I knew I was going to use my GI Bill benefits for my pursuit of an FNP, so when I applied to school in the late summer, I submitted my application online here: Apply for Benefits - Education and Training. Clicking on "apply online" will take you to the Veterans On-Line Application (VONAPP) site.
Once you complete your VONAPP, make sure you save a copy of it - it allows you to save a PDF copy. You can go back in later and download another copy if you forget. I sent a copy to my advisor at school so they could see that I had applied for benefits. I applied to use the Post 9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33 benefits), thinking that it would be a better deal for me than the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) in the long run. But I was wrong! More on that later.
I applied in August, and after a couple of weeks, I received a letter from the VA that said, while they would simply love to approve my benefits, they were backlogged and it would be some time before they got to my application. Okay... no worries because it was still a couple of months until school started. Right?! Ha. Luckily my school has a program that allows me to pay for a course at the end of the semester due to my VA benefits status, so I don't need to pony up any dough until late December.
I was waiting to receive a certificate of benefits. And waiting. And waiting. I had thought it would be so simple! Look, I've served more than three years, here I am, what could be the hold up? Finally I called the VA two weeks ago and asked what the status was. As it turns out, the VA had contacted the Army to find out if I had ever declined the MGIB (Chapter 30 benefits) when I commissioned, and the Army hadn't responded. I didn't remember declining anything (and as it turns out, I didn't decline the MGIB), but I didn't have anything showing that I'd accepted it, either. So I asked if they could go ahead and contact the Army again, and apparently they heard back from the Army this time. The next thing I received in the mail last week was a letter stating that I wouldn't be eligible for Post 9/11 until I officially declined the MGIB, but this letter also contained an explanation of benefits under the MGIB vs. the Post 9/11 Bill. With more than three years of service, I am qualified for the three-year active duty MGIB or the Post 9/11 benefits.
One thing that I didn't realize was that distance programs aren't eligible for the full housing allowance (typically E-5 with dependents pay in the zip code of your school) after the student comes off of active duty. The benefit I would receive while still active duty under Post 9/11 is payment of tuition and fees, no housing allowance because I am already paid my Army Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH). I thought that once I leave active duty in July, I would get the full housing allowance benefit under Post 9/11, but distance students get about half of the national average, which is currently $754/month. According to the VA, even though my FNP program has a practicum component for several of the FNP-specific courses, it is still whatever my school designates - distance, or not distance. In the case of my school, they designate it as a distance program, period. Whether or not a program is considered full-time is also designated by your school; the credit threshold is not set by the VA.
In looking at the MGIB, there were many positives: first, while on active duty, it will cover my tuition and fees. The way MGIB works for active duty is that it will pay the lesser of the two: the monthly benefit (currently $1717 if you are eligible for 100% or full-time) or the monthly pro-rated tuition and fees. So if my course costs $1800 and runs for 8 weeks, the MGIB will pay me $900/month to cover my course. When I leave active duty in July, I will receive $1717 per month while in school. It works out to where I can pay my tuition with the one month's payment, and then the next month is bankable.
The Post 9/11 GI Bill would cover my tuition and fees while on active duty, and would then pay me an extra $754 per month as a housing allowance once I leave active duty. It comes out to almost the same amount in benefits paid overall, but here's the big thing: if I use up all 36 months of my MGIB, I will still be eligible to use 12 months of the Post 9/11 GI Bill when I am done with the MGIB. So rather than 36 months of education benefits, I end up with 48 months. Not that I am excited at the prospect of four more years of school, but I anticipate that my FNP will require 22 months, leaving me 14 months of MGIB. And if I know myself (and I do), I'll probably head back to school for a DNP before all is said and done. I don't know how many months a DNP will take me, but probably more than 14 months. I'd rather have that extra 12 months of Post 9/11 available to me to tap into once I exhaust the MGIB.
When my husband goes to medical school next year, he will likely use his Post 9/11 GI Bill because his situation will be different: his tuition and fees will be much higher (but will be covered by Post 9/11), and he will be eligible for the full monthly housing allowance (probably about $1500/month). In his case, where the cost of his classes is much higher and he'll receive the full housing allowance, using the MGIB doesn't make sense.
So where am I now? I just sent in a signed form opting for the MGIB. If I decide for some reason that I need to switch to Post 9/11 down the road, I can do that - but I will only get as many months of Post 9/11 benefits as I have months of MGIB remaining, and I won't get that extra 12 months of Post 9/11 that I would receive if I used all 36 months of the MGIB. So if I use up only 10 months of MGIB and switch to Post 9/11, I will then only have 26 months of Post 9/11. But one thing to note is that once you decline MGIB and start receiving Post 9/11, you cannot go back and decide to use MGIB - you are then only eligible for Post 9/11.
The VA has some good information for people to peruse: Education and Training Home. There is a tool to help people evaluate how much they will receive under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, as well as informational handouts and forms here: Handouts and Forms - Education and Training. A FAQ site can be found here: Find Answers
Now get to class!
anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN
279 Posts
Thanks! This is very helpful!