The Post-9/11 GI Bill: Three Benefits in One, and How to Use Them

People talk about the GI Bill like it is one thing: free college. It is more than that, and the people who get the most out of it understand that the Post-9/11 GI Bill is actually three separate benefits bundled together. Treat it as just tuition and you can leave thousands of dollars of housing and book money on the table, or miss the chance to hand the whole benefit to your kids.

The three parts

• Tuition and fees. At the top tier, the Post-9/11 GI Bill covers full in-state tuition and fees at a public school. For private or foreign schools, it pays up to a national annual cap, with the Yellow Ribbon Program able to help close the gap at participating schools.
• A monthly housing allowance (MHA). While you are enrolled, you get a monthly housing stipend. It is based on the BAH rate for an E-5 with dependents at the ZIP code of your school, so where you study changes how much you get. Online-only enrollment is paid at a reduced national rate.
• A book stipend. Up to $1,000 a year for books and supplies, paid proportionally to your enrollment.

The housing allowance is the part people underestimate. For a full-time student at a school in a high-BAH area, the MHA alone can be worth more than the tuition, which is why the GI Bill can effectively pay you to go to school full time.

How much you get: the tiers

You do not automatically get 100% of the benefit. The percentage you qualify for is tied to how long you served on qualifying active duty after September 10, 2001. More qualifying time means a higher percentage of the benefit, up to the full 100% tier, and a service-connected disability discharge or a Purple Heart can qualify you at 100% regardless. Your tuition, housing, and book amounts all scale by that percentage, so knowing your tier tells you what you are actually working with.

The benefit you can give to your family

Here is the feature that changes lives and that people miss because of its deadlines: you can transfer your Post-9/11 GI Bill to your spouse or children. If you are not going to use it yourself, transferring it can put a kid through college on your service. But it is not something you do at the last minute. Transfer requires you to be eligible and to commit to an additional service obligation, and you generally have to do it while you are still serving, not after. If there is any chance you will pass the benefit to your family, learn the transfer rules early, because waiting can close the door.

The bottom line

The Post-9/11 GI Bill is three benefits in one: tuition (full in-state at a public school at the top tier), a monthly housing allowance based on E-5-with-dependents BAH at your school's location, and up to $1,000 a year for books. How much you get scales with your qualifying service time. And if you are not going to use it, you can transfer it to your spouse or kids, but you have to set that up while you are still in. Know all three parts and the transfer rules, and you capture the full value of what you earned.

See your tier and estimated housing with the GI Bill Guide, and plan the timing into your exit with the transition timeline.