With Only One Year Remaining On My Montgomery GI Bill, Should I Switch to the Post 9/11 GI Bill?
Q: I have one year remaining on my MGIB. I waited until now to start school. Would it be better to use the one year until exhaustion and then switch, or just switch to the Post 9/11 now?
A: I’ll have to give you my generic non-descript answer of “it depends”, because it does depend on a couple of factors:
• Your education goal.
• The shelf-life left on your Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB).
You indicated in your question that you have one year of your MGIB left, so does that mean you only have a year of school left to get your four-year degree? Or did the three years you have already used not apply to your current degree plan?
If you only have a year left to your degree, then you might want to consider switching to the Post 9/11 GI Bill to get the higher pay rate. But, if you have more than one year left to your degree, then I would exhaust your MGIB first and then switch to the Post 9/11 GI Bill to get the additional 12 months of entitlement, thereby maximizing your GI Bill benefits.
The other issue that could prompt you to switch is how much time you have left until your last year of MGIB entitlement expires. The MGIB has a 10-year shelf life (delimitation date) from your date of discharge, so if you will reach your delimitation date before you would use up your last year of MGIB benefits, then you may want to switch to the New GI Bill to extend out your delimitation date by an additional five years.
So as you can see, there isn’t a definitive yes or no answer, but you do have a couple of options based on your scenario.
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