Summary: This post will show military members how to make a few thousand dollars while taking college classes.
Keywords: Free money, free education, Tuition Assistance, Federal Pell Grant.
It is the beginning of May and I find myself
completely bored out of my mind. We are approximately
a month and a half into a quarantine for an ever elusive COVID-19 virus that
has, oddly enough, not affected anyone I know.
What does this virus mean for members of the Armed Forces? Well, since the Department of Defense banned all
domestic travel for personnel and families back in March, it could mean more
free time. Everyone has a different
schedule, but most people I know would use any potential free time to catch up
on television shows or something else just as useless. However, with all this down time, I argue
that military members should be finding ways to exploit the fact they are one
of America’s bravest. What I mean by
that is there are a multitude of things the government and civilian entities
will freely give away or pay service members to do just for the fact they are
service members. While there are
literally thousands of dollars to be had (and I mean thousands and thousands),
this post will focus specifically on how to get paid to go to college while you
are in the military with Tuition Assistance (TA) and federal Pell grants. And don’t worry I will address the other
couple thousands in a later post.
I remember when I
walked into the education center last August looking for information on
obtaining my undergraduate degree. I only
vaguely knew this was a thing because of many an incoherent drill sergeant, or
any other instructor at a school, randomly ranting and yelling about the
importance of obtaining an education while in the Army. These rants sounded something like this, “And make sure you fucking do school and shit, or
you’ll never make sergeant major, Hooah!?”.
You could have easily missed the TA office because of how tucked away it
was in the Ed center. As I walked in,
the staff perked up and looked surprised to see me. Keep in mind, this was 1PM in the afternoon
on a Tuesday, well within their work schedule.
One of the associates asked me how he could help me, and I explained I
was interested in going back to school.
He promptly sat me down on a dusty desk, that looked like it hadn’t been
touched in a few months, and had me make an account on GoArmyED (a website that
is the starting point for your college ventures- I’ll provide links at the end
of the post). Once I made the account, I
filled out numerous questionnaires about what I wanted to study. After I filled out that information, it
showed me schools that offered bachelor’s degrees in that area of study. Next, I had to apply and be accepted at the
school I chose. (If you’re thinking this
is already too many steps, just know I did all of this in less than a days’
time. Also, military members always have
preference in applying to a school and usually never get turned down.) Once you’re accepted at the school you will
be asked to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA). This step is admittedly the most arduous, but
again took me less than a day. This
form, in the simplest terms, basically establishes if and how much money the
federal government will provide you for your college education. Every student in America fills out this form,
and its free money if you qualify, in the name of the Federal Pell Grant. Basically, the determining factor in how much
money you can get depends on how much money you make. If you’re out in the world all alone as an
E-1 all the way to E-6 and beyond you will probably qualify. Here’s where you’ll ask the question, “Dave
this sounds great, but doesn’t that money go to funding my school”? Yes, but most likely no because of Uncle Sam
and his willingness to fund education.
The Army, and all other branches to my knowledge, have what is known as
Tuition Assistance (TA). This program
gives service members a cap limit of $4,000 per fiscal year (usually
October-October). Basically TA will pay
for your college classes at a rate of $250 a credit hour, for a total of 16
credit hours a fiscal year or roughly 5 classes and some change. Now, most every school has varying rates for
dollar amount per credit hour, especially for online classes. But most schools will waive that more
expensive fee in favor of charging you $250 a credit hour if you’re a military
member. Don’t believe me? check out any
major institutions VA page and you’ll see I’m right. So, once you’re approved for TA and you get
qualified for Pell grant money, you’ll send that information to your
school. What happens next is the
financial department at your educational institution will receive all that
information, automatically fund your education, and refund what’s left over to
you. There is no catch to this, you are
simply sending too much money to the school so they have to give it back to
you. Every case will be different, but I
made $3,000 last semester taking 4 classes and I am continuing to find money
every time I apply for classes using TA and the Pell grant. To put it even simpler you are taking federal
money meant for education from two pools and throwing it into one cup, your cup
overflows and you get to clean up the overflow yourself. It’s completely legal and there is literally
no downside to doing this.
After starting my
classes, I notice a large chunk of change in my account. I didn’t have any idea this was a
possibility, so I rushed over to the education center and asked the staff what
was going on. They explained how it
worked, and I was perplexed. “Why
doesn’t everybody do this?” I asked. They told me, “Because no one knows about
it.” So, if you’re a military member and
you find yourself with more free time, or just want to go to college, why not
get paid to do it? Again to summarize, it
does not matter how many classes you take at any given time. You’ll make as much money in the refund as is
left over. For example, if you take 4
classes, or 12 hours full time, at $250 per credit hour that’s a total of $3,000
in tuition owed to the university. Your
TA will cover the $3,000 and whatever amount in Pell Grant you qualified for
will be refunded to you. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but a simple way
to make a few thousand while getting an education. It is just too easy to pass up.
LINKS: https://www.goarmyed.com/#
QUESTIONS: daveirons@teamroommedia.com
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