Chapter 33
Probably one of the most popular and well known of the programs is Chapter 33. Chapter 33 benefit is a fairly comprehensive benefit. This benefit provides tuitions and fees payment, as well as a monthly housing allowance and book stipend. Below is a document that describes in detail this benefit.
Some Important things to note before you select this:
This program offers you a 36 month benefit. However, you will note that this benefit is not broken into months, but rather days. Most specifically a 30 day period. For example, assume you have elected to receive the Chapter 33 benefit at 100% and full time. You begin at FIU and notice that the semester runs from 22 August to 10 December. This is 3 full months (September, October, and November) and 2 prorated months (August, and December). What does this mean? For the months of August and December you will receive your housing allowance at a prorated or fractional amount. So as you will be in classes for a period of 9 days in August (22 to 31), you can take your full amount divide by 30, this will give you your daily rate then multiply that again by the days you are in class ( in this case 9). Do this again for December.
- These prorated days count towards your GI Bill. Every academic semester you will receive documentation on how many days you have left. What you may be thinking was, "I thought it was calculated in months?" Well, your right. Those prorated days we talked about earlier need to be factored in. So for this case when considering the GI Bill consider your benefit 1,080 days and each full month is 30 days.
- Your books stipend, this is important. It is a set amount. It is not a recurring amount like the housing stipend. At 100% you receive $1,000 a year. Which means if you are full time in Fall, and Spring semester you will receive $500 to buy books in each of those semester. Then it is done. Which means nothing for summer (hint hint, this is where scholarships can come in).
- The nice thing about Chapter 33 is if you finish you may get what you paid into it back. If you remember when you were first asked about this benefit you were asked to pay into it for a period of 12 months at $100 a month. At the end of your GI bill the VA will make a determination can possibly refund you up to the whole amount
- Is tuition fees and payments capped? Yes, there is a set limit to which the GI bill will pay out in terms of tuition per academic year. This important to remember becasue if it is more than the VA will pay you may be obligated to pay. This is where the "Yellow Ribbon" program comes into play. This is where a school will waive any tuition above what the VA will payout. Click here to learn more.