Veteran Student Services

An overpayment is an incorrect benefit payment that is more than the amount to which you are entitled. If you promptly notify the RSC Veteran's Services staff of changes affecting your benefits, you can prevent or reduce overpayments. In addition, you should use reasonable judgment when you see a deposit to your account from the VA. Carefully read all letters from the VA about the monthly rate and effective dates of your benefits. If you think a VA check is wrong, contact the VA with your concerns. Return any payment that is too much to the VA.

To request an extension of your eligibility period for using your Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty (Chapter 30) benefits, send the VA a letter requesting your extension based on one of the following:

• You have served a later period of active duty of 90 consecutive days or more;
• You have experienced an illness or disability that prevented you from attending school.
• You were detained by a foreign government or power after your last discharge or release from active duty.

 If you served a later period of active duty, please provide:

• A copy of your orders ordering you to active duty; or a copy of your DD214 releasing you from active duty.
• Send the necessary documents to your local Regional Processing Office.

If you experienced a disability or illness that prevented you from training, give us as much information as possible about the condition that kept you from training. Tell the VA:

• The type of disability or illness you're claiming.
• The exact beginning and ending dates (mm-dd-yyyy) of the period during which you couldn't go to school or attend training because of your disability. (If this period lasted less than 30 days, tell us why you couldn't enroll in school or had to withdraw from school.)
• The reason(s) you were unable to begin or continue a training program.
• The type of each job you held during the period of your disability.
• The name and address of each employer, and the beginning and ending dates and the weekly hours of each job.

Also, it is very important that you send the VA a statement from the doctor who treated you. The doctor should tell us:

• His or her diagnosis and treatment,
• How long you've had the disability or illness,
• The exact beginning and ending dates (mm-dd-yyyy) of the period during which your disability prevented you from training or going to school.
• You should also send us any other medical evidence you have, such as hospital reports or laboratory test results relating to your condition. 

Send the necessary documents to your local Regional Processing Office. If you have additional questions, please use the "Ask a Question" feature on our web site (in the Questions and Answers section) or call 1 (888) GI-BILL: 1 [(888) 442-4551].

I have to withdraw from school after the add/drop period. What are the VA's rules regarding these types of withdrawals?
When a student terminates or reduces after the drop period and a nonpunitive grade is assigned, mitigating circumstances become an issue. If mitigating circumstances are needed and adequate evidence of mitigating circumstances isn't received, VA will not pay for the course or courses in question. Also note that the examples given are not the only acceptable circumstances the VA will accept as mitigating.

Mitigating circumstances are circumstances beyond the student's control that prevent the student from continuing in school or that cause the student to reduce credits. Examples are:

• An illness or death in the student's immediate family.
• An illness or injury afflicting the student during the enrollment period.
• An unavoidable change in the student's conditions of employment.
• An unavoidable geographical transfer resulting from the student's employment.
• Immediate family or financial obligations beyond the control of the claimant that require him or her to suspend pursuit of the program of education to obtain employment.
• Discontinuance of the course by the school.
• Unanticipated active military service, including active duty for training.
• Unanticipated difficulties with childcare arrangements the student has made for the period during which he or she is attending classes.

If the student has already been paid for the course or courses, VA will create an overpayment (subject to the 6-Credit Hour Exclusion described below) from the beginning of the term.

6-Credit Hour Exclusion : VA automatically grants mitigating circumstances for up to 6 credits the first time a student reduces or terminates and mitigating circumstances must be considered. This automatic grant is called the 6-Credit Hour Exclusion. The exclusion is a onetime grant made the first time mitigating circumstances must be considered for the student. Up to 6 credits can be excluded if the student has been awarded benefits for the credit. The 6-Credit Hour Exclusion cannot be granted if the student completes the term and receives nonpunitive grades.

• If the student withdraws from 3 credits, the exclusion will be granted for 3 credits and the student's one time exclusion is used.
• If the student withdraws from 12 credits, the exclusion will be granted for 6 credits, the student's one time exclusion is used, and the student must provide mitigating circumstances for the other 6 credits.

The VA will pay for more than 12 credits per semester. The policy at this time is that the VA will pay up to the number of credits you may take at RSC without special permission, however they will not pay over the Maximum In-State Tuition & Fees.  

At RSC, a student is considered full-time when enrolled in twelve or more credit hours during a sixteen-week semester, six or more credit hours in an eight-week session, and corresponding numbers in concurrent sessions.

No student will be permitted to enroll for more than eighteen semester hours without permission of the Vice President or Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs.

If have already begun a semester and are deployed or called to active duty, you have three options available.

• You may withdraw completely without penalties and receive a W grade for each of your classes, or:
• You may take incomplete "I" grades for your classes. You will have one year upon your return to complete the classes and change the "I" to a letter grade
• You may use a combination of withdrawing and taking W grades for some classes and taking incomplete grades for others.

Courses that are failed, or for which the grade does not meet minimum requirements for their major or graduation, or credit was not earned may be repeated and be certified for VA purposes. Courses that are successfully completed may not be repeated and be eligible to receive VA benefits. If students must take additional courses in order to raise their GPA to graduate, the courses must be ones that have not already been successfully completed by the student.

Tutorial assistance is available if you are receiving VA educational assistance at the half-time or more rate and have a deficiency in a subject making tutoring necessary. If you have questions on this program please contact the VA directly at their toll-free number 1 (888) GI-BILL: 1 [(888) 442-4551]. Tutorial assistance is not available under REAP (Chapter 1607) benefit program. You may also contact our Rose State College Tutoring Services by visiting their website.