Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill® for Veterans & Dependents

At the 100% eligibility level, the GI Bill will cover all in-state tuition and registration fees each quarter you decide to use the benefit, including the UC SHIP fee (student health insurance plan).

The VA sets all eligibility guidelines for veterans and dependents using the GI Bill.

• For Dependents and Veterans: The Post 9/11 GI Bill must be activated to be used at a university – apply/activate here: How To Apply For The GI Bill | Veterans Affairs (va.gov). Once the VA approves your application in approximately 30 days, they will provide a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) which you must email to us at vao@ucsd.edu.

• For Dependents: Information about transferring the benefit to your dependent can be found here: Transfer Your Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits | Veterans Affairs (va.gov). Once transferred, the benefit must be activated so the VA can send you a Certificate of Eligibility (COE).

• Dependents: Please do not send us the Transfer of Entitlement confirmation page; we need your COE to assist.

The certificate of eligibility is issued by the VA directly to the beneficiary and lists how many months of benefit you are entitled to and at what eligibility percentage.

To use your benefit at UCSD, you must email us a PDF copy of your COE (vao@ucsd.edu) and include your PID number. We will send you a follow-up instructional email.

UCSD can only certify courses to the VA that help with your degree progress, and therefore uses an eForm system so that your courses can be reviewed and approved by your academic advisors before our office certifies your enrollment to the VA. An “initial” VA Enrollment Verification eForm (VA-eForm) should be completed for each quarter that you would like to use your benefit.

The VA-eForm is routed to your major/ minor/ college advising offices so they can verify that your enrollment counts toward your degree/ graduation requirements. The VA-eForm is then routed to us for final approval and certification with the VA. If your major or minor does not auto-populate on the VA-eForm, please contact vao@ucsd.edu for assistance.

You will receive email notifications about the status of the VA-eForm at each step to track your VA-eForm progress. If you see that your VA-eForm has paused at a certain office, please email vao@ucsd.edu so we can investigate.

Once we have certified your eForm courses with the VA, you’ll receive your stipend via direct deposit in 2-4 weeks or the first of the month, depending on the date of certification.

Your MHA will be dispersed via direct deposit from the VA in the 2-4 weeks following the date your courses were certified by our office. Submitting your VA-eForm as early as possible each quarter (right after second pass) will help with timely benefit payments.

The VA considers 12 units to be full-time status for undergraduates, so if you are in 8 units, for example, you'll get ~70% of the MHA and ~70% of the book stipend. The amount of entitlement time you use will also be prorated. The VA will not pay the MHA if you are enrolled in less than 7 units (your “rate of pursuit” must be greater than 50%). The tuition is still paid for, regardless of how many units you are enrolled in/ certified for.

The VA requires Post 9/11 GI Bill recipients to verify their attendance each month in order to maintain their housing allowances. Read the information on enrolling in the VA’s monthly verification program via text or email. We cannot answer questions about monthly enrollment/attendance verification because it is run by the VA, not UCSD.

Please note that UCSD uses the eForm so that your courses are approved by advisors and certified by us with the VA. The VA uses the same language, ‘enrollment verification’ language to refer to their email/text verification requirement. Note that these are respective requirements.

If you make any changes to your schedule, such as adding/dropping a course or getting off the waitlist, please submit a “revised” VA-eForm so that we can update the VA with your schedule changes (list out all current course enrollment each time you submit a revised VA-eForm). Failure to do so may result in inaccurate payments — even possible creation of debt with the VA.

Per VA regulations, students’ benefits cannot be certified for courses that count toward a graduate program’s prerequisite classes unless the class also counts towards your major/ minor or degree requirement at UCSD. Contact your college advisor if you have questions about degree requirements.

For undergraduate degrees, you must be enrolled in at least 12 units to max out your GI Bill payments. Keep in mind that UCSD can only certify courses to the VA that will help with your degree progress (i.e. major/minor/college/unversity requirements and electives that help with your overall unit count). While you are not required to enroll full-time, being enrolled part-time will result in a prorated monthly housing allowance (MHA) and a lower book stipend. For example, 8 approved units would result in approximately 70% of the normal MHA rate.

Please note that you may owe housing funds/book stipend funds back to the VA should you drop to part-time status during a particular quarter. Make sure to check in with vao@ucsd.edu if your schedule changes.

Graduate students: Please note that the VA relies on individual graduate program offices to determine how many units consitute full-time status. For most UCSD graduate programs, the full-time requirement is 12 units. However, some self-supporting programs may have a lower full-time equivalency.

Per VA guidelines, students may only be issued the benefit for courses required for their degree. The VA will not pay for courses in which you earn a failing non-punitive grade: “NP,” “U,” or “W” grades. Incomplete units must be converted to a letter grade eventually.

Units that receive non-punitive grades must be deducted from your certified unit load. If this drops you below 12 units, your MHA will be prorated accordingly, and the VA will bill you a debt for that partial balance. Students must make degree progress and maintain UCSD student conduct policies to continue receiving the GI Bill benefit.

UCEAP: Unfortunately, the VA will not allow UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) to be certified for the Post 9/11 GI Bill. If you choose to participate in a UCEAP, you will have to use other financial aid or personal payments to finance the program.

Global Seminar:

• Global Seminar courses can only be certified to the VA if the courses will satisfy degree requirements as indicated by your major/ minor/ college advisors on your VA-eForm.
• The Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill cannot cover the Global Seminar Program Fee or the Global Seminar Administration fee ($500.00). It can only cover the standard tuition and the campus-based fees. You will need some other form of payment for the Global Seminar program fees. Please reach out to your GS program advisor for questions on payment deadlines.

Yes! The Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill® can be used for summer sessions for matriculated UCSD students. Please see below for the full-time equivalencies for each session (each session is viewed independently by the VA):

• Summer Session 1 (Summer1 on the VA-eForm) – 5 units to be considered full-time by the VA  (approximately 30 days of entitlement would be used)
• Summer Session 2 (Summer2) – 5 units to be considered full-time by the VA (approximately 30 days of entitlement would be used)
• Special Summer Session 3 (Summer3) – Course length varies - full-time equivalency depends on the specific dates of the particular course you enroll in. If you have a particular Summer 3 course in mind, inquire with vao@ucsd.edu about the specific course title so we can look it up.