Frequently Asked Questions

Please visit https://www.va.gov/education/how-to-apply/.

Post-9/11 GI Bill®/Chapter 33 – COE, VA-1, DD214 if no longer on active duty

Chapter 30, 35, 1606 – COE, VA-1

Chapter 31 – VA-1; counselor must submit purchase order via Tungsten

Chapter 33 covers tuition, based on eligibility percentage, and some fees. VA does not cover student health insurance, EMBA or MMHC maintenance fees, or the Engineering Campus Convening fee. Please contact your individual school or VASCO@vanderbilt.edu for more information.

Your school will provide our office with your approved schedule and financial worksheet to ensure your enrollment hours and tuition/fee charges are correct. Once we have that information, we can certify your enrollment to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Post-9/11 GI Bill® students must be certified twice per VA regulations. The first certification at the beginning of the term will include enrollment hours only. The second certification, made after the end of the Open Enrollment period, will include your tuition. If you have multiple class sessions during a semester, each session must be certified separately, and Veterans Affairs will pay them separately. Veterans Affairs does not pay on our timeline. If you have more than four months of eligibility, we will enter your anticipated aid on your student account so that the Office of Student Accounts knows those funds are forthcoming; you won’t accrue any late fees on Veterans Affairs’s portion of your bill. If you have questions about your housing payments or book allowance, please call the VA directly at 888-442-4551.

Chapter 35 students are paid directly on a monthly basis. Veterans Affairs pays a month behind, so you will receive August’s payment in September, and so on. Vanderbilt does not have access to Chapter 35 payment records. If you have questions about your Chapter 35 payments, please call Veterans Affairs directly at 888-442-4551.

The Department of Veterans Affairs normally pays within four weeks of certification; however, we recommend that you not rely on VA payments for living expenses, especially in the first part of the semester. Please make sure to have a financial plan in place while you wait for Veterans Affairs to process your payments.

This is a letter confirming your initial certification without tuition. Your tuition will be certified after the end of the Open Enrollment period to account for any scheduling or billing changes that may have occurred during that time.

Per VA regulations, all scholarships designated for tuition & fees must be deducted from the amount of your certifiable tuition. General purpose scholarships, federal grants, and loans do not have to be deducted from your tuition.

Yes, you must turn in a VA-1 form each semester you want to use your benefits. An updated COE also helps us keep up with your remaining eligibility.

We will update your certification with the Department of Veterans Affairs and refund any overpayments to them. If you withdraw from classes after the Open Enrollment period and Vanderbilt pro-rates your tuition refund, you may be responsible for the difference (depending on how Veterans Affairs calculates your overpayment).

If you take your leave before classes start, your benefits will not be affected. If we have already certified your enrollment, we will simply terminate it, and that time won’t be deducted from your eligibility. If you withdraw after the end of the Open Enrollment period, the Department of Veterans Affairs will calculate how long you were in class and adjust your tuition accordingly. If your VA debt is greater than the tuition credit on your account, you will be responsible for the difference. Only the days you were enrolled in class will count against your remaining eligibility.

Computer boot camps and business certificates are not eligible for VA benefits at Vanderbilt. Because Vanderbilt is a degree-granting institution, the VA will only allow us to certify credit-bearing programs that lead to a degree.

If you have multiple class sessions, Veterans Affairs requires that we certify each session separately, and they will likewise pay for each session separately. Classes that start later in the semester will be paid closer to the time they start, or shortly thereafter.