Veterans FAQ

You may apply for the GI Bill® educational benefits online at www.va.gov. Click on the “Apply for education benefits” link to get started. You will need to submit your DD-214 Member 4 Form or Notice of Eligibility (NOBE, DD-2384, Reservist only) to the VA so they can determine your eligibility of educational benefits. Note: If you are the veteran, scan and save your DD-214 Member 4 Form to a PDF. If you are a Reservist, scan and save your NOBE DD-2384 Form. You will be able to attach a PDF within the online application. You may also apply for the GI Bill® educational benefits using VA Form 22-1990 and mailing it with a copy of your DD-214 or DD-2384 directly to the VA Regional Office. Be sure to make a copy of your application to bring with you to Student Veterans Services Office.

Please allow the VA Regional Processing Office at least 30-45 days to process your application. If you are approved for the benefit, you will receive a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) from the VA in the mail. For updates on processing times, you can contact the VA directly at 1-888-442-4551.

All students who wish to use their VA Education Benefits for their UNT courses should first register for classes. After you have registered for classes, bring a copy of your Certificate of Eligibility (COE) along with your DD-214 to the VA Certifying Officials at the Student Veteran Services - Benefits office in Sage Hall, Suite 236 for processing.

Depending on when you drop/withdraw from a course, you may owe money back to the VA and/or UNT. We encourage you to speak with a VA Certifying Official in Student Accounting before you make any schedule changes to see how this will affect your educational benefits. UNT VA Certifying Officials are located in Sage Hall, Suite 236. You can also reach them at 940-369-8021.

You should change your major by contacting the advising office that handles the major you want to change to. Remember, you will need to provide the VA Certifying Officials with a degree plan for your new major. It is your responsibility to notify the VA Certifying Officials when you change your major. Your Academic Advisor will not notify the VA Certifying Officials when you change your major. There are VA forms which need to be completed by the veteran/student when a change in major or program has occurred. Failure to notify the VA Certifying Officials and provide documentation may result in a processing delay.

VA calculates the MHA based on a student's Rate of Pursuit (ROP) (see below for explanation). Rate of Pursuit applies ONLY to Chapter 33 students. For example, full-time for undergraduate students is 12 credit hours at the University of North Texas. 6 credits is 50% ROP (6 ÷ 12 = 50%). 7 credits is 60% ROP (7 ÷ 12 = 58%, would be rounded up to the nearest tenth, which is 60%). ROP determines whether a student receives or does not receive the housing allowance. If the ROP is more than 50% the student receives the housing allowance. If the ROP is 50% or less, then the student does not receive the housing allowance.

Payments from VA are made the first week of the month for the prior month's attendance. For example, you would receive a payment in March for attendance during the month of February. Please note that under the following circumstances, you may receive only a partial payment: (1) If you drop a course or courses and it affects your overall training time, you will be paid at your new training time rate. (2) If you attend courses for less than a full month, such as at the beginning or end of a semester, your payment for that month will be prorated based on the number of days you actually attended (example: if the first day of class for a semester is on August 26th, you would only receive a few days of housing stipend for the month of August). Student's receiving Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill® must verify their enrollment monthly by text message, email, or by calling VA at 1-888- 442-4551. VA will contact students using the information VA has on file for the student. Contact VA to update your contact information. For more information,  visit the VA website.

All students using Chapter 33 (Post 9/11) and Chapter 31 (Vocational Rehabilitation) benefits will have their courses held through the class drop periods for non-payment as long as they have turned in ALL necessary paperwork to the Student Veteran Services-Benefits office by the applicable deadlines. If you fail to complete the required paperwork, your classes will not be held. However, if you owe any balances from prior terms that are not being paid by the VA, your classes are subject to be dropped at these payment deadlines.

Yes. You must fill out the VA Enrollment Form each semester after you register for classes. The VA Enrollment Form informs the VA Certifying Officials know you want to be certified for your classes, gives you the opportunity to update your current contact information, and gives UNT permission to release your information to the VA. Certification with the VA is not automatic.

Yes, all Chapter 33 students must submit an updated COE or Award letter with their Enrollment Certification form each term so the VA Certifying Officials can verify the most current benefit percentage and months of service remaining. Non-Chapter 33 students only need to provide an updated COE or Award Letter with their initial certification request at the University of North Texas.

Yes, as long as that course will fulfill a degree requirement at UNT. The VA Certifying Officials at UNT will need to send your secondary school a Parent Institution Letter (PIL). You will need to bring a copy of your schedule and bill from the secondary school to the Student Veteran Services - Benefits office in Sage Hall, Suite 236. If you have the contact information for the VA Office at your secondary school, bring that as well. Once all documentation is received, our office will review to ensure the course(s) will transfer back to UNT and count toward your UNT degree and send the Parent Institution Letter as appropriate.

Yes, however not all repeated courses may be certified for VA purposes. If you fail a course or receive an unsatisfactory grade (e.g., you did not make the grade required by the academic department for degree credit), you may repeat the course and receive VA Educational Benefits for the same course as needed. Courses that were successfully completed may not be certified for VA purposes if they are repeated (e.g., you received a B in a class and you were required to receive a C or better). VA will not pay benefits to repeat courses solely for improving a student's GPA. Therefore not all other repeated classes can certified. Please note that the VA will not pay for any associated Repeated Course Fees.

If you have eligibility and benefits remaining, they can be used towards a second undergraduate or graduate degree.

The ONLY Study Abroad courses that can be certified to the VA for education benefit purposes are faculty-led courses that are owned by UNT and taught by UNT faculty. These courses must also be counting toward graduation requirements for your degree program. Under no circumstances can we certify a “placeholder” course to the VA (e.g., exchange programs or third-party programs where a student takes classes at another institution abroad and transfers their coursework back to UNT). For Chapter 33 students taking faculty-led UNT courses abroad, ONLY the tuition and fees for the course can be certified to the VA to be paid. No travel expenses, non-course study abroad fees, excursion fees, etc. can be reported to the VA for payment. If you are planning to participate in a study abroad program and are unsure whether your VA benefit can be used, please contact our office at 940-369-8021.

Texas Education Code 54.006 (f) indicates, “Beginning with the summer semester of 1990, if a student withdraws from an institution of higher education because the student is called to active military service, the institution, at the student's option, shall: (1) refund the tuition and fees paid by the student for the semester in which the student withdraws; (2) grant a student, who is eligible under the institution's guidelines, an incomplete grade in all courses by designating ‘withdrawn-military' on the student's transcript; or (3) as determined by the instructor, assign an appropriate final grade or credit to a student who has satisfactorily completed a substantial amount of course work and who has demonstrated sufficient mastery of the course material.” In order to be eligible for options under this law, a UNT student must produce a copy of his or her orders. Withdrawal may or may not require that the student talk with each instructor depending on timing in the semester; however, the latter two options do require that the student talk with his or her instructors and come to a decision as to which solution is best for each class given timing and circumstances. A student called to active duty may consider the following options: (1.) withdrawal with a full refund of appropriate tuition/fees; (2.) incomplete grades with the one-year I (Incomplete) removal time limit starting with the end of active duty; or (3.) a final grade if the course is essentially over and the course material has been sufficiently mastered (determined by the instructor).

Yes, if the scholarship is tuition specific, it would apply towards your tuition BEFORE any VA tuition/fee payments. Example of a tuition specific scholarship - UNT Excellence Scholarship. For questions regarding offsetting amounts and how UNT complies with federal regulations, please contact the UNT Student Accounting Veterans Benefits team at 940-369-8021 or visit us in Sage Hall 236.