Veterans Thread Forum

[BNA]

All,

Interesting news regarding scholarship reclassification. The school I'll be attending offered me $15k, but said that I needed to find out how to have it paid on top of the GIB. I called the VA, and after a long discussion, found out that the VA pays exactly what the school submits. In other words, EVERY school can convert scholarships. All they have to do is apply it after information has been sent to the VA and it will go into your account as an excess. There really is no need to reclassify it as "cost of living," or otherwise, for VA purposes. A simple annotation on your student account naming it something other than a tuition scholarship would be preferable. Any university that says they can't probably just isn't aware of the procedure, or doesn't want to deal with it. Keep this in mind when negotiating.

So if I understand what you're saying, according to the VA it's simply a matter of having the school submit the bill to the VA and then, after that's paid, apply whatever school scholarship money is available? I'd think the VA's policy of being the last payer would cause them to frown on that. But unless the school is required by law to let the VA know what scholarships it has awarded (are they?), I guess there's no way for them to keep track. And if the school automatically deposits any overages into your bank account on file then you'd be good to go. Does anyone else have any experience with getting scholarship money applied after the VA has paid? Thanks for sharing this, BNA.

I considered the same thing. It seems like this avenue is sidestepping the VA, and puts either myself or the school at risk. I asked several times, and the lady consistently affirmed that the school is allowed to pay after the request for funding is sent. Also something to keep in mind - we're dealing with a government agency. Every one of us knows what comes of that. I'd advise everyone to do their own research, but thought some out there would like to hear some good news.

[Longsx3]

To use the GI Bill and a scholarship, the scholarship must stipulate that it can be used "for tuition and other educational expenses". My D uses the GI Bill and received a Full tuition scholarship at her UG University, it includes the above phrase and she receives the excess funds every semester.

[Grunt2Grad]

I think having scholarships that the VA would normally consider for tuition after the fact opens you up for a potentially unfavorable situation. The easiest way to avoid putting yourself at risk of an overpayment is just having the scholarship reclassified as living expenses. I do not know the logistics behind how scholarships are vested or why some schools are hesitant to simply call it a living expense but the willingness of schools to do this seems to vary quite a bit. I had no problem at all, simply sent an email and got a response the next day saying: "no problem we do this for veterans all the time".

[Grunt2Grad]

Any Tillman Scholars in the house? Anyone apply this cycle? I did. Lets see what happens.

[Wipfelder]

I second that, who has Tillman Scholly experience? Seems like a pretty awesome opportunity. Don't know about acceptance rates or anything though.

[Grunt2Grad]

I second that, who has Tillman Scholly experience? Seems like a pretty awesome opportunity. Don't know about acceptance rates or anything though.

They select 60 annually if I am not mistaken. 30 students come from the partner schools (huge advantage) and 30 from every other institution (at least this is what I was told by a Tillman Foundation employee).

[jerrycallo]

.

[Jritc]

Hello All,

I've been reading this page for awhile and decided to post. Just recently separated from the AD AF and decided to attend law school:

LSAC GPA: 3.74
LSAT: 157 (I definitely under preformed I was practice testing at 165-169 and don't really know what happened on test day)
Masters Degree
OIF deployment and some other good softs.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best). Maybe eventually I will try to get an Ivy LLM for the resume, but for now I'm happy to be going to LS.

[Ex Cearulo]

Just recently separated from the AD AF

Congratulations! And welcome.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best).

I mean if you have the 9/11 GI Bill in addition to a $15k scholarship and want to practice in Arizona (I lived in Tucson for a while...really liked Arizona!), then it sounds like you're good to go. Typical response from the hivemind would be to retake and not "waste" your GPA, but in your case that would only serve to possibly increase your scholarship which may or may not even be necessary. In any event, best of luck to you!

[MT Cicero]

Just recently separated from the AD AF

Congratulations! And welcome.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best).

I mean if you have the 9/11 GI Bill in addition to a $15k scholarship and want to practice in Arizona (I lived in Tucson for a while...really liked Arizona!), then it sounds like you're good to go. Typical response from the hivemind would be to retake and not "waste" your GPA, but in your case that would only serve to possibly increase your scholarship which may or may not even be necessary. In any event, best of luck to you!

I agree with Cearulo if you have the post-9/11 G.I. Bill. If you're 100% eligible, ASU is already completely free (and you'll get a BAH stipend). You won't even need to tap the Yellow Ribbon Program because all public schools are required to give veterans in-state tuition now, so G.I. Bill will cover you.

I would go ahead and try to see if they'll re-class the $15k as living expenses (check back over the last couple pages of the thread...I believe there's a discussion). If not, the difference between no scholarship and a full-tuition one is effectively nil for G.I. Bill types.

Do I feel a little bit like a retake could work for you? Sure. That's just because I envy that 3.74! But I almost took my high LSAT to smaller, closer law schools based on family. It worked out differently, but I understand wanting to stay where you have ties.

[Ex Cearulo]

Just recently separated from the AD AF

Congratulations! And welcome.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best).

I mean if you have the 9/11 GI Bill in addition to a $15k scholarship and want to practice in Arizona (I lived in Tucson for a while...really liked Arizona!), then it sounds like you're good to go. Typical response from the hivemind would be to retake and not "waste" your GPA, but in your case that would only serve to possibly increase your scholarship which may or may not even be necessary. In any event, best of luck to you!

I would go ahead and try to see if they'll re-class the $15k as living expenses (check back over the last couple pages of the thread...I believe there's a discussion). If not, the difference between no scholarship and a full-tuition one is effectively nil for G.I. Bill types

Definitely. And if you do, let us know what ASU says. It would be great to have a running list of schools willing to play ball with scholarship classifications. Maybe get MTCicero to add it to his extremely helpful GI Bill spreadsheet he's produced the last couple years.

[DiniMae]

Just recently separated from the AD AF

Congratulations! And welcome.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best).

I mean if you have the 9/11 GI Bill in addition to a $15k scholarship and want to practice in Arizona (I lived in Tucson for a while...really liked Arizona!), then it sounds like you're good to go. Typical response from the hivemind would be to retake and not "waste" your GPA, but in your case that would only serve to possibly increase your scholarship which may or may not even be necessary. In any event, best of luck to you!

I agree with Cearulo if you have the post-9/11 G.I. Bill. If you're 100% eligible, ASU is already completely free (and you'll get a BAH stipend). You won't even need to tap the Yellow Ribbon Program because all public schools are required to give veterans in-state tuition now, so G.I. Bill will cover you.

I would go ahead and try to see if they'll re-class the $15k as living expenses (check back over the last couple pages of the thread...I believe there's a discussion). If not, the difference between no scholarship and a full-tuition one is effectively nil for G.I. Bill types.

Do I feel a little bit like a retake could work for you? Sure. That's just because I envy that 3.74! But I almost took my high LSAT to smaller, closer law schools based on family. It worked out differently, but I understand wanting to stay where you have ties.

UC schools told me that all public schools can apply the scholarship amount to your account after the GI Bill balance is paid, which therfore is a credit/overpayment. Depending on school policy and scholarship stipulations, that credit will be refunded to the student. They said it's no different than if you overpay your school tuition with cash or loans -- you get the refund. They said to ask other schools the order by which they apply the scholarship amounts. If they apply it first before they request GI Bill funds, then you won't get any refund. They also said they have no idea about Private schools because of the YRP may have other requirements for billing/order. As you all know, public schools only participate in YRP to cover the differnece between in/out of state tuition and fees, which is usually neglible. I hope this helps. You should def talk to your finaid officer (this is assuming you aren't talking about grants), which I'm told are almost always applied before the GI Bill.

[Cobretti]

Hello All,

I've been reading this page for awhile and decided to post. Just recently separated from the AD AF and decided to attend law school:

LSAC GPA: 3.74
LSAT: 157 (I definitely under preformed I was practice testing at 165-169 and don't really know what happened on test day)
Masters Degree
OIF deployment and some other good softs.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best). Maybe eventually I will try to get an Ivy LLM for the resume, but for now I'm happy to be going to LS.

What do you want to do with your JD? You should seriously consider taking the year off and retaking the LSAT. That is a respectable PT range and if you hit it you'd have much better options with your already high GPA.

[jbmullin]

Just recently separated from the AD AF

Congratulations! And welcome.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best).

I mean if you have the 9/11 GI Bill in addition to a $15k scholarship and want to practice in Arizona (I lived in Tucson for a while...really liked Arizona!), then it sounds like you're good to go. Typical response from the hivemind would be to retake and not "waste" your GPA, but in your case that would only serve to possibly increase your scholarship which may or may not even be necessary. In any event, best of luck to you!

I agree with Cearulo if you have the post-9/11 G.I. Bill. If you're 100% eligible, ASU is already completely free (and you'll get a BAH stipend). You won't even need to tap the Yellow Ribbon Program because all public schools are required to give veterans in-state tuition now, so G.I. Bill will cover you.

I would go ahead and try to see if they'll re-class the $15k as living expenses (check back over the last couple pages of the thread...I believe there's a discussion). If not, the difference between no scholarship and a full-tuition one is effectively nil for G.I. Bill types.

Do I feel a little bit like a retake could work for you? Sure. That's just because I envy that 3.74! But I almost took my high LSAT to smaller, closer law schools based on family. It worked out differently, but I understand wanting to stay where you have ties.

UC schools told me that all public schools can apply the scholarship amount to your account after the GI Bill balance is paid, which therfore is a credit/overpayment. Depending on school policy and scholarship stipulations, that credit will be refunded to the student. They said it's no different than if you overpay your school tuition with cash or loans -- you get the refund. They said to ask other schools the order by which they apply the scholarship amounts. If they apply it first before they request GI Bill funds, then you won't get any refund. They also said they have no idea about Private schools because of the YRP may have other requirements for billing/order. As you all know, public schools only participate in YRP to cover the differnece between in/out of state tuition and fees, which is usually neglible. I hope this helps. You should def talk to your finaid officer (this is assuming you aren't talking about grants), which I'm told are almost always applied before the GI Bill.

It depends on the scholarship whether or not it can be refunded to you. If the scholarship is dedicated to tuition/fees then the scholarship has to apply before your GI Bill - essentially rendering the scholarship useless to you. If it is a more general scholarship, it doesn't have to be applied to tuition, then you can get it as a refund. So in short, it depends on the nature of the scholarship.

[Jritc]

Hello All,

I've been reading this page for awhile and decided to post. Just recently separated from the AD AF and decided to attend law school:

LSAC GPA: 3.74
LSAT: 157 (I definitely under preformed I was practice testing at 165-169 and don't really know what happened on test day)
Masters Degree
OIF deployment and some other good softs.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best). Maybe eventually I will try to get an Ivy LLM for the resume, but for now I'm happy to be going to LS.

What do you want to do with your JD? You should seriously consider taking the year off and retaking the LSAT. That is a respectable PT range and if you hit it you'd have much better options with your already high GPA.

I am looking at going back into the AF as a JAG after I finish up LS or go into criminal law as a County Attorney (Arizona doesn't have a District Attorneys). I'm not really that interested in Biglaw. At this point I can't really afford to put LS off for another year (reserve funds are starting to run short). I applied to Northwestern because I liked the culture of the school, but don't expect to get in. Overall I'm really happy with ASU as an option since I do intend to stay here in AZ and like I said maybe I will get an LLM from a T14 school eventually.

[storpappa]

Hope everyone is doing well on those admits .. waiting is not as fun as they say

[JazzyMac]

Congrats on everyone so far, and MUCH KUDOS to those whom have figured out the tuition-plus-scholarship-not-tuition deal. Things like this will be huge deciding factors on if I have to push a 40-hour job or a B&N gig.

(Really wanting the B&N route)

[jerrycallo]

.

[lane]

Hello All,

I've been reading this page for awhile and decided to post. Just recently separated from the AD AF and decided to attend law school:

LSAC GPA: 3.74
LSAT: 157 (I definitely under preformed I was practice testing at 165-169 and don't really know what happened on test day)
Masters Degree
OIF deployment and some other good softs.

I was recently accepted to ASU Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law with a $15K scholarship and it looks like that will be where I'm attended because of my low LSAT (Not planning on retaking my LSAT, I was born and raised in Arizona and my wife really wants to go home so its probably for the best). Maybe eventually I will try to get an Ivy LLM for the resume, but for now I'm happy to be going to LS.

What do you want to do with your JD? You should seriously consider taking the year off and retaking the LSAT. That is a respectable PT range and if you hit it you'd have much better options with your already high GPA.

I am looking at going back into the AF as a JAG after I finish up LS or go into criminal law as a County Attorney (Arizona doesn't have a District Attorneys). I'm not really that interested in Biglaw. At this point I can't really afford to put LS off for another year (reserve funds are starting to run short). I applied to Northwestern because I liked the culture of the school, but don't expect to get in. Overall I'm really happy with ASU as an option since I do intend to stay here in AZ and like I said maybe I will get an LLM from a T14 school eventually.

I'll be seeing you there! I decided to accept my offer to ASU and don't think anything, including waitlist movement will change my mind.

[FairchildFLT]

Any vets at UT? I would like some intel...please PM me.

TIA

[DiniMae]

Congrats on everyone so far, and MUCH KUDOS to those whom have figured out the tuition-plus-scholarship-not-tuition deal. Things like this will be huge deciding factors on if I have to push a 40-hour job or a B&N gig.

(Really wanting the B&N route)

Yea I def have to thank the OP who first brought this to light.

[storpappa]

Congrats on everyone so far, and MUCH KUDOS to those whom have figured out the tuition-plus-scholarship-not-tuition deal. Things like this will be huge deciding factors on if I have to push a 40-hour job or a B&N gig.

(Really wanting the B&N route)

Yea I def have to thank the OP who first brought this to light.

Yeah. We need to get it into a more formal email format so everyone has it to just copy paste into an email to their particular school and ask in the correct lingo

[BNA]

I recently posted regarding the stipend conversion, but since then, another (private) school flat out rejected the idea, claiming that their XXXX scholarship was intended for tuition remission only. Remember, while it seems all schools are able to convert, some simply won't want to bother with it.

[DiniMae]

I recently posted regarding the stipend conversion, but since then, another (private) school flat out rejected the idea, claiming that their XXXX scholarship was intended for tuition remission only. Remember, while it seems all schools are able to convert, some simply won't want to bother with it.

The schools I've spoken with were very clear that it's only if the scholarship is for cost of attendance and not cost of tuition. That includes them processing external scholarships; no one should assume that it's automatic.

[corman3000]

So I've now been wait-listed at 5 really good schools: Michigan, Penn, UCLA, W&M and Notre Dame. My stats are not that great (3.49/161), but I also have URM status. I did not get into my first choice, UT.

I feel like the wait list offer is just their way of showing respect for my military career but at the same time telling me I'm not getting in.

Anyone else feel this way?

Right now, I'm looking at going to SMU, which I believe is a good school but nowhere near some of the schools where I'm on the wait list. In any case, I will have voc rehab so financially I'm not fucking myself over. So I got that going for me... which is nice.