Education Benefits

Accessing your well-earned benefits

The Accelerated Master’s Program in Systems Engineering is proud to serve our nation’s veterans and active duty military. Each year we have veterans and active duty military personnel who learn from and contribute their wisdom and experience to the Accelerated Master’s Program cohort. The information below is provided as a service to assist eligible veterans in the process of securing Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits to fund their graduate education. Please rely on information from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Steps for obtaining GI Bill education benefits at the University of Virginia

1) Obtain a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) for education benefits from the VA.
2) Send a copy of your COE from the VA to the University Registrar.
3) Submit a Military Educational Benefits Request Form to the UVa registrar’s office online.
4) Send a new Military Educational Benefits Request Form to the University Registrar before the start of each semester.
5) The UVa School Certifying Official will verify your enrollment and certify your tuition and fees to the VA after the start of each semester.
6) When the VA receives verification of your enrollment from the School Certifying Official, this triggers the GI Bill benefits payments to the University and to the veteran. The VA sends the funds for eligible tuition expenses to the University. A stipend for books plus a housing allowance for non-active duty veterans are sent directly to the veteran.
Note: Active duty military personnel do not receive an additional housing allowance.
7) Once the funds that come to the University from the VA are disbursed to UVa and applied to the student’s account, the veteran then pays the remaining balance due on his or her student account.

Note: The statements above reflect the current interpretation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill by the Department of Veterans Affairs in relation to the Accelerated Master’s Program in Systems Engineering tuition and fees as of Fall 2012. The VA reserves the right to change its interpretation of education expenses that qualify for benefits under the law.

Steps 1 – 3: Details

Step 1 – Applying for a Certificate of Eligibility for Education Benefits
A Certificate of Eligibility letter (COE) is provided to all veterans/dependents when their benefits are approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans should gather paperwork and information before starting their application for their COE. You need the dates and service status for each period of military service. Among the documents needed are a DD214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty for your most recent service period and transcripts for all education after high school. Veterans can submit the application for the COE online through VONAPP (Veterans Online Application). According to information provided by the VA, once you have gathered all materials and information, filling out the COE application should take about 30 minutes.

If you have questions about GI Bill benefits or the COE application, call a VA education benefits specialist at 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) for assistance.

Step 2 – Fill out the UVa Military Educational Benefits Request Form.
This is a UVa form which can be accessed from links on the Registrar’s Veterans’ Educational Benefits page. A new Veterans Educational Benefits Request Form is required each semester, summer, fall, and spring. Summer is the first term for the AMP.

Note: The number of credits for Summer is 9. AMP students take 9 credits in the Fall, and 12 credits in the Spring. This meets (or exceeds) both the UVa and VA criteria for full-time student status for each semester at UVa for AMP students. Undergraduates and students in other graduate or professional programs have different numbers of hours required per semester for full-time status, depending on their programs.

If you have questions about the UVa Veterans’ Educational Benefits Request Form or UVa’s certification process, call the Office of the University Registrar at 434-924-4122. There are several people in the registrar’s office who can help with veterans’ questions. A good person to ask for is Ms. Christina Freitager-Kirkaldy, who sends the certifications to the VA for veterans using benefits.

Step 3 – Send copies of the COE and Veterans’ Educational Benefits Request Form to UREG, the Office of the University Registrar.

Veterans can mail, fax, or scan and email a copy of their COE to UREG.
Send email to ureg@virginia.edu.
The fax number is 434-924-4156.
The mailing address is
Office of the University Registrar, PO Box 400203, Charlottesville, VA 22904.

The UVA Military Educational Benefits Request Form must be submitted online. The link to the form and links to other useful information are on this page: https://www2.virginia.edu/registrar/vabenefits.html

Timing and More Information

Please see the Certification Timeline on the Registar’s page for more information about the certification process and timing plus other helpful information. You need to send a Veterans’ Educational Benefits Request Form to UREG before the start of each semester. You only need to send the COE once, at the beginning of the program.

It can take a month to six weeks or more to obtain the Certificate of Eligibility from the VA. If you experience delays please notify the AMP Program Manager and AMP Veterans Coordinator at accmp@virginia.edu. If the COE is issued after the beginning of the program, the student will still receive benefits for the semester.

An additional benefit is available for tutoring.

Veterans using GI Bill benefits may apply for federal education loans administered by the University. Additional loan funds are available for purchase of computers.

You can find more information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Montgomery GI Bill, and other programs and a link to the VONAPP at www.gibill.va.gov.