Tuition Assistance Top-Up
October 30, 2000: the date an amendment to the Montgomery GI Bill, called the Tuition Assistance Top-Up , became law.
With Top-Up, the VA can pay up to 100% of your tuition and expenses, up to DOD limits. If you're eligible for MGIB and your service branch does not pay 100% tuition and fees, Top-up can pay the balance.
Use Top-Up if you use Tuition Assistance (TA) to complete a degree program while on active duty and don't plan to continue your education after service; you can choose to use your benefits right now. Top-up can also be helpful for taking just a few courses while on active duty; you can choose to save most of your MGIB to use after your service to complete a full education.
To be eligible for the Top-Up benefit, you must be approved for Tuition Assistance (TA) by a military department and be eligible for MGIB-Active Duty benefits. You must be an MGIB - Active Duty participant and must have served at least 2 full years on Active Duty.
Top-Up offers 36 months of payments which can be applied to educational opportunities from full tuition to certain eligible courses. Top-Up can even apply retroactively if you're eligible for the Montgomery GI Bill, back one year from the date your claim was/is received for training that began on or after October 30, 2000.
