Post 9-11 GI Bill, full BAH, two schools, and one hopeful premed

[Logically Paradoxical]

Hopefully someone in their right mind would want to read about my situation and shed some holy light on it.

I am currently Active Duty in the U.S. Army and will be honorably discharged on August 08, 2015. My MGIB has been converted to the Post 9-11 GI Bill and the good ol' funds from Uncle Sam's tuition assistance is helping me earn my BSHS in Medical Laboratory Science at George Washington University. The MLS program at GWU is FULLY online with the exception of clinical rotations which is fine as an active duty servicemember. However, I will be going to school full time residing in California after my discharge. I will continue to use my Post 9-11 GI Bill for my BSHS for approximately 1-1.5 years, but since the whole program is online, I will only be receiving a fraction of what I should get for the full BAH. In order to receive the full BAH, I must take one residential class + online classes which must total to the amount required to be labelled as a full-time student.

None of the classes going towards my BSHS will be towards pre-med because they are all online (is what my advisor told me.) So I was planning on taking a certain amount of the online courses from GWU in D.C. for my BSHS while taking one residential class in California in order to receive the full BAH as well as advancing towards completing my pre-reqs.

Here is where it gets a tad bit complicated. Since the pre-med courses are not towards my degree plan (BSHS MLS), will the Post 9-11 GI Bill still count as a building block towards an advance education (i.e., Medical School) and still pay for the courses?

I have three different advisors: pre-health, health sciences, and veterans assistances and they all seem to be confused haha.

Thank you for your time.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MrLogan13]

If the courses are not a part of your degree and outlined in your academic plan that is submitted to the VA, then the VA will not pay for them.

 

[Zelda840]

I have no idea what these acronyms are or how to help (sorry)...just wanted to say thank you for your service.

 

[alpinism]

Are you planning on taking stand alone courses at a CC or University?

In order for the VA to pay for them, they have to be a part of a specific academic program towards a degree or certification.

Not sure about stand alone classes, but the VA will pay for pre-med post bacc programs.

 

[IlDestriero]

Perhaps you should not continue the online degree at all.

 

[minor.groove]

Maybe i'm not completely following, and not being a veteran (thank you for your service by the way) I am certaintly no expert but if you are planning on likely going to med school why wouldnt you save your g.i. benefits for it, as 4 years of med school are likely more expensive than what you have left to complete on your BS?

 

[IlDestriero]

This might get more answers if moved to the MilMed forum.

 

[Doug Underhill]

What are you trying to accomplish with that degree? If you want to go to medical school, an online-only degree is questionable.

 

[SpaceyWacey]

Maybe i'm not completely following, and not being a veteran (thank you for your service by the way) I am certaintly no expert but if you are planning on likely going to med school why wouldnt you save your g.i. benefits for it, as 4 years of med school are likely more expensive than what you have left to complete on your BS?

From what I am aware some people have a timeframe at which it needs to be used before the benefits 'expire'. So its possible the OP needs to use the bill before then?

And in terms of covering classes not towards your degree, speaking from personal expirence, I have taken introductory classes such as psych and sociology classes that do not count at all towards my Bio degree. The units for these classes were still counted towards my benefits though. I think that as long as you are a full time student, with at least one class in person you can recieve full BAH; but this is pretty confusing. And of course this is anecdotal and all of my classes were in person, so take this info with a grain of salt.

 

[Doctor_Nope]

There are many factors to account for, but if you are determined to attend medical school and are able to in any way, I would recommend saving your GI Bill for medical school. Many schools have very generous Yellow Ribbon programs that will contribute to your tuition for those years that you use the GI Bill. These contributions can range into the 10's of thousands to even covering your entire tuition for those years. This is school dependent and I would recommend checking the VA website for details on the yellow ribbon program. I used one year of my yellow ribbon for my post-bac and now wish I had saved it for medical school. This would have netted me at least an extra $40k off my medical education because of the participation in the yellow ribbon of the schools I am considering to attend next year. Just something to consider.

 

[Logically Paradoxical]

I continued with my online degree only because the military has a special contract with George Washington University without my pushing out any extra payments to go to school. Plus, my associates was given to me in one year during training since it is part of my job and accredited by that school as well as the national certification.

I would LOVE to save my GI Bill for medical school. I haven't even touched my MGIB being active duty only because I want to utilize good ol' Uncle Sam's TA. I love the YRP and am definitely going to apply to a school with a slot.

Hopefully I can clarify this a little since I've gotten some vague information.

My degree is fully online with some general classes that are part of my pre-med that I wish to take at a local institution (i,e,. residential classes) in order to have at least one brick-and-mortar class per specific # of distance learning equivalent to being a full-time student in order to obtain the full BAH. I've spoken to three advisors: my health science advisor, pre-health advisor; and veteran services advisor. They all seem to have no idea what I am talking about and veteran services still haven't gotten back to me after a fortnight.

I just want to replace my general online courses towards my degree with something I can take at a local university...I just need those classes to be certified. Am I being so difficult?

Thank you everyone for contributing by the way. I apologize I haven't gotten a chance to reply.

 

[Logically Paradoxical]

If it helps, here is the link towards my current curriculum.

https://smhs.gwu.edu/crl/programs/mls/curriculum/bshs

 

[LizzyM]

None of the classes going towards my BSHS will be towards pre-med because they are all online (is what my advisor told me.)

I do not believe this is true; online courses can and will count toward your gpa and in every other way when you apply for med school and George Washington University is a well respected school.

That said, most of the courses required for your degree will be considered "vocational" and not very rigorous compared with most Bachelor's degrees.

On the other hand, adcoms these days LOVE veterans so that can work in your favor.

And, if you want people here to have any idea what you are talking about, you'll need to spell out those acronyms; we don't speak that language.

 

[Logically Paradoxical]

So my advisor got back to me and I've come up with a simple solution that requires me to use up only 12 out of my 36 months of my benefits. I require two more classes for humanties and/or social sciences that I may take at another institution. I'll be able to finish up my BSHS in 12 months once I become discharged.

Fall 2015: 9 SH of online courses at GWU and 3 SH of Intro to Sociology at my local institution ~4 mo.
Spring 2015: Same as above
Summer 2015: Clinical Rotations ~ 4 mo.

Then after just work as a CLS in California while paying and taking my pre-med classes at my local institution one at a time until I can apply for medical school so I won't need to utilize the rest of my 24 mo. of benefits.

Does this seem to work so far?

 

[Logically Paradoxical]

I do not believe this is true; online courses can and will count toward your gpa and in every other way when you apply for med school and George Washington University is a well respected school.

That said, most of the courses required for your degree will be considered "vocational" and not very rigorous compared with most Bachelor's degrees.

On the other hand, adcoms these days LOVE veterans so that can work in your favor.

And, if you want people here to have any idea what you are talking about, you'll need to spell out those acronyms; we don't speak that language.

Thank you for your reply LizzyM. I only stuck to George Washington University because it's simply well respected. Fortunately my advisor clarified a few things for me. The general education listed under my link provided does not apply to me since will be going from a medical laboratory scientist to a medical technologist. I only require the major vocational courses. This means I'll still be able to take those chemistry, biology, mathematics, etc...courses without having to be labeled as "re-taking" those courses.

 

[Logically Paradoxical]

And since they will not count towards my degree, I'm hoping I can utilize FAFSA for a few of them during my Fall 2015 to Summer of 2016 year.

 

[Anon Anon]

imeframe

Yes. 15 years after separation