Office of Veterans Affairs

  **Important COVID-19 Information**
Veterans’ GI Bill benefits to continue during COVID-19 pandemic:
https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/includes/viewPDF.cfm?id=5403

Our office at Valdosta State University is approved for veterans education benefits. We are proud to welcome you to our Blazer family. Our office is operated by staff members of Valdosta State University and Veteran’s Affairs Work-Study Program. Please contact our office for more information.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Please notify our office if any of the following changes are made:

  • Increase or decrease in credit hours
  • Withdrawal from class
  • Complete withdrawal from the University
  • "Incompletes" received instead of grades

A reduction in your course load may result in a retroactive reduction in benefits and a debt to the VA. You will be responsible for paying back any and all debts to the Veteran's Administration if an overpayment is made.

VA Student Resources

  • New Student Application Waiver (Active Duty and Veterans Only)

    https://www.valdosta.edu/admissions/undergraduate/documents/application-fee-waiver-for-military-service-members.pdf

  • Veteran’s Benefits Brochure

    Information on eligibility, benefits, other funding available, payment information, how to get your benefits started at Valdosta State University and other important information concerning your Educational Benefits.

    Learn More

  • VA Benefits Checklist

    A new checklist must be submitted for each semester you plan to attend VSU. The checklist indicates to our office that you would like to continue receiving VA benefits during the upcoming term. In addition to submitting a checklist, certain benefits (such as the Post 9/11 Gi Bill) require a current Certificate of Eligibility (COE) to be submitted to the Office of Veterans Affairs each semester. Upon receiving this checklist, we will review course and degree program informaiton prior to submitting official enrollment data to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Upon review, if additional information is required, our office will contact you via email. Students that do not wish to use their VA benefits, should not submit a checklist.

    We will begin submitting enrollment data to the Department of Veterans Affairs for each semester according to the timeline below:

    Summer Semester:      First week of April

    Fall Semester:             First week of July

    Spring Semester:        Last week of November

    The checklist is designed to be completed fully online. For students that are unable to access the checklist in the online portal, a paper version is also available. For further instructions and to submit the checklist, please click the link below.

  • Rate of Pursuit

    Please follow the steps below to calculate how many hours you would need to take, in order to be considered as “full time” for VA payment purposes:

    1. Visit http://www.gavco.org/traininghelps.htm and click on the first link that says “Rate of Pursuit Calculator”.
    2. Enter in the term dates that you are planning to attend (Example: The common Spring 2018 term dates were: 1/8/2018 – 5/4/2018.
    3. Ignore the Break Period section, unless you have a semester that has a week-long break in the middle (like Spring Break).
    4. Fill in the type of hours (“S” for semester), number of hours you plan to attend, and then the F/T (full time) measure (12 hours).
    5. If all of the above is filled in correctly, you will be able to then see the calculations. The “Rate of Pursuit” column (far right) will tell you whether or not you would be considered as “full time”. If the figure shows anything less than 100%,      you will not be considered as a full time student and will not be paid the maximum VA rate.

    If you have further questions about being full time and how the Rate of Pursuit is used to calculate your VA payments, please call the VA directly at 1-888-442-4551 (1-888-GIBILL-1).

  • Forever GI Bill® Information

    The VA is working to provide updated information on how provisions of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act (also known as the Forever GI Bill®) will be implemented. At this time all updates are being published on the GI Bill® website at: https://benefits.va.gov/GIBILL/FGIBSummaries.asp. A number of these provisions start August 1, 2018, and we will have more information to provide close to that date. If you are curious about a specific part of the Forever GI Bill®, you can keep up to date with information through the link above.

  • Yellow Ribbon Application

    Valdosta State University participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program, which addresses the gap between in and out-of-state tuition. If you are not approved for in-state tuition, and are being charged higher out-of-state costs, please contact our office for more information about how the Yellow Ribbon Program may help you.

    Learn More

  • Other Information