Security Levels

National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) check current status
Training Center Cape May banner

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

COLLEGE STUFF

FINANCIAL AID

MONTGOMERY GI BILL - ACTIVE DUTY

 

The MGIB-AD (Chapter 30) program provides up to 36 months of full-time education benefits which may be used for degree and certificate programs, flight training, apprenticeship/on-the-job training, and correspondence courses. Remedial, deficiency, and refresher courses may be approved under certain circumstances.

For example, say you want to run your own charter boat service.  You can use the MGIB-AD to get reimbursed for many (if not most) OUPV (operator of uninspected passenger vessel) courses.  Check out the list of course providers on the Coast Guard's web site and then check the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) web site to see if the provider has been approved for GI Bill benefits.

 

Generally, benefits are payable for 10 years following your last release from active duty.

Your 36-month benefits entitlement has nothing to do with the length of time you have to use that entitlement, which is ten years from the day you leave your last active duty service period that lasted 90 days or more.

The maximum monthly amount you can receive under the Ch. 30 GI Bill is currently $1,564.  And if you choose to participate in the Buy-up option, you can add another $150 to that amount.

This is your money, which gets sent directly to your bank account once you've activated your benefit and filed a claim.  It's paid as long as you verify that you're maintaining the required course load.  The amount that gets deposited in your account depends on how many credits you're taking (for payment rates, see tables further down the page).  The terms used by the DVA to determine how much money you're entitled to are full-time, three-quarter-time, less than half-time, or half-time.  For a standard semester, here's how those terms translate in to credit load:

Full-time

≥12 credits

¾-time

9-11 credits

½-time

6-8 credits

Less than ½-time

4-5 credits

¼-time

1-3 credits

 

Payment Rates

 

If you've served for more than two but less than three years on active duty, you're entitled to payments at the following rates:

Training time

monthly rate*

Full-time (12 or more credits)

$1,270.00

¾-time (9 - 11 credits)

$952.50

½-time (6 - 8 credits)

$635.00

Less than ½-time, more than ¼-time (4 - 5 credits)

$635.00

¼-time or less (1 - 3 credits)

$317.50

* FY13 rates

 

If you've served for three or more years, you're entitled to payments at the following rates:

Training time

monthly rate*

Full-time (12 or more credits)

$1,564.00

¾-time (9 - 11 credits)

$1,173.00

½-time (6 - 8 credits)

$782.00

Less than ½-time, more than ¼-time (4 - 5 credits)

$782.00

¼-time or less (1 - 3 credits)

$391.00

*FY13 rates

 

Enrollment

 

If you're in the regular Coast Guard, you were automatically enrolled in this program upon entry into the Coast Guard.  However, you were given the opportunity to decline this automatic enrollment when you filled out and signed the the Basic Enrollment form (DD 2366) for the Montgomery GI Bill.  If you didn't reject the automatic enrollment, $100 per month was deducted from your pay for twelve months.

Before you can use your MGIB-AD education benefit, however, you must activate your benefit.  To do this, you'll need to fill out the Application for VA Education Benefits (VA form 22-1990), either on-line or using a PDF/paper form.

Submit this form as soon as you pass the second anniversary of entering the service because it could take the DVA as much as six months to process it.  Even if you don't plan to use your GI Bill education benefit right away, activate your benefit early so when you do want to file a claim to start withdrawing money from your account you won't have to wait more than a week or so.

 

What Can You Use the MGIB-AD For?

 

You can use your MGIB-AD to pay for the following types of programs:

Using Your Chapter 30 GI Bill Education Benefit

 

Assuming you've served at least two years on active duty, you can use your GI Bill benefits either while on active duty or afterward.  In either case, once you’ve activated your GI Bill benefits, you have 36 months of full-time benefits at your disposal.

Many people assume that this means they have 36 months in which to use their GI Bill benefits.  That's not true.  The amount of time you have to use up your benefit has nothing to do with the amount of benefit you have.  If you're unsure what this 36 months of benefits means, see Why 36 months?.

Suffice it to say that no time is deducted from your entitlement unless you're receiving benefits, and you can't receive benefits unless you're in school.

To actually use your benefit you have to activate it.  After the DVA processes your application for benefits (your activation request), you'll receive in the mail a Certificate of Eligibility.  You'll take this to the person at your school who handles GI Bill-related matters as proof that you're eligible to receive benefits.  That person will verify your enrollment status (full-time, half-time, etc.) and will fill out a form notifying the DVA of that status.  Within a couple of weeks, you should receive your first payment.  Those payments will continue as long as you remain in school and remember every month to verify your enrollment status.

If you forget to verify your enrollment status, payments will stop.  But they will resume once you verify your enrollment status.

You have up to a year after a course ends to file a claim for payment.

 

Deductions from Initial 36-month Entitlement

 

Assuming you're not on active duty, while you're taking courses using funding from the MGIB-AD, your initial 36-month entitlement will be reduced based on your enrollment status.  The table below indicates how time is deducted from your 36-month entitlement.

Training time

Deduction

Full-time (12 or more credits)

 1 day for each day of certified enrollment

¾-time (9 - 11 credits)

 ¾ of a day for each day of certified enrollment

½-time (6 - 8 credits)

 ½ of a day for each day of certified enrollment

Less than ½-time, more than ¼-time (4 - 5 credits)

 ½ of a day for each day of certified enrollment

¼-time or less (1 - 3 credits)

 ¼ of a day for each day of certified enrollment

 

Example 1

MK3 Jamal Miller originally served in the regular Coast Guard, but is now in the Coast Guard Reserve.  Because he didn't turn down the MGIB in boot camp, he's entitled to use the Chapter 30 MGIB (MGIB-AD) even though he's now a Reservist.  The maximum rate (if he attends school full-time) is $1,564 per month.

He's taking three courses totaling 9 credits during the fall semester.  That makes him entitled to receive $1,173.00 per month ($1,564 x ¾).  This amount is pro-rated over the exact number of days he's in school.  Because his school's term runs from 4 September through 15 December or 103 days, he'll receive $39.10 per day ($1,173.00 divided by 30 days) times 103 days or $4,027.30 for that term.

His school costs are $83/credit for tuition and $90 in fees, for a total of $837 (9 x $83 + $90).  That means he'll receive $3,190.30 more than he had to pay for his tuition and fees, and can use that excess for books, rent, his car payment, a vacation in Aspen, whatever.

When the DVA pays him for this period, it will deduct from (or, using the DVA's language, charge to) the initial 36-month entitlement in his "account" 103 days (the length of his school term) times ¾ (because 9 credits translates into ¾-time).  That means approximately 77.25 days will be deducted from his beginning total of approximately 1,080 days (36 months x 30 days per month).  I say "approximately" because in calculating this number, the DVA takes into account the fact that some months have 31 days and February sometimes has 29 days.

If you're on active duty, deductions from (charges to) your entitlement are calculated differently.  They're structured in such a way as to penalize you for using your benefit while on active duty.

Example 2

Now suppose MK3 Miller decided to use his MGIB-AD to take the same courses from the same school while he was on active duty.  The payment he would receive from the DVA would be ONLY the actual amount he paid for tuition and fees.  That is, he'd receive from the DVA only $837.

But 77.25 days would still be deducted from his 36-month entitlement.

Those 77.25 days would be worth $3,020.48 ($1,173.00/month divided by 30 days/month times 77.25 days) if he wasn't on active duty.  But because he is on active duty he gets only $837 – an effective loss of $2,138.48 in benefits by using the MGIB rather than tuition assistance.

Essentially, using your MGIB-AD benefits while on active duty is like using a $1,000 one-time-use gift certificate to buy a candy bar.

 

Reservists Who Become Eligible for MGIB-AD Benefits

 

Coast Guard Reservists who serve on active duty can become eligible for MGIB-AD benefits if they serve continuously for two or more years.

As a general rule, those who serve less than three continuous years on active duty are eligible for benefits at the rates shown on the first "Payment Rates" table above.  And those who serve three or more continuous years on active duty are eligible for payment at the rates in the second table.

However, to find out which rate you're eligible (based on your specific situation) for you'll need to

You can pay the required $1,200 in many ways: monthly $100 payroll deductions, one lump sum payment by credit card, four monthly deductions of $300, or any other combinations of time and amounts.  This $1,200 may be reimbursable in certain circumstances.

 

Transferring Benefits to Dependents

 

Congress has enacted a law which authorizes the armed forces to offer their personnel the option of transferring unused MGIB-AD benefits to dependents.

However, although this law took effect on 30 June 2008, only the Army has made this option available to a few of its personnel.  The Coast Guard, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force have not made this option available and for a number of reasons it's unlikely they will.

 

Buy-Up (Increased Benefit Contribution) Option

 

The buy-up program allows anyone who is participating in the Montgomery GI Bill program to contribute up to $600 (in increments as small as $20) at any time before leaving active duty.  For every dollar you contribute, the government will contribute $8.  So if you put it only $20, your total basic benefit is increased by $180; if you put in the maximum, $5,400 will be added to your basic benefit.

This is an incredibly good deal, especially if you plan to attend a pricey university or continue to grad school.  To participate in the buy-up program, you only need to fill out an Increased Benefit Contribution Program form (DD-2366-1) and make payments.  Check with your personnel office regarding making payments.  If you plan to make payments over a long period, you can set up an allotment or pay by check or other means however often you like.  The minimum amount of each payment is $20, and each contribution has to be a multiple of $20, but you don't have to pay contribute the same amount every time or make contributions regularly.

For more information, contact the Coast Guard's Pay & Personnel Center at 785-339-3610.  You can also pay with a credit card over the phone, if you want to charge the full $600 contribution.

Once you're ready to start using your GI Bill education benefit (i.e., after you've activated it), you'll need to provide the DVA with verification that you made additional contributions.  According to Military.com, the DVA asks that you submit photocopies of the following:

If you used payroll deductions to make your contributions, you'll need to provide copies of each LES from which a contribution was made.  If you paid in cash, some kind of receipt (e.g., an official memo from your SPO stating the date and amount of each cash).  And if you paid by credit card, an official memo from PPC stating the date and amount of your credit card charge for the Buy-up program and either a receipt or the credit card statement showing the charge.

 

Top-up

 

The DVA will pay those who have the Chapter 30 GI Bill the difference between the actual cost of a course and the amount Tuition Assistance covers. This is called the "Top-up benefit" and you activate it using the same form you use to activate your GI Bill benefits.  This is a very good program.  However, as with most things, there are a few cautions to keep in mind.

After all twelve $100 deductions have been made from your pay for your GI Bill, you have 36 months of entitlement in your “education fund” and 36 months of Top-up to use.  When you use Top-up to pay the difference between the total amount paid to your school and the amount TA pays, two things happen.

First, the amount of your 36-month full-time MGIB-AD entitlement is reduced.

Step 1

Say you've been in the Coast Guard for less than three years and you’re taking one three-credit course that starts on 4 September and ends on 15 December (103 days).  Tuition is $460/credit and TA only covers $250/credit.  That leaves you having to pay $210/credit ($630) for tuition and (let's say) $150 for fees out of your pocket.

When you get reimbursed for that $780 (via Top-up), the DVA will deduct an amount of time equal to the dollar amount Top-up paid divided by the quarter-time rate (because 3 credits is quarter-time at a school where 12 credits is considered to be full-time attendance): $780 ÷ $317.50 = 2.46 months or approximately 2 month and 14 days.

This will leave you with 33 months and 16 days of MGIB-AD entitlement remaining in your “education fund”.

Second, when you use Top-up, the number of months you have to use Top-up is also reduced, but not the same way as described above (using the GI Bill while on active duty).

Step 2

Because you used Top-up for 103 days (4 September and through 15 December) or 3 months and 13 days, your 36 months of Top-up benefit will be reduced by that amount of time.  That means you now have 32 months and 17 days of Top-up benefit left.

Moral: When you use Top-up time is deducted from the 36 months of MGIB-AD benefits and from the 36 months of Top-up benefits you start with.  If you’re attending a school that runs on a semester system, you’ll deplete your new GI Bill faster than if you’re attending a school that uses a quarter system.  This is because semesters are longer than quarters (generally 15 weeks vs. 10 weeks). 

If you can take courses from schools which charge less than $250/semester credit (or $166.67/quarter credit), you can avoid using your GI Bill at all until you leave active duty and thereby use it to your best advantage.

 

Certification & Licensing Exams

 

After you complete a vocational course or other non-academic program, you may want to become certified by one of the many organizations in the country.  Your GI Bill benefit will pay up to $2,000 per exam for as many exams as you want or need to take to achieve your certification or licensing goals as long as you're eligible to receive GI Bill benefits.

Following up on the example above, say you've completed the 100-ton license exam preparation course and are ready to take the licensing exam.  You can receive up to $2,000 for each test you take – no matter how many times it takes you to pass.  AND the money to pay for these exams doesn't affect your 36-month entitlement in any way.

This is true for other licensing and certification programs, as well: the DVA will pay for the course and as many certification/licensing exams as you need to take (up to $2,000 per test): law school and the bar exam, an MBA degree and CPA license, cosmetology school and the licensing exam, culinary school and certification exams, etc.

 

Activating Your Benefit

 

Before you can use your MGIB-AD benefit, you must first apply for the benefit (also called activating it).  Click here for more information on this process.

 

Download Plug-Ins
Last Modified 02/27/2013