Chapter 35 Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA) Program

The Chapter 35 DEA benefit is a monthly stipend delivered directly from the VA to students each month of qualifying enrollment. The funds may be used however the beneficiary sees fit, including books, tuition, etc.

Dependents' Educational Assistance provides up to 36 months of assistance to eligible spouses and children of certain deceased, disabled, missing, captured, or interned veterans.

If the VA determines you to be eligible for Chapter 35 DEA, you can apply online: Survivors’ And Dependents’ Educational Assistance | Veterans Affairs (va.gov). Once the online application is approved, the VA will send you a Certificate of Eligibility which you’ll need to email to us at vao@ucsd.edu.

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. You should submit an “initial” VA Enrollment Verification eForm (VA-eForm) for each quarter that you would like to utilize 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.

You will receive email notifications about the status of the VA-form 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.

Students can receive an exemption from the non-resident supplemental tuition charge (NRST, or out-of-state tuition) simply by using the Chapter 35 DEA benefit for at least the first quarter they attend. As long as they do not take a break longer than a quarter (a 2-quarter break will reset the exemption) the exemption will remain applied to their account even if they stop using the benefit or it is exhausted.

The current rate for Chapter 35 DEA at full-time status can be found on this VA website. Partial months of attendance result in prorated payment. For example, if a fall quarter starts on September 25, the October payment will be prorated to reflect 5 days of attendance. Any given quarter at UCSD uses approximately 2 months and 20 days of benefit.

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 can only have courses certified that count toward the current degree goal. Pre-requisites for a graduate program are not authorized. Contact your college advisor if you have questions about degree requirements.

The VA considers 12 units to be full-time status for undergraduates in Fall, Winter and Spring quarters. If you drop below that threshold, your stipend will be prorated. Refer to the VA’s website to see their part-time payrates.

Yes! The Chapter 35 DEA benefit 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.

UCEAP: Unfortunately, the VA will not allow UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) to be certified for the Post 9/11 GI Bill® or the Ch 35 DEA benefit. 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 satisfy degree requirements as indicated by your major/ minor/ college advisors on your VA-eForm.