GI Bill at a UC?

turtlerock
Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:05:26 +0000

It seemed too good to be true that I would have tuition, books, and housing covered and a free extra G a month from the government.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. ;)



i was hoping to pocket the grant money and set a bit of it aside in case i want to pursue a masters or phd later down the road.

I was thinking that exact same way until I started to get the FA offers in from schools and having extensive talks with the FA counselors about how the GI Bill would be incorporated into it. The school will obviously protect their interests (and pockets) first. The VA is becoming this way as well.



right now at community college i feel like my GI bill is going to such waste because tuition is next to nothing.

I know exactly how you feel as I will most likely start my GI Bill in CC this Fall too (and I’ve started a thread asking about the usefulness of using the Bill for CC), but the way I figure it, even if tuition at CC is a fraction of that of a traditional 4-year, if you can’t afford it without financial hardship, then it is best to initiate your VA Ed benefits. After all, that’s partly why it was designed - to help alleviate any financial strains on veterans who choose to go to school, but are now in a slightly financially harder position since living away from home for 4+ years and qualifying as independent students vs dependent students.

Right now, I work full time and so does my wife. But If I changed my hours to part-time to go to school full-time, then there is no way for us to afford a lot of the things we have been able to for the last couple years. Of course we can make life adjustments like moving into a smaller place, sell our cars and/or rely more on public transportation, shop cheaper and wiser for foods and other consumable (not that we don’t already), but there comes to a point where it can be considered a financial hardship to make so many adjustments. Therefore, I will be choosing to either go to school part-time and still work full-time, therefore perpetuating my length of stay at the CC to be able to transfer, or initiate my P911GIB going to school full-time/work part-time and actually make more money than if I didn’t. I think I’ll be wise about it and save the difference so that it can be applied to future educational expenses that the VA might not cover, say if, my benefit has been all used up.

Someone else in the other thread put it a good way along the lines of “If you need it, then you need it and you should use it to afford the school, but if you can help it, it would be best to save it.” I know my family will need it if I choose to go to school, so IMP it won’t be going to waste.