Will My Remaining 3 Months of Benefits Pay for the Complete Course?
Q: I recently graduated college using the GI Bill and the Post 9/11 GI Bill extension. I was accepted into an eleven-month certification program, but I only have approximately 3 months of benefits remaining on my Post 9/11 extension. My question is will I receive benefits for the entire program up until graduation? Or will I have to find other means to pay for school after all benefits have been exhausted? Thanks in advance.
A: Normally, if you run out of GI Bill benefits mid-term, the VA will run your benefits to the end of the term. If you were going to school under the Montgomery GI Bill, and qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill also, then the VA would “loan” you the number of months and days needed to get you to the end of the semester. Then the VA would subtract the amount they loaned you from your additional Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits. If you hit your delimiting date mid-term though, it is a different story. By law, the VA has to stop your benefits immediately and they would not run you through until the end of the term.
In your case, you are already on your Post 9/11 GI Bill extension, so they would get you to the end of the term, but not to the end of the course. I would plan to make some other financial arrangements for the amount the VA will not cover.