How Is the Post 9/11 GI Bill Entitlement Use Figured for a Part-time Student?
Q: Hello, my husband recently transferred his Post-9/11 GI Bill to me. I plan to attend classes online that are set up in 8 week blocks, summer spring, and fall. So, for example if I took 2 classes this Fall in block “A” and 2 in block “B” for a total 4 classes in 16 weeks the college considers me a full time student. Taking 1 class per block a part-time student. My question is how much time will be debited from my GI Bill attending full-time versus part-time? Is there a benefit in attending full-time as months are debited regardless of the amount of classes you are taking or is it indeed pro-rated to where this has no bearing? Thank you in advance for your response.
A: The way the Post 9/11 GI Bill works as far as entitlement use is a month of entitlement is used for a month of class. So if you are going full-time, it would be a month for month exchange for each full month you are in school.
However if you are going at less than full-time, the entitlement use is prorated according to the number of credits you are taking against what your school considers to be full-time.
For example, if your school considers 12 credits as a full-time load, and you are taking 12 or more credits, then you would use one month of entitlement per month of school.
However, if you are taking 8 credits, then you would use 8/12ths of a month of entitlement per month of school or about 20 days per month. You could also will use less than a full month of entitlement if your semester starts or ends during mid-month.
You still end up using however many months of entitlement you have – it just takes you longer to use them up when going to school part-time.
Also, remember that starting this fall, your Post 9/11 GI Bill housing allowance will be prorated based on the number of credits you are taking.
-
-
-
-
Stumble!
