All students must pay fees associated with dorm rooms, meal plans, and electronic course materials, if applicable. These are not covered by VA educational benefits, and students will incur fees and holds if these are not paid in full. If you are rated at 100%, you will still need to make payments on the above fees. If you have another rating, such as 60%, you will be required to pay for the other 40% of tuition and fees. If there are unpaid balances, you will not be able to register for subsequent terms until this balance is paid in full. For students with unpaid balances, arrangements to make payments can be made through University Collections at 412-624-7560 or collections@pitt.edu.
All students:
All students are required to submit a certificate of eligibility from the VA. Additionally, students need to provide our office with a certification form for every semester they wish to use benefits. If your eligibility or benefit changes, we will need an updated COE from you. The VA is great about sending out payments quickly, but our office does not have a definitive timetable for when the VA sends out payments. For questions pertaining to these matters, please contact the VA education student hotline at 888-442-4551. To calculate GI Bill payments and housing payments, please use the G.I. Bill Comparison Tool.
**Due to FERPA, we are legally not permitted to share information about payments, bills, student account numbers or personal student information with parents or guardians. Per the Office of the Registrar, a FERPA release only grants parents access to grades in-person. For questions about this, the Office of the Registrar can be reached at 412-624-7649.
Chapter 33 recipients: There are three channels of funds attached to your benefit:
- The VA will send the University a payment for your tuition that we calculate and request from the VA, which is based on your eligibility. If your eligibility is rated at 100%, the VA will pay 100% of your tuition, and so on.
- The VA will send you a monthly housing stipend at the end of each month based on your enrollment status. This is a prorated amount based on your zip code.
- The VA will send you a book stipend each semester dependent upon the number of credits you are enrolled in (it comes out to roughly $42/credit, or $500 for 12 credits).
Housing stipends for Chapter 33:
The current housing stipend for a full-time student can be found using the GI Bill Comparison Tool.
Your housing stipend may be impacted by the modality of your courses. For example:
1. If you are taking 12 credits and all of your courses are online, your housing stipend will be halved.
2. If you are taking 12 credits and at least one of your courses is in-person, you will receive the full housing stipend.
In short, you need to be taking one in-person course to receive the full housing stipend.
Rate of pursuit for Chapter 33:
1. 12 credits is considered full-time for undergraduate students. If you are enrolled in fewer than 12 credits, your payments will be lower and will be based on the amount of credits you are enrolled in.
2. 9 credits is considered full-time for graduate students. If you are enrolled in fewer than 9 credits, your payments will be lower and will be based on the amount of credits you are enrolled in.
3. If you are in a nonstandard enrollment term (periods of enrollment that are shorter than a standard semester), VA credit equivalencies will differ. For example:
You are taking 4 courses for a total of 12 credits. One course begins on 1/8 and runs until 3/14, and your other three courses begin on 3/15 and run until 5/1. The VA considers this to be two separate periods of enrollment, so we would certify you for the first course and your other three courses separately. Because these are two separate periods of enrollment, you would not be considered full-time because you are under the full-time requirements established by university policy.
Also, you are required to verify your enrollment each month. Failure to do this will result in the VA withholding your payments. You can find more information about enrolling and verifying enrollment at the link below.
GI Bill Enrollment Verification - Frequently Asked Questions
About Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill
Students can also verify their attendance using the following alternative method:
Chapter 33 recipients can log into their VA.gov account and verify online
Chapter 31 recipients: Chapter 31 is largely driven by your VA counselors, and our office doesn't have much involvement in this benefit. Your counselor is responsible for submitting an invoice through a program called Tungsten, which our staff approves, and then the VA sends the University a tuition payment. You may also be eligible for books and supplies, but again, this is determined by your counselor. After this invoice is approved, please contact Tod Darlington (tsd7@pitt.edu) in the bookstore, and he will help you get your books set up.
Chapter 31 Veterans' Readiness and Employment
Chapter 35 recipients: Based on your enrollment status (full-time or part-time), the VA will send you a monthly stipend. These are also prorated amounts.
Full-time: $1574/month
¾ time: $1244/month
½ time: $912/month
Less than ½ and more than ¼ time: $912.00 for each full month (or the cost of your tuition and fees, whichever is less)
¼ or less: $393.50 for each full month (or the cost of your tuition and fees, whichever is less)
Family and Caregiver Benefits (Chapter 35)
Chapter 1606 recipients: You will receive a monthly deposit from the VA based on your enrollment status.
Full-time: $493/month
¾ time: $369/month
½ time: $246/month
Less than ½: $123.25/month
Additionally, Chapter 1606 recipients are required to verify their enrollment on the last day of the month on the W.A.V.E. website below to receive payment. If you do not verify your enrollment, you will not receive any payments:
WAVE Online Verification Portal
If you are a student at one of the regional campuses: please provide your COE and certification form to your respective regional campus, rather than our office.
For other questions, please contact our office at 412-624-3213 or veterans@pitt.edu.