IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS

Applicants must agree to comply with the following.  Failure to do so may cease your V.A. educational benefits and result in you being charged with an overpayment.

Requesting Your Certification of Enrollment: The BCC Veteran’s Educational Benefits Request Form should be submitted to the Veterans Services Office as soon you register for classes, to avoid delays in receiving subsistence checks. Please note that BCC will not certify students for V.A. educational benefits unless the veteran submits a Veteran’s Educational Benefits Request Form.

Academic Suspensions: Veterans who receive benefits who are academically dismissed will be reported to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and their subsistence check(s) may be terminated. Veterans or dependents of veterans who accept V.A. checks after being academically dismissed will be charged by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with an overpayment.

Continued Enrollment: It is the veteran’s responsibility to notify the BCC Veterans Services Office concerning his/her continued enrollment by completing the Veteran’s Educational Benefits Request Form each term. Failure to do so will cause the payment cycle to be broken.

Enrollment as Progress Toward Degree: All courses taken during a term for which you have been certified for V.A. benefits must apply toward your degree. Veterans can be charged with an overpayment for any courses taken which are not applicable toward their degree. If you are in doubt as to whether certain courses are required for your degree, please contact your academic advisor, your academic dean’s office, or the BCC Veterans Services Office immediately as this could affect your V.A. benefits.

Courses Taken Under the Audit Option: Courses taken on an audit basis cannot be used in computing enrollment status. Students must have 12 credit hours or more in regular A – F option, P/F option, or equivalent credit, not audit to permit certification of full-time status. When you report your enrollment status in Section 1, DO NOT include any courses taken under the audit option. If you report and are certified for courses taken under the audit option, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs can charge you with an overpayment.

Repeating Courses: Once a student has received a passing grade (D or better) in a course he/she is typically no longer eligible for V.A. benefits for repeating that course.

Independent Study Courses: Veterans enrolling in independent study courses must notify the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the BCC Veterans Services Office at the beginning of that term.

Prerequisite Courses: Veterans required to take prerequisites must have their departments provide this office with a list of prerequisite courses. Such a list should identify prerequisites by both course name and number. The V.A. may charge veterans who fail to do this with an overpayment for taking courses not included in their program.

Transfer Credit information

Withdrawals, Resignations, or Reduction in Enrollment: All veterans withdrawing from BCC must notify the BCC Veterans Services Office in writing.  Veterans who reduce their course load must also notify the BCC Veterans Services Office, as it may have an adverse impact on their eligibility for benefits.

Mitigating Circumstances: Mitigating circumstances are those which directly hinder a student's pursuit of a course(s) and which are judged to be beyond the student's control. Following are some general categories of mitigating circumstances: serious illness of the student, serious illness or death of an immediate family member, immediate family or financial obligations, discontinuance of a course by the school.

Changes in Major: All recipients of VA educational benefits must notify the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of any major change by completing the appropriate form (VA Form 22-1995, for recipients of Chapter 30,32, and 1606, VA Form 22-5495 for Chapter 35 recipients).

Changes of Address: All recipients of VA educational benefits must notify, in writing, both the BCC Veterans Services Office, Registrars Office and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of any change of address.