Dear ASU advisors,

ASU’s Veteran Benefits & Certifications office works to coordinate the payment of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) GI Bill educational benefits to current and former service members and their benefit-using dependents attending ASU. As an academic advisor, you may have already encountered some of the forms that our office asks advisors to complete for our student population. We thought a bit of an overview of what we do—and why we need these forms--might be in order. Here, then, are:

The 10 things we’d like advisors to know about veteran/dependent students receiving benefits

  1. The VA will not pay for courses which do not advance students towards their degrees. The basic motivation behind all of the forms we ask advisors to complete is the VA’s insistence that all courses taken contribute towards their stated degree program. Only in their last term can we add classes outside their program, if needed, to bring them up to full-time status.
  2. The DARS Evaluation form is used when an undergraduate student is taking classes that for some reason appear as “in excess” on his DARS. (Instructions included with form)
  3. The Graduate Program of Study does much the same thing as a DARS for a grad student. It can also be used to provide us with a student’s entire degree plan. (Instructions included with form)
  4. The Concurrent Enrollment form enables us to verify that the courses a student is taking at a secondary school will apply to his ASU degree program. (Instructions included with form)
  5. The Prior Credit Evaluation is needed for new students transferring to ASU. It verifies that all transfer coursework has been evaluated and applied towards the student’s degree program, if appropriate. (Instructions included with form)
  6. The VA calculates full-time status differently thanthe university does. Since students are paid their monthly stipend based on enrollment status, it is important that they be aware of this. ASU says a student is full-time if he is enrolled in any combination of 12 credit hours during a semester. The VA will look at the student’s status each day and pay accordingly. For example:

Student is taking 9 credit hours in the C session, and 3 in the A session. That is a total of 12 credit hours, so ASU considers him a full-time student. The VA will consider the student full-time from the start of classes until the end of the A session. Then, the VA will calculate that the student only remains in 9 credit hours, and is therefore ¾ time. VA will reduce the student’s monthly stipend accordingly.

When you’re combining several sessions, the math can get pretty crazy. We don’t expect you to advise our students on this point!We just want you to be aware that students using benefits have a different standard of full-time they need to adhere to.

  1. Dropping classes can cost them money.When a student drops a class, we are required to report to the VA what tuition and fees would have been if the student had never taken the class. Frequently, there is no change. But, if there is a special class fee, or if the student drops below the tuition cap (7 for residents, 12 for non-residents), then the VA will only pay for full charges up to the drop date, and then will pay at the lower level thereafter.
  2. It may be better for them to take a failing grade.The VA will pay for students to retake courses they have failed (provided the course applies to the degree), so students do not necessarily have to drop a course to avoid a failing grade. Although it seems counterintuitive, sometimes it is better forthe student to fail the course and retake it later, than to drop the course after the drop deadline and have a financial liability.
  3. Priority registration is for veteran students only.For the spring and fall terms, priority registration has not been extended to dependent students – those who receive transferred benefits from a family member in the military. Veterans receive priority registration after their first term.
  4. We’re here to help veterans/dependents. We offer a much broader range of services to ASU’s veteran population, particularly with the recent opening of the Pat Tillman Veterans Center on the Tempe Campus. Our goal is to provide one-stop shopping for veteran students, to connect them with other campus resources as needed to ensure their academic and personal success. We have partnered with the VA as one of only eight schools nationwide to offer the VetSuccess on Campus program, where VA employees are embedded at schools to offer direct access to educational and other benefit programs. We have conducted group retention workshops aimed at helping our FTF veteran and dependent students not only identify campus resources they may need, but also to network with each other. We offer facilities and opportunities for ASU’s veteran and dependent population to get together for social and academic pursuits, and we strongly support the growth of the Student Veterans Club.

ASU academic advisors are a very important part of our work, and we thank each and every one of you for all you do to help our active military, veteran and dependent students! We look forward to partnering with you to launch these students towards ever greater success. We hope you will feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

If you have questions about how to complete any of these forms—or if you’re not sure how to handle a student’s situation—we are more than happy to answer your questions. You can email , or call 480-965-7723 (press # to skip the message).