The Post-9/11 GI Bill® Benefits Explained
How Much Money is Available?
Discover the details behind GI Bill benefits and how they apply to different military-connected students in your community.
One of the most popular and generous benefits available for those who have served in the military the past two decades is the Post-9/11 GI Bill®. It differs from the Montgomery GI Bill as there is no payment into the benefit.
As far as federal government veteran education benefits, the Post-9/11 GI Bill is the most generous. Benefits include up to 36 months of tuition and fees, as well as a monthly housing allowance and a stipend for textbooks and supplies.
There are eligibility requirements, and for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, veterans must have at least 90 days on active duty, received a Purple Heart or served for at least 30 continuous days and were honorably discharged with a service-connected disability on or after Sept. 11, 2011.
Calculating these benefits can be tricky, but we’re here to help.
How Much Money Can You Get?
If you’re eligible for the full amount available from the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the benefit covers the full price of in-state tuition and fees at public institutions. At private colleges and universities, or foreign schools, it covers $26,042.81 per academic year. (The rate changes slightly each year, the current rate for the 2020-21 school year.)
Your length of service determines the amount you can access. The minimum service is 90 days, which gets you 50% of the benefit, if you served for 36 months (or received a Purple Heart) you get 100%.
Remember that every bit helps, and if you’re not eligible for the full benefits, there are many other options available to you. Many schools participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program, which can help defray extra costs if your GI Bill doesn’t cover the full amount of tuition.
What about Housing?
An administrative note here, you’re used to calling your housing money, BAH, or basic allowance for housing. When talking about the monthly housing stipend that comes with the Post-9/11 GI Bill, it’s called a monthly housing allowance, or MHA. But almost everyone uses BAH when referring to it. The VA will call it MHA though.
isn’t technically called Basic Allowance for Housing like it is on active duty, but almost everyone calls it “BAH” because that’s the terminology they’re used to. If you’re talking to the Department of Veterans Affairs, however, they’ll refer to it as the monthly housing allowance or MHA. Further muddling the waters is that the housing stipend is based on the BAH for an E-5 active-duty service member with dependents. (Your own rank while in the military doesn’t affect this.)
Unlike BAH, the monthly housing allowance that accompanies the GI Bill is based on an E-5 active duty service member with dependents and the ZIP code of the location of the school or campus where you attend the majority of your classes. In other words, if you don’t attend classes on the main campus but, instead, a satellite campus in another city or state, you’ll get the rate that most accurately reflects where you live.
Students who attend school fully online are eligible for a monthly stipend that’s equal to half of the national average. Currently, that’s $871.
Keep Track of What’s Left
If you left the military before January 1, 2013, you have 15 years to use your Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. If you separated after that date, your benefits never expire.
But it’s still a good idea to track how much you’ve used and how much you have left. You can do that by maintaining an active Ebenefits account with the VA.
