Military Education Benefits

Transcription

1 A guide to using Military Education Benefits For new soldiers in the Minnesota Army National Guard Originally prepared August 2012 / Updated March 2014 by SGT Tyler Vigen - MICO, BSTB, 1/34 ID

2 Step 1: Apply to a School To apply to a school, first you need to pick where you re going. There are four classes of postsecondary education facilities in Minnesota: Public Colleges: Public two-year colleges offer associates degrees (AA, AS, AAS, etc.) and give you the opportunity to fulfill the MnTC - Minnesota Transfer Curriculum. You don t need to take the SAT or ACT to go to a public college, you just need to take the assessment test (Accuplacer) to determine where you need to start. Public colleges are an excellent option to move toward a four-year baccalaureate degree. Check to ensure your credits will transfer when picking out classes, and make sure you re meeting MnTC Goals. Examples of public colleges in the twin cities area include Normandale Community College, Inver Hills Community College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), St. Paul College, Dakota County Technical College, and Century College. Public Universities: Public universities offer undergraduate (four-year) and graduate (masters and doctorate level) degrees. Your first goal as a new student should be a bachelor s degree so you ll need to attend a university at some point. The MnTC fulfilled at a public college will eliminate the first two years of a four year degree at a public university. Examples of public universities include Metropolitan State University, Winona State University, Minnesota State University (Moorhead and Mankato), and St. Could State University. Go here to find a map of public institutions and their associated offerings: University of Minnesota: The University of Minnesota, including U of M: Twin Cities, UMD - U of M: Duluth, and U of M: Morris, is a unique system that is considered neither private nor public. Minnesota National Guard education benefits are capped at the tuition rates of the University of Minnesota, so in theory you ll always be able to fund your higher education at any public college or university, or the University of Minnesota. The Private Sector: The private sector includes a number of colleges and universities in Minnesota, including Carelton College, St. Catherine University, University of St. Thomas, and Bethel University. Private colleges can vary greatly in price, and are not guaranteed to be covered by your education benefits. When applying to a school, be sure to talk to the Business Office about tuition deferment. Tuition deferment keeps you enrolled in classes while FTA is being processed so that you do not need to pay tuition out-of-pocket when you will be receiving FTA. Also take the time to meet with the veterans affairs office on campus, if there is one, as they will be extremely knowledgeable about the resources available to you.

3 Step 2: Apply for Federal Tuition Assistance (FTA) Federal Tuition Assistance is the primary avenue by which your education will be paid. The money comes from the federal government and is paid directly to the school, up to $4,500 per fiscal year. Federal Tuition Assistance is only available for soldiers who have completed one year of service after initial entry training. Other soldiers will need to apply for State Tuition Reimbursement to fund school. To apply for FTA, go to On your first visit, you will need to register and activate your account. Your username will look like the following: jsmit123 - first letter of your first name, first four letters of your last name, followed by a number. It is not your AKO login. You will need a few things in order to obtain FTA: Statement of understanding The Statement of Understanding for Use with Army Tuition Assistance (TA) needs to be signed by both you and your Commander and uploaded every year. Documented degree plan A degree plan documents how you are going to obtain the degree you are seeking. It is a document that must include a plan for every single credit you are going to take up until your graduation. You will not have to follow the degree plan exactly. It is understood that there is no way of knowing which classes will be offered when and if you can take them in the order you perceive. The point is to make you think critically about how you are going to finish your degree. You will need to revise and re-upload your degree plan as it changes and you complete courses. Letter from advisor You ll need a letter from your advisor at the school you are attending who has evaluated your degree plan and certifies that if you complete the degree plan as documented, you will indeed graduate. If you don t know who your advisor is, stop by the advising office at the college or university you are attending. Once you have these three documents, follow these steps to upload them: Click this button: Click the link: Use the upload function on the bottom of the page: If you are uploading a degree plan, be sure to check the box for Please check here to create a case for your Army Education Center to review and approve the student agreement. If you don t have access to a scanner, and are running into a deadline: Take a picture of the printed document with your cell phone, the image to yourself, and upload the image to GoArmyEd. It s not preferable, but it accomplishes the mission.

4 Submit Your Courses to FTA Every semester, you ll need to submit the classes you are taking to GoArmyEd in order to get them paid for by FTA. After you register for classes, do the following: Login to GoArmyEd.com and click here: You ll see this: Populate this form with information from your school. If you are attending a public college or university, login to your class registration ( Student E-Services ), hit Courses and Registration, then View/Modify Class Schedule. You may need to change the semester. This is an example of what you should find for each course: When you re done with the class information portion, it should look like this: You ll then need to enter course verification information. All of this information is provided by your school. At public colleges or universities, go to Student E-Services, then go to Bills & Payment. Click the balance at your institution, and click on the PDF icon for a printable view of the term balance for the appropriate semester. For your first class on the semester, go to Upload Cost and/or Course Enrollment Verification Information and click add attachment. Upload the PDF you just downloaded from Student EServices and title it e.g. Fall 2012 Course Activity. For every other course you add for that semester, just click Search efile and select the same statement.

5 Understanding FTA Class Cost FTA class cost is based on the total of tuition and covered fees of the course. The class cost calculator helps figure out how much the government will pay for your education and how much you will pay. Here s a breakdown of what is covered by FTA: As an example, here is what the FTA class cost would look like for a student taking twelve credits (four three-credit classes) at a public university: This information is taken from the PDF downloaded from Student E-Services: To get the Unit Cost, take UNDERGRADUATE RESIDENT TUITION and divide it by the total number of credits you are taking. In this case, the student is taking twelve credits, so the Unit Cost is $ ($2, / 12). This particular course is three credits, so Unit is The additional TA-Eligible fees includes all of the fees listed on the above statement. (Note: the parking fee is included because it is required as part of registration. If it were separate, it would not be covered by FTA.) To get the total of applicable fees, you divide the total cost of the fees ($ $ $ = $156.36) by the number of classes (not credits!) taken that semester. In this case, the student is taking four classes, so Additional TA-eligible fees is $39.09 ($ / 4).

6 Step 3: Apply for the GI Bill The GI Bill is applied on top of FTA, and is meant to cover other costs associated with obtaining an education, like room, board, and transportation. To start, go here: Then click Launch VONAPP and Apply for Benefits. Note: This website launches via a Java application. If you are running certain browsers, like Google Chrome, it may not open properly. Try using another browser if you get a window full of code. VONAPP stands for Veterans On-Line Application and is a part of the Dept. of Veteran s Affairs website. You should see the following; click the appropriate link: Your login will not be using your AKO login. An example of a username on VONAPP is john.smith12. (Note: This is also your DEERS login.) If you are a new VONAPP user, it will walk you through the registration process. Once you ve gone through the setup process once, you ll never have to do it again. VA offices are particularly effective at walking you through the initial process of registering with VONAPP for the first time if you run into difficulties. Once VONAPP is setup for education benefits, go here: Click Benefit Status Information. If the number of credits listed is not how many you are taking, click Verify Enrollment. Then click Make a Change to my Enrollment. Edit your credit hours to the correct number and submit the changes. On the WAVE homepage, use the Direct Deposit Enrollment Form link to ensure you can receive GI Bill payments. Every month that you want to receive your GI Bill benefits, you ll need to visit and verify your continued enrollment by clicking the Verify Monthly Enrollment link.

7 Step 4: Apply for State Tuition Reimbursement (STR) State Tuition Reimbursement covers the tuition costs not covered by FTA: anything above the $4,500 and anything that is missed because of a hiccup in the system. STR also covers one of each level of degree up to doctorate, while FTA only covers up to a bachelor s degree. STR will also fund education for soldiers who are not yet eligible for FTA. Unlike FTA, STR is a reimbursement, meaning you pay the cost of the class up front and the state reimburses you after you satisfactorily complete it. For up-to-date info on STR: To apply to State Tuition Reimbursement, you ll need to obtain the following: Memorandum of Understanding o or (These links also contain the obligation request, and the payment request forms.) o You ll need to sign this memo and turn it in every fiscal year to your full-time unit staff. Obligation Request o The obligation request is due no later than 45 days after the course start date. o Submitting an obligation request sets aside funds that will be distributed once you demonstrate satisfactory completion of the course. Payment Request o The payment request form must arrive at the ESO no later than 90 DAYS after the last official day of your course/ term and should be submitted via your full-time staff. o The payment request is used to request reimbursement for a course which you already paid for. If you complete a course, you ll need to provide verification that you got a satisfactory grade (in the form of an unofficial transcript from your school), and submit this form to your unit. Reimbursement can take two months months.

8 Contingencies Federal Tuition Assistance will only cover up to $4,500 per year. If you are going to school fulltime, this will probably not cover the entire cost of tuition. Even if it does fully cover tuition, you still need to CYA. The FTA program runs into unexpected snags all the time. If there is some problem with FTA, you need to still be covered. Here s how: Have a savings account Even while following the directions of this guide, you might find yourself in an unexpected situation. Don t squander all that money you got from your bonus or at AIT: keep a couple thousand dollars on hand so that if FTA fails and you need to pay for a semester of classes until STR kicks in, you can do it without taking out a loan. This is crucial to using your military education benefits in Minnesota. Have a backup plan. American Opportunity Tax Credit If all the programs fail or you miss all the deadlines and end up paying for a course out of pocket and aren t getting reimbursed, there s still one option. Next tax season, be sure to use the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which will credit you for most (if not all) of your educational costs in your tax return, up to $2,500.

9 Other Education Benefits Not Covered in this Guide Post 9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) o Minnesota GI Bill o REAP (Chapter 1607) o Loan Repayment Program o Important Links Federal Tuition Assistance: FTA statement of understanding: Annual_TA_SOU_(digitally%20signable).pdf STR request packet: GI Bill application website: Maintaining your GI Bill: More MNARG education info: Minnesota National Guard Education office: ngmneducation@ng.army.mil For corrections to this document, SGT Vigen: tyler.j.vigen.mil@mail.mil