Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33)

If you’re eligible, you may be able to use more than 1 education benefit depending on how many qualifying periods of active duty you’ve completed.

If you’ve completed 1 qualifying period of active duty

If you’ve completed 2 or more qualifying periods of active duty

You may qualify for up to 48 months of benefits if you’re eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill and either MGIB-AD or MGIB-SR benefits.

Recent changes: 

• If you’re using MGIB-AD benefits and you switch to Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, you’re no longer restricted to your remaining MGIB-AD entitlement, and

• If you gave up MGIB-AD or MGIB-SR benefits when you switched to Post-9/11 GI Bill, you may now qualify for up to 12 months of additional MGIB benefits (for a maximum of 48 months).  

Note: We consider any reenlistment a separate period of active duty. But an extension isn’t a separate period of active duty. 

• Tuition and fees. If you qualify for the maximum benefit, we’ll cover the full cost of public, in-state tuition and fees. We cap the rates for private and foreign schools, and update those rates each year.
  Check the current payment rates for the Post-9/11 GI Bill
  Find out if you can get in-state tuition rates as an out-of-state student
• Money for housing (if you’re in school more than half time). We’ll base your monthly housing allowance on the cost of living where your school is located.
• Money for books and supplies. You can receive up to the maximum stipend per school year.
• Money to help you move from a rural area to go to school. You may qualify for a one-time payment if you live in a county with 6 or fewer people per square mile and you’re either moving at least 500 miles to go to school or have no other option but to fly by plane to get to your school.

Find out how we determine your percentage of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits

Find out how we determine your Post-9/11 GI Bill coverage

This depends on when you were discharged from active duty.

If your service ended before January 1, 2013, your Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) benefits will expire 15 years after your last separation date from active service. You must use all of your benefits by that time or you’ll lose whatever’s left.

If your service ended on or after January 1, 2013, your benefits won’t expire thanks to a law called the Forever GI Bill - Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act. 

You’ll need to apply.

Apply for education benefits

The benefit amount depends on which school you go to, how much active-duty service you’ve had since September 10, 2001, and how many credits or training hours you’re taking.

Note: If you use Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, you’ll need to verify your enrollment every month to keep getting a monthly housing allowance or kicker payments.

Learn how to verify your enrollment for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits

If you already applied for and were awarded Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits, your GI Bill Statement of Benefits will show you how much of your benefits you’ve used and how much you have left to use.

Check your GI Bill Statement of Benefits

You may qualify for these additional benefits:

• If you need more money to cover higher private-school or out-of-state tuition, you can apply for the Yellow Ribbon Program.
  Learn about the Yellow Ribbon Program
  Find a Yellow Ribbon school
• If you’re a qualified service member, you can transfer all 36 months or a portion of your Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to a spouse or child. The Department of Defense approves a transfer of benefits.
  Learn about transferring Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits
• If you’re the child or surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty after September 10, 2001, you may qualify for the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship (Fry Scholarship).
  Learn more about the Fry Scholarship

You can use your GI Bill benefits in many ways to advance your education and training.

Work toward a degree with these benefits:

• Payments to help get undergraduate and graduate degrees
• Tuition Assistance Top-Up
• Tutorial assistance

Train for a specific career, trade, or industry with these benefits:

• Payments to help get vocational or technical training and non-college degrees
• On-the-job training and apprenticeships
• Entrepreneurship training
• Flight training
• Test fees

Work while you study with these benefits:

• Co-op training
• Work study

Take classes from home with these benefits:

• Correspondence training
• Independent and distance learning

Note: If your school changed to online classes because of COVID-19, we continued paying GI Bill benefits from March 1, 2020, to June 1, 2022. This ended on June 2, 2022. If your school doesn’t offer approved online classes, you’ll need to return to in-person classes to continue receiving GI Bill benefits.

Your MHA is based on the monthly military Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for an E-5 with dependents. We start with that amount, then we take into account these additional factors to calculate your MHA:

• The percentage of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits you’re eligible for (your eligibility tier). We’ll pay you a percentage of MHA based on how long you served on active duty and certain other factors.
  Find out how we determine your percentage of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits
• How much you’re attending school. We’ll pay you a percentage of MHA based on how many credits you’re taking per term or how many clock hours you’re scheduled to attend per week, compared to full-time enrollment. We call this your rate of pursuit. For example, if you’re taking 9 credits in a standard-length term and your school considers 12 credits to be full time, your rate of pursuit is 80% (9 divided by 12, rounded to the nearest tenth). To be eligible for MHA, your rate of pursuit must be more than 50%.
• If you’re taking only online classes (also called distance learning). We’ll pay a housing allowance based on 50% of the national average.
• The campus location where you physically attend most of your classes. We call this a “location-based housing allowance.”

Note: Active duty service members and their spouses aren't eligible for MHA.

Campus definitions for location-based housing allowance

We use these campus definitions to help determine your location-based housing allowance:

Main campus. The primary teaching location of the school. 

Branch campus. A school location that’s in a different zip code from the main campus. It has its own budget, administration, and resources. It also offers its own degree and certificate programs. 

Extension campus. A campus of a school that may or may not be in the same zip code as the main or branch campus. It has the same budget, administration, and resources as the main campus or branch campus. It doesn’t offer its own degree or certificate programs.

Use the GI Bill Comparison Tool to calculate your MHA payment