General Veterans Benefits Information at UC San Diego

If your question is not answered on our website, please contact the Veteran’s Benefits team members at the Office of the Registrar. They work separately from the Student Veteran Resource Center and can be found on the second floor of the Student Services building. Email us at vao@ucsd.edu.

The certificate of eligibility is issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs directly to the beneficiary and lists how many months of benefit you are entitled to. To use your benefit at UCSD, please email a PDF copy of your COE to vao@ucsd.edu and include your PID (student ID number). We will follow up with an instructional welcome email with information about initiating your benefits at UCSD. 

Our degree programs are not eligible for the Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program (VRRAP). VRRAP can, however, be used at UCSD Extended Studies, a separate educational institution. Please reach out to them with all inquiries related to benefits for certificate programs.

Students must make steady degree progress and maintain UCSD student conduct expectations to continue receiving the DEA benefit. Per VA guidelines, students may only be issued the benefit for courses that help with degree progress. Courses for which you receive a “NP” (No Pass), “W” (withdrawn), or “U” (unsatisfactory) grade for cannot remain certified to the VA and will result in a reduction in units that may result in a debt being created with the VA.

Non-punitive grades (NP, U, and W) must be reported to the VA. Non-punitive grades are failing grades that are not factored into the GPA and therefore do not count as degree progress. For example, if you are an undergraduate student enrolled in 12 units and you receive a non-punitive grade for 4 units, we would have to report the grade to the VA as a reduction in units on your certification for the quarter (resulting in 8 units certified instead of 12, and prorated payments/ possible debt). However, if you are an undergraduate student enrolled in 16 units and receive a non-punitive grade for 4 units, a reduction down to 12 units would not affect your benefit since you remain at full-time status.

Yes! The CalVet College Fee waiver can cover your summer tuition charge (Summer Sessions is at the end of the academic year; Summer 2024 is covered under your 2023-2024 approval letter, for instance).

Federal Benefits like the Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill® and the Chapter 35 DEA benefit can also be used for summer sessions. 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.