Posted: 12/2/2004 3:36:25 PM EDT
| Okay, this is going to be the first semester using the Reserve GI Bill. With the kicker and drill pay I will have no problem getting the bills paid every month, but does the benefit carry over during the two months of summer break? If I can get the state to pay my tuition, I wouldn't mind going to summer school but can't afford it otherwise. |
The seasons matter not to the .gov If you are attending school and submitting your doc.s then you should have nothing to worry about. |
You verify each month, and then they deposit the money for that month. And no, you dont get paid for the summer months, unless you are in school those months. And we do get reduced benefits for 1/2, 3/4 and full time students. GI Bill rates for Guard/Reserve near bottom Half time student gets roughly half the pay as full time. And 3/4 gets, 3/4!  With tuition assistance, its very nice. |
<----- This is how I eat!
It took me about 5 months because the University of Oklahoma decided to sit on my paperwork. It should realistically take less than 30 days. I got quite a large back payment when they finally figured it out... About getting paid over breaks, they pay as long as the break is less than 57 days (IIRC), but that also depends on the school certifying your enrollment after the break. Therefore, you may get your money covering that break as back-payments once your school certifies your enrollment for the semester after the break. If you do take classes over the summer, the school will determine if you are a full-time or part-time student. Just call the GI Bill liason at the school and they can tell you how many classes are needed for each level. Different schools and programs have different guidelines, for example, I only take one class at a time in my Master's degree program, but OU still considers me a full-time student for GI Bill certification. -Randy |
Speak to your school's VA rep and ask about interval pay over the summer break. If there are summer classes, you won't get paid unless you are attending class. If there is a break, you might get paid provided the break meets the VA's criteria for interval pay. From the GI Bill website:
When I used to be the certifying official at my college, I would tell new GI Bill applicants that it generally takes 60-90 days for the VA to process an initial claim. It would take at the most two weeks on my side during the busy times (I had a little over 200 GI Bill students). The delay usually is at the VA's side. All of the claims are handled by one of four VA regional offices. When I went on a site visit to the western VA regional office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, I think they had something like 18-26 reps to handle all of the claims for AK, AR, AZ, CA, HI, ID, LA, NM, NV, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, and the Phillipines. Alot of it is automated (they have a wall of monitors Matrix-style so they can monitor the transmissions from the different states) but alot of it is also done by hand. Rooms and rooms of file cabinets. Don't forget, some of these states such as Texas and California have alot of bases and alot of vets! It may take a while but it should be back-dated to the beginning of the term, so you should get all of your money, eventually. 
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