaningless to just go over these numbers.

So I think what really helps is to put all three of them side by side. In two different scenarios, so that you could see how they work, um, because, you know, there's a good chance that someone in the audience actually qualifies for all three of them. Um, I was a veteran who, when I separated, did qualify for all three, and it was really, um, very confusing when I first separated, like, which one do I use and which one's going to help me out the most.

So I'm going to try and solve that, um, problem right now. So here's this, uh, the, this example veteran situation, we're going to say they're going to UMass Boston. They're going to go to school full time, they're 100 percent eligible for their GI Bill because they served more than three years, and they're, they're just going to do the traditional fall and spring semesters so approximately eight months, and for voc rehab or VR any purposes they have no dependence.

So for post 911, that entire 14, 000 and some change of tuition. Um, it's paid directly to the school, the veterans going to get 1, 000 per year in book stipend and for their housing allowance, remember they're going to school for eight months, they're eligible for the full 3, 024. If you add all that up, the annual value is just short of 40, 000.

Keep in mind that 25, 000 of it and some change is going to be paid to you. And that's the housing allowance, which is the, you know, 30, 24 times eight plus 1, 000 because under post 9 11, the VA pays your school directly. I'm going to move on to the Montgomery GI Bill for tuition and books. Remember that I said, um, the VA does not pay that for you.

Instead, you get the one Montgomery GI Bill payment. And in this veteran situation, they're entitled to the, uh, max rate of 2, 122 times the eight months. And that annual value is going to be just shy of 17, 000. And all of that is paid to you. However, keep in mind you as the veteran have to pay your tuition for this, uh, GI Bill.

And lastly, for VR& E, again, the VA is going to pay that full tuition. The VA is going to pay for all of your books. So regardless of whether, you know, you've got 300 worth of books or you're doing maybe a STEM degree and you've got a lot of lab fees and all that, they'll pay the whole thing. And the VR& E stipend is 653, um, was the max for this individual times the eight months.

We add all that up. It's going to be, uh, 20, 644 plus whatever, um, the, the amount of books and supplies and whatnot. Keep in mind that in this scenario, uh, 5, 231 is paid to the veteran and that's just the VR& E stipend because the VA pays the school directly. So let's put all of these side by side. For post 9 11, because the tuition is already paid, that 25, 000 you get paid throughout the year.

is going to be yours to pay for rent, books, and what, uh, any other living expenses you have. The Montgomery GI Bill, remember out of that, uh, just shy of 17, 000 that you are paid, you still have to pay the tuition of 14, 613. So you are left with 2, 363. Um, overall and for voc rehab, um, total value, again, just shy of 40, 000.

The VA is going to pay the tuition and then that 20, 644 is paid to the vet and that's what's going to leave them. The reason that I like to bring this up, as you can see, there's a very, very, very large discrepancy between specifically the post 9 11 in Montgomery that I'd like to point out because right now, if you're a veteran recently separated within the past 10, 15 years, you probably qualify for both.

And, um, you know, like I said, it's an irrevocable decision. So if you are a veteran who wants to go to school full time, you gotta use post 9 11, especially in a high cost of living area like Boston. The housing allowance alone is, um, you know, worth it. And I, you know, I can attest to the fact that, um, it really put my mind at ease, me and my wife, you know, because financially we were secure because I was able to make the rent happen and I was able to just focus on school.

With the Montgomery JAD, well, it'll be a lot tougher because, I don't know about you guys, but... 2, 300. That's probably it's close to one month rent in the city. So, um, it's they pay out completely differently. And that's why your individual situation is so important to understand. However, I don't want to make you think that the Montgomery GI Bill is never that there's never a situation to use it.

So we're going to go through a different scenario. We're going to switch it up and we're going to go to Quincy College. where they charge 2. 36 per credit. We're only going to go part time, so we're going to take three credits in the fall and, um, three in the spring, which, um, puts you at 25 percent enrollment level.

The veteran's eligibility level is 36 months. They serve more than three years. Again, fall and spring semester. And for Voc Rehab, we're going to have, um, two dependents just to make it a little different. For post 9 11, um, we take that 236 per credit, multiply it by three credits in the fall, and the three in the spring, it comes out to 1, 416 due to Quincy, Quincy College.

For books, since they're only enrolled at that 25%, they're only going to get 250 per year. So if we add this together, oh, excuse me, too, the housing allowance, um, if you remember back on the housing allowance slide, once you go to school less than half time, you don't get housing allowance at all under post 9 11.

So the annual value changes a lot under post 9 11 in this scenario where the veterans only entitled to 1666. And remember that post 9 11 pays the tuition to the school. So only 250 is paid to the veteran for the Montgomery Jabil. Again, there's no tuition and book payment. The only thing you're entitled to is this 530.

5 based on their eligibility and their enrollment level. And that's going to bring us to an annual value of 4, 244 and all of that's paid to the veteran. And keep in mind, you have to pay the school and for voc rehab, again, the tuition is paid. All of your books are paid. And here's the stipend based on the chart we looked at a few slides back and the total value of this one per year would be 3, 331 plus books of which 1915 is paid to you because the tuition is paid.

again to Quincy College. So when we put all these side by side, the situation changes a little bit. Montgomery GI Bill in this scenario is a better option for you. I'll, I'll mention it a little bit later, but generally veterans who are going to school full time in Boston post 9 11 is better. Veterans who want to go, you know, part time maybe because they work full time or they just can't commit to a full time schedule and they're going to go part time, Montgomery may be better.

However, those are just rules of thumb and if you are, um, have any questions about what's the best one for you. Reach out to Veterans Upward Bound. We are more than happy to work with you. You know, if you bring your DD214 and your COE, we can tell you which one is best for you so that you're in the best situation.

And again, I actually just kind of said this, you know, generally Boston's wishing to get the four year degree and Boston get a better benefit from post 9 11. High cost of living area really beefs up the power of the post 9 11 GI Bill. However, you know, if you live in a very low cost of living area, which I don't think anywhere in New England would qualify as far as the way the VA pays, Montgomery could be better, but again, it's all individual to you.

And like I just said, we can help you use the appropriate benefit. So, I'm going to pause again, and I'm going to see, I see we have a question, so let's see if we can answer that.

Julie Shield-Rutyna: We do. So, okay. This person asks, I read an article on Military Times briefly, and I would like to clarify. If you bought into the Montgomery MGIB, can you use it after you completely exhaust your post 9 11 GI Bill?

Nick Charette: Yes. So, um, I think it was a few years back, the, there was some wording when they made the post 9 11 GI Bill that actually left, I guess, a loophole, so to say, that the VA is now forced to honor. If you exhaust your 36 months of Montgomery, you are entitled to use 12 months of post 9 11. You just have to contact the VA to do so.

Um, and that actually brings up a good point as well. Um, the VA, regardless of what program you use, the max that they will pay throughout your life in education benefits is 48 months. So, um, if you're in this scenario, a veteran who exhausted the Montgomery GI Bill, those 36 months, you can apply to get an extra 12 months of post 9 11 GI Bill.

This is also something to keep in mind for if you were a veteran who exhausted your Montgomery GI Bill or your post 9 11. Um, but you wanted to apply for VR& E. You could do that. It would just be important to keep in mind that the VA counselor you work with, if you were approved, would also let you know you have 12 months maximum because again, they do have a pretty hard 48 months of it.

I hope that answers your question. Excellent. So, uh, keep in mind. Oh, uh, luckily for all of you guys, um, the rest of these sections are a lot shorter than those ones. So we're going to hop into the third section, which is other GI Bill benefits. There we go. So the forever GI Bill was an amendment to just the post 9 11 GI Bill that was signed in 2017.

Here are some major changes. Um, if you remember back on the post 9 11 GI Bill slide, there was that, uh, two different expiration dates. The forever GI Bill, uh, got rid of the 15 year time limit only if you were discharged in 2013 or later. It also created the VET TECH program, which is Veterans Education through Technology Education Courses.

which is a really cool program that allows vets who have some of their GI Bill left, specifically the post 9 11, to do certificates in IT and other in demand degrees and not actually use up any of your benefit. Additionally, it created the nine month STEM extension program, which I will talk about a little bit later on.

It also closed a loophole that allowed veterans to get paid at a different location from where they were taking classes. And, um, it also allowed veterans to, uh, to get back entitlement for students whose school was closed. So, if your school, if you went to a school, you know, back in 2012 or something, and all of a sudden the school closed and your transcripts are now rendered, um, useless, so to say, you can get those months back that you use your GI Bill, which is a really, uh, a great thing that the VA did.

Oh, goodness. There we go. So, um, before I talk about the slide, I want to go back to, On the post 9 11 GI Bill, um, section, we talked about how much the VA will pay to a private school. Remember that they would pay just north of 25, 000 per year. This is where the yellow ribbon comes in. Um, the Yellow Ribbon Program is a really cool post 9 11 GI Bill program that can help you cover out of state, private, or graduate tuition that is in excess of that 25, 000.

There are some requirements. Unfortunately, you have to be 100 percent post 9 11 eligible, so if you were 90 or anything lower, unfortunately, you can't use this. If you were a Purple Heart recipient after 9 11, You automatically qualify, or if you served, uh, 60 continuous days after 9 11 and were discharged with a service connected disability, you're good to go.

Keep in mind that this is something that you can't go to, you know, a private school like Northeastern or Suffolk and say, I want to use the Yellow Ribbon program and you assume it's good to go. This is something that your school must already have an existing contract, uh, with, with the VA. Schools got often, uh, they may not be, they cannot be over their own cap that they set and they must already be certified with the VA.

So we're going to run through a quick example. Um, this is actually, you know, since I work at Suffolk, I just figured let's use their numbers right here. The tuition is approximately 40, 000. And let's subtract that max VA payment to a private school of 25, 000. That's going to leave the veteran with just shy of 15, 000.

I don't know about you guys, anyone in the crowd, but um, you know, if I have my education paid for by the GI Bill, I'm not, I'm trying to not take on any, um, you know, student loans if I don't have to. So with the yellow ribbon program, uh, the remaining tuition can be split by the VA and the school if the school agrees.

So, in Suffolk University's example, they actually agreed to split the, the full tuition liability with the VA. So they say, all right, there's 14, 838 left. We Suffolk University will pay 7, 419 and the VA is obligated to pay the other half. And you're left with 0 in tuition liability. Which all that adds up and you add all that interest compounding on itself over the years.

That's it's a lot of savings. So it's an excellent program. However, keep in mind that each institution sets their own limit on the amount of students there, um, that they'll allow to participate in the amount that they'll pay to each student. So a quick example, um, there is a school in Boston, um, that is a yellow ribbon school.

However, they will only fund five veterans and they don't really advertise it too well. So, um, Um, unfortunately, some veterans go enroll there and then, uh, all the yellow ribbon slots are taken up and now they have a tuition bill or they got to withdraw. So it's just something that, um, if you want to use this program, confirm with the school that you want to go to that they participate in and that they'll actually cover your full tuition.

We're going to go to a second example. It's going to be the same tuition, same max VA payment and the same veteran tuition liability as before. However, this school says, yeah, we participate in the Yellow Ribbon program, but we're going to pay 5, 000 per veteran. Because of that, the VA will match and pay 5, 000 and the veteran is left with just shy of 5, 000.

Um, this is still, you know, I'd rather have 5, 000 per year than that 15, 000 in loans or scholarships that I got to do. Um, but it's just stuff to keep in mind because while schools may say we're military friendly. Um, we participate in the yellow ribbon. You really got to make sure that, um, you got to be aware of how they pay out and how many veterans they'll pay for.

Alright, so I'm going to stop again real quick and see if we have any questions. I don't think I see anything in the Q& A. So, we'll just hop into, uh, Section four, we're going to go into non VA. Oh, I just saw actually, yep.

Julie Shield-Rutyna: Do you have to reapply every year for the yellow ribbon or does it continue for the entire four years?

Nick Charette: So that actually depends on the school. I can tell you, um, you know, since I work at Suffolk university, I know if you're a veteran who they fund 125 veterans. So, um, if you're accepted into yellow ribbon, which most veterans are, because they don't have that many veterans, um, you're pretty much, you get priority.

Every year, every semester, some schools specifically like the one I mentioned that only funds five. That's something that becomes a lot more competitive. So, you know, it's something that, again, when you're reaching out to the schools you're applying to that are yellow ribbon schools, want to make sure you know get verbal or get an email from them that says, hey, you know, we want you to get yellow ribbon, you don't have to reapply every year, because it's not something you want to get yourself in that situation in your junior or senior year, you're almost done.

And, um, all of a sudden now you're not getting the yellow ribbon someone else's and now you're faced with a decision. Do I transfer or, you know, do I take out loans? So, um, just something to be vigilant about. All right. So now we're going to move on to section four, which is non VA veterans education benefits, specifically national guard and state benefits.

So for the national guard tuition waiver, it's pretty straightforward program. Um, it's the mass national guard education assistance program, and you can get a 100 percent tuition and fee web waiver. If you meet the. Uh, eligibility requirements on the screen. You're going to be actively serving the guard.

You can only go to a mass state school or community college, which not only to say only, but you are limited in the schools that you go to. Um, you have to have less than 130 semester credit hours. So if you were someone who's been to school a bunch of times and unfortunately all your transcripts are going to add up to a lot of credits, you may be declared ineligible for the program.

And additionally, you have to maintain your GPA in accordance with the university standards of the school you're going to. Um, I can actually paste the site in afterwards, but if anyone is actually in the guard and they don't know how to use this, feel free to reach out and we'll make sure that you're good to go because we do work relatively closely with, um, some of the National Guard units in the area.

So, um, the Massachusetts Veterans and State Tuition Waiver is a waiver tuition, uh, waives tuition for eligible veterans, again, at state schools and community colleges. There's only two eligibility requirements. You have to have an honorable discharge like most veterans benefits. You have to serve more than 180 days.

This is a really straightforward form. I should just paste pasted the top of the form here. Um, it's pretty much a search mass veterans and state tuition waiver as a form. Um, the only thing is, it's something that, you know, I, you know, if you come work with us, I can give you the background on it, but it is something that you apply for with.

Your school financial aid office and veteran rep. So, uh, we can, you know, give you some information on it, but it is something when it comes down to it, um, you and the school that you've been accepted to, uh, work with the state on. So earlier I mentioned the STEM extension for the post 9 11 GI Bill. This extension, uh, extends some extra benefits to students in these in demand STEM degrees, you know, science, technology, engineering, and math, and there's a few other ones.

Um, the reason for this is that, uh, veterans were finding that these fields usually require more credit hours than a lot of other degrees, and they were actually running out of their benefit. And, you know, at the end of their GI bill, um, they were having to take out student loans that they didn't anticipate having to take out.

So the STEM extension reduces the out of pocket, uh, costs for students who are specifically training in these STEM degrees. Um, there are some requirements as with any VA program, you must be obviously, uh, pursuing STEM. Thank you. A specified degree, you have to be within 60 and 90 credits towards your degree, which is a little bit tricky because a lot of times people may not think to use this extension until maybe they're in their second or last semester.

So they may, um, you know, be over those 90 credits. So if you are going to go into a science, technology, engineering, math degree, keep this in mind. Now, additionally, you have to be within 180 days of post 9 11 benefit exhaustion. So it kind of adds another variable that sometimes makes it difficult to use.

Um, and additionally, your degree must require at least 120 credits. Additionally, uh, you cannot use this with Yellow Ribbon, which is unfortunate because often, you know, you see veterans going to, you know, maybe Northeastern for some sort of engineering degree. They got the Yellow Ribbon and they got no tuition.

Um, and then at the end of their degree, they're using the STEM extension. Now they can't use Yellow Ribbon. So, um, It's a little bit unfortunate, but on the other hand, it is still affording you, um, a lot of extra tuition dollars for an extra nine months. I'm going to briefly talk about the VA work study program.

Um, I can attest to the greatness of this program. When I separated from the Army in 2018, I actually enrolled at Suffolk University and started working. for Veterans Upward Bound as a VA work study. Um, it opened so many doors for me and ended up, you know, getting a full time job once I graduated. Um, it's a great program that helps you, as you can see here, it helps you earn while you learn.

Um, for eligibility, you can be using the Chapter 30, uh, Montgomery GI Bill, Chapter 33, Post 9 11, or VR& E. You just have to be enrolled in three quarters. Um, you have to have three quarters or more enrollment, which is usually nine credits at most institutions. You get paid at the higher of federal or state minimum wage.

So in mass, uh, you'll get paid 1350 per hour and you can work up to 25 hours per week. And the greatest benefit is that all of this money is actually untaxed income. So, um, it's money that, you know, um, if you're using your GI bill and you're getting that 3, 000 per month and you're doing VA work study and getting this, um, that's all untaxed income.

So it's, it's a great benefit that you should take advantage of while you're in school. You can work at VA facilities, uh, Veteran Resources at institutions. Um, there's other places you can work at, but, uh, they're not too common. Here's just a quick example. If we do some quick multiplication, you can earn up to approximately 5, 000 per semester.

This is huge for those, you know, using, um, just, you know, say you're using VA education benefits and you don't have a part time job, you're just really relying on that housing allowance and that book stipend to get you by. This money, um, can go a really, really long way in the semesters, um, um, excuse me, in the months that you're not enrolled in school.

So, let's say you wanted to go to school all the way through the summer, um, but you don't have enough classes left on your degree, so you have to take four, you know, three, four months off. This is money that can, you know, help you pay rent, um, you know, pay for your groceries and whatnot, um, while you're waiting to start school again.

It's an absolutely excellent program, really easy work, and, um, it really opens up a lot of doors for veterans. So I'm going to pause again before we talk about FAFSA. Steve, you have another question?

Julie Shield-Rutyna: Yeah, so we have a very specific question, but a good one, so I'll go slowly. I am studying mathematics at UMass Amherst under the post 9 11 GI Bill.

My last semester is fall of 2022. I plan on applying for graduate school at UMass spring of 2023. If I apply for the STEM extension, will it carry over into my first semester of graduate school. Also, I bought into the MGIB. Can I top it off to 48 months of benefits if I use the STEM extension and the MGIB?

That would add up to 36 months post 9 11 plus nine months STEM extension plus three months MGIB equals 48 months.

Nick Charette: Okay, so I'm going to start at the top here with your plan on applying for graduate school at UMass Amherst into spring 2023. If you are, unfortunately, the STEM extension is designed to help you finish your bachelor's.

Thank you. Um, because if you remember what I said about, um, veterans were finding that that bachelor's degree in STEM or mathematics, uh, was going beyond the 120 credits, beyond the 36 months. So, um, unfortunately you cannot use it for, uh, graduate school. And, um, I'm actually going to see if I can open that back up.

Yep. Okay. So also I bought into the Montgomery GI Bill. Can I top it off to the 40 months of benefits if I use a STEM extension Montgomery GI Bill? Well, as I, you know, as I just said, unfortunately you can't use a STEM extension for grad school. Um, and yeah, unfortunately, that's, um, usually a no no. Um, but if you, um, Ian, if you want to reach out to me, send me an email afterwards.

Um, we can get, you know, a little more in depth on your situation just to make sure that, um, you know, you're getting the most out of your benefit. And I can tell you definitely you want to because, um, that's a good strategic planning that we like to help the veterans out with. So I look forward to hearing from you after me.

Um, all right. So now we're going to hop into FAFSA, which is the free application for federal student aid. Um, I like to bring this up because a lot of veterans don't believe that they need to apply for FAFSA, especially those who have, you know, VRD. or 100 percent Montgomery or post 9 11 GI bill. Um, they think that FAFSA is just student loans and it's, you know, couldn't be further from the case.

So we're going to get into why. So for FAFSA benefits, you can get federal loans grants, such as the very popular and well known Pell Grant. You can also apply for federal work study. Like I said, you should apply to FAFSA, even if your tuition is 100 percent covered. The reason that I say that is, um, based on your tax bracket, what your taxable income is.

You may be eligible for Pell Grants. What's great about Pell Grants is, you know, they do not have to be repaid. And this kind of goes, um, you know, it's a similar, I'll say a similar thing about it that I said about the VA work study. This is money that could really help you out if you're, let's say you're in one of those STEM degrees that has really expensive lab fees or like, you know, equipment and whatnot.

And that 1, 000 book stipend doesn't cover it. This Pell grant can come in and kind of save the day there. Additionally, um, if you're not going to school, you know, mid May through August, this could be money that if you're smart with it, you can put in your pocket, pay for your rent, and you know, not have to worry about where's my money coming from while I'm waiting to finish my degree.

The maximum you can get an upcoming fiscal year is 6, 495. I would just caution that that doesn't mean you're going to get that, you know, I don't know who determines it but someone's going to determine what you can get paid based on your financial situation. But, um, you don't know until you try. Um, when you apply for FAFSA, you will get a full student aid package.

Um, and it may get intimidating because you'll see a bunch of student loans on there and you think, well, I don't want to take out any student loans. I don't need to, I have my GI Bill. You can, you get to accept and deny, um, Um, you know, whatever grant or loan that you are rewarded. And that's something Veterans Upper Bound can help you apply for and work through.

And additionally, there are resources at whatever school you end up going to that can help you out as well. We like to touch on subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Um, you know, in the event that you have to take out student loans, you know, there are a bunch of different situations where you may have to, maybe you only have 50 percent GI bill.

Um, maybe you're going, uh, you know, for a master's degree or a PhD, um, at some point the VA education benefits are going to run out. Um, and it's important to know the difference between, you know, different types of loans before taking them out. Uh, for subsidized loans, the government will pay the interest, uh, while you're enrolled in school full time.

Um, and the, you would choose these first because that interest isn't going to compound over four or five, six, however many years it takes you to finish your degree. Unsubsidized loans, on the other hand, um, the interest starts accruing the day that it's disbursed. So, um, you know, over time, that interest really starts to add up.

And again, if you are someone who is going to take out, you know, student loans, Veterans Upper Bound is more than happy to work with you and help you do so responsibly. So you're not putting yourself in a, uh, a tough financial situation. As I said, we can help you out with the FAFSA application. And specifically there are, uh, you know, there's specific, um, you know, veteran aspects to it that people don't really think of.

Usually the confusion comes with their VA benefits. Do I report them? Do I not? Generally, the rule of thumb is do not report any VA education benefits. It is not required by law to be reported as income. That includes the tuition payments to your school, your book stipend, VA work study money, um, or your housing loans.

A lot of people can disqualify themselves from some helpful Pell Grants if they put that 25, 000 in, um, housing loans they may get throughout the year. On the other hand, you do have to report every other VA benefit. This changes all the time, I feel like, but I think right now it's Box 44G. Um, they ask you specifically for veterans non education benefits, and yes, to all the veterans here, this does include.

Your VA disability that you get for comp and pack. A lot of people don't put it on there. And I'm not going to say you're going to get audited, but it's the right thing to do. Report your VA disability. Don't report your VA education wet plan. That's a good rule to just remember when filling out the FAFSA.

If you do it on your own. So I don't see any question. So we're going to hop into, um. Section six, which is better in scholarships. So, um, when making the slide. It's kind of difficult because you either, you know, you put a massive list of scholarships or you just kind of do a quick overview. And unfortunately, there's so many different types of veterans specific scholarships that if we put them on here we'd be here for three hours clicking through the slides.

There's a wide range of scholarships for veterans and grant opportunities. And a lot of them are very specific to particular military branches and operations. Um, a common one we see a lot is you know Army Corps of Engineers or you know Raytheon one for you know missile defense or veterans who worked in missile defense systems.

What I want to say to, you know all the veterans is if you're looking for scholarships Whether it's you're 100 percent eligible, but you're looking to just maximize the amount of funds you can get. Or if you're someone who's maybe 50 percent eligible and you're going to have to close the gap somehow, reach out to us.

We can help you identify scholarships that, you know, match your military experience. Um, we can also let you know all the deadlines and whatnot. A lot of them have, you know, odd deadlines that open up at certain times of the year and then close before you even know it. So if you're someone who's interested in applying for veteran specific scholarships, please reach out.

One of our counselors will work with you. to help you find scholarships that match you and your situation. So, here's our last section. It's going to be other tips and info.

When you go to school, um, most, most four year institutions have an SVA, which is the Student Veterans of America. I could not recommend, you know, I can't, you know, say how great the SVA is. They do so much on, on behalf of student veterans. Um, they were actually the organization that helped lobby Congress right after COVID 19 to encourage them to continue paying in person payments.

to veterans who were forced to work online, um, you know, due to the pandemic. If they didn't do this for veterans, veterans who are used to getting 3, 000 a month for housing and rent, were all of a sudden going to start getting 915 a month, and it would have been devastating. You know, a lot of people would have had to drop out and try and work it.

It's, uh, it would have been tough, but the SVA is a great advocate, and if they're on your campus, I highly encourage you to work with them. Keep in mind, this in person payment that they fought for is actually extended through December 31st, 2021. However, most schools are going to be back in person in the, um, in the fall, I believe.

Beginning August 1st, 2021, there's going to be a dual certification of benefits for all programs. I know right now, some programs, such as some of the Montgomery GI bills, you actually have to certify your benefits. Um, with post 9 11, you don't. Your school does it for you. Same thing for voc rehab or VRME.

Beginning in August, so anyone starting school in the fall, the veteran is also going to have a hand in that. Uh, like a lot of other things that the VA does, they announced that there's going to be, you know, this new program or this new procedure and they actually haven't released where it's going to be done yet, I don't believe.

So, um, something to just keep in mind that you'll probably be getting an email from the VA telling you how to do your, your dual certification of benefits. The last tip I want to give veterans is kind of a touchy subject often, but it concerns failing classes or withdrawing from classes. Generally, the VA will not bill you for a failed class if you attended, but they will bill you if you withdraw because it will affect your enrollment.

This is not to encourage any veterans to fail classes just to collect the housing odds or anything like that. But what I would say is, if you're a veteran who say it's, you know, April at the end of your spring semester, you're not doing too hot in a class, um, and you're thinking I'm going to fail, or, you know, I might be right on the edge of a D or F.

Um, so I'm going to withdraw before you do that. Talk to veterans upper bound. Talk to your, um, You know your veteran resources at your school before you do it The reason I say that is if you go from 12 credits to nine and at the end of the semester The va your school has to tell the va you actually only completed nine credits the va will come and get a bill from you and It'll be a hefty bill.

It'll be stressful and it's going to hurt your wallet to be honest. Again, this is not to encourage anyone to just fail a class, but talk to the Division of Student Success at your school. Get the help you need. Make sure that you're not affecting your VA enrollment. And also, make sure that you're getting the tutoring assistance that you need as well.

So before I go to any questions, I'm actually going to stop sharing my screen. I see we have a question, but before I answer that, there's one more thing I want to pull up. That, um, is actually a program that just got recently re approved and is not yet on our slide show. And it's a, an old program that has just recently been brought back.

It's VRAP, Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistanc