Can I Still Get the Full Housing Allowance With One Class On Campus?
Q: I have read that you can still get the housing allowance if you are doing online classes as long as you have one class on campus. Is that true, if so is that one class a week or month or what. And/or and there any other stipulations with doing online classes?
A: It is one class per term. So if you are on a semester system, you would have to take at least one class per semester. The real key to getting the Post 9/11 GI Bill housing allowance is not just taking any one class, but taking a class that pertains to your degree plan. If the class does not, then the VA will not pay for it and it would not count toward getting the housing allowance.
As you know, online-only students had to take a qualified traditional class each term to get the housing allowance. Online-only students without an on campus class were not previously authorized that payment. However, with the passage of the GI Bill 2.0, that will change on October 1st, 2011.
Starting in October, full-time online-only students can get $673.50 per month in a housing allowance. That is still only half of what full-time traditional students get, but at least it is more than they previously received. Evidently, the online student only eats half as much and only has half the housing expenses of traditional students. That is the only reason why I could see why one group of students gets half the housing allowance of another group. The only real difference is online-only students don’t have the commuting costs.