There is a multi-step process to ensure benefits are properly established at Utah tech. Go to the link below and follow the steps to get started:

Establish VA Benefits at Utah Tech

We need your permission to certify your courses each semester you want benefits. You must formally request that we certify your classes using the link below. Your classes will not be certified if we do not receive your Semester Certification Request. This means the VA will not send benefits for the semester.

You should not submit a Semester Certification Request until after you have registered for classes. Try to remember to submit the request at least 30 days before classes begin to receive timely benefits.

Semester Certification Request

Adding Classes: VA benefits are based on our certification of a student’s class schedule by referencing their degree plan. Any classes that students add must be a part of their degree plan to receive VA benefits. See your academic advisor or your degree works in the MY UT app for your degree plan.

Dropping Classes: VA benefits will not be given for withdrawals (receiving a W). Utah Tech gives a time period for students to adjust their class schedule before a W will be given if classes need to be dropped. The final date to drop classes before receiving a W is posted in the Utah Tech academic calendar. If you want to drop a class without receiving a W you must drop the class by the posted date in the academic calendar.

The VA will reclaim any benefits from the student if a W is received. Students using Chapters 31 and 33 benefits will not have tuition and fees paid for receiving a W. This means the student will be responsible to pay Utah Tech the tuition and fees for any classes with a W.

Use the semester Certification Request Form and select “Adding or Dropping a class after Semester Certification Form submitted.”

Semester Certification Request

Yes. However, you need to remember that certification for VA benefits relies on your degree plan. Changing your major may eliminate some classes as options and require other classes. Some majors have very little room for general electives. Make sure you plan ahead to know what classes you can take if your major has little room to take general electives. See your academic advisor to get help planning.

Use the semester Certification Request Form and select “Notification of a change of Major.”

Semester Certification Request

VA benefits will not be given for withdrawals (receiving a W). Utah Tech gives a time period for students to adjust their class schedule before a W will be given if classes need to be dropped. The final date to drop classes before receiving a W is posted in the Utah Tech academic calendar. If you want to drop all classes without receiving a W you must drop them by the posted date in the academic calendar.

The VA will reclaim any benefits from the student if a W is received. Students using Chapters 31 and 33 benefits will not have tuition and fees paid for receiving a W. This means the student will be responsible to pay Utah Tech the tuition and fees for any classes with a W. If the student drops all classes, all VA benefits will be reclaimed.

Use the semester Certification Request Form and select “Notification of Complete Withdrawal.”

Semester Certification Request

Usually no. However, there are some degree plans that have room to take several credits in general electives. Students are required to take 60 credits to receive an associate’s degree and 120 credits to receive a bachelor’s degree. You may calculate how many required credits are in your degree plan and subtract that number from the amount or credits required for your associate or bachelor’s degree to see if you have room to take general elective credits.

In rare cases, degree plans are not up to date with the curriculum in your academic college. If this applies to you, come see the staff in the Utah Tech Veterans and Military Services office for guidance.

Yes, depending on two conditions:

1. A placement exam is required for any classes below 1000. Placement exams can be taken at the testing center.

2. Students cannot take classes below 1000 online.

*Students should know that Utah Tech does not count classes below 1000 toward graduation. The VA understands that some students need to take these classes to be able to take future classes that are required for graduation. Therefore, the VA sees these classes as required for graduation. Students must adhere to the two requirements above to receive VA benefits.

Students who have received the minimum passing grade in a class to continue in their degree program cannot retake the class and receive VA benefits. Students who fail to obtain the minimum passing grade in a class can retake the class and receive VA benefits. A student may repeat the course and be certified for it until it is successfully completed. There is no limit on the number of attempts.

VA benefits are based on the number of certifiable credits a student takes. The VA uses a tiered system to determine benefits. Reference the Rate of Pursuit Table to determine which tier the number of credits falls in.

Each VA benefit (chapter) has its own rules for the amount students will receive. As a general rule:

Fall and spring Semesters require 12 or more credits to receive full VA benefits.
Summer requires 8 or more credits for the full semester, or 4 or more credits per block, to receive full VA benefits.

See your specific chapter benefit at the VA Education Website to know what you can expect.

A few rules apply for students receiving CH 31 or CH 33 benefits:

1. The student must take at least one credit in person at any time they want to receive housing allowance at the local rate. Students who take purely online courses will not be given the local housing allowance rate. They will be given a rate that is half of the national average for housing allowance. Half of the national average housing rate is found here.
– For example: If a student takes summer classes in both A and B blocks, the student must make sure that they have at least one credit in person for both A and B blocks to receive the local rate for each of those blocks.

2. Students must have their classes certified above half-time to receive any housing allowance.
– For example: Twelve credits are considered full-time for fall and spring semesters, therefore, six credits are considered half-time. The student must have MORE THAN six certified credits to receive any housing allowance.

* Note for CH 30, 35, and 1606 benefits: The stipend for these benefits is not a housing allowance. Students can take purely online classes without being penalized.

Yes. The VA will send benefits for classes whether they are online or in person. See the rules for housing allowance in the above question for clarification on how housing allowance is affected by taking purely online classes.

Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree may not have to declare a major before their junior year at some schools. Student cannot be certified beyond his or her sophomore year unless a major is declared. Only “General Education” courses can be certified prior to the declaration of a major.

Students who are not admitted to Utah Tech, but who are pending admission can be certified for two standard length quarters or semesters. Students can be certified beyond this two-term limit only if the students are admitted to Utah Tech as degree-seeking students, irrespective of the number of credits taken.

A student who isn’t formally admitted to Utah Tech may be pursuing a degree at another college or university. These students are commonly referred to as guest students. The two-quarter or two-semester limit doesn’t apply to guest students taking courses at Utah Tech that apply to a program at another school.

Classes that are successfully completed may not be certified again for VA purposes if they are repeated even if VA didn’t pay for the previous attempt.

There are exceptions, however. If a course is required for graduation and meets the requirements for one of the three exceptions below, a student may repeat the course and be certified for it until it is successfully completed. There is no limit on the number of attempts. No further information needs to be provided to VA regarding those courses.

A student may be certified for a repeated course if:

1. The student failed the class.

2. If a program requires a higher grade than the one achieved in a particular class for successful completion.
Example: if a Nursing program requires a “B” or better in Biology, then that class may be repeated if a “B” or better was not earned. That requirement must be in the school catalog.
Note: If a student chooses to repeat a course that was successfully completed, just to improve their GPA, that course cannot be certified to VA.

3. If a student successfully completed a course so long ago, the school requires it be repeated.
Example: If student took computer programming 10 years ago and got a ‘B’, it may be too outdated to be accepted for credit now.
Note: If the school does not require the student to retake the outdated course, but the student chooses to repeat it, that course cannot be certified to VA.

Yes. However, students receiving CH 31 and 33 VA benefits will have a hold placed on their account with Utah Tech that signals Utah Tech Business Services to withhold the late fee and permit students to register for future classes until the VA pays the tuition and fees. These students still owe Utah Tech for tuition and fees, but Utah Tech understands that the VA will pay those in 30 days of certification. There are some circumstances in which this policy will not apply:

1. The student requests certification of classes after the first day of classes. Students who do not request certification until after the first day of classes may incur a late fee which will not be paid by the VA.
Note: Students who wait too long to request certification may see that the VA will not send benefits to Utah Tech until after the date registration opens up. These students may not have the hold placed on their account to allow them to register for the next semester’s classes. They may have to wait until the VA pays their account before they can register.

2. Not all of the student’s classes can be certified. In this case, the student may owe tuition and fees to Utah Tech for classes that the VA will not send benefits for. Students are responsible for paying money owed for the non-certifiable classes. If money owed to Utah Tech is above $200, the hold placed on the CH 31 or Ch 33 student’s account will be removed until the student pays the account balance.

Students must verify enrollment every month in which they were in school. Students who wish to verify enrollment through text messaging or email may call VA Education at 888-442-4551 to set up these services.

The Web Automated Verification of Enrollment (WAVE) program is an Internet program used by chapter 30, 35, and 1606 students to verify their enrollment. Verification is required monthly. Students can also use WAVE to change their address and direct deposit information. Students who prefer to call and verify enrollment may call: 877-823-2378.

If you are attending Utah Tech using VA benefits, then you are eligible to receive the in-state tuition rate. More information on how to apply for in-state tuition can be found at step six from our Steps to Establish VA Educational Benefits at Utah Tech webpage.

Generally speaking, you can receive one general elective credit for each Semester Hour on your official transcript. Students who submit military transcripts and who receive VA Educational benefits DO NOT have the “option” of having prior credit reviewed. All previous education and training must be provided to the school for review. If you are unsure whether you want to have prior military training evaluated for credit, please contact Veterans and Military Services first. We will help you determine if it is right for you.

Upon request, all credit on your military transcripts that is eligible for general electives will be added to the student’s transcript. Once added, this process cannot be reversed. Students must be enrolled and registered for classes for the requested semester credits are applied.

To determine if military credit may be awarded, veterans will need to provide the Member 4 copy of their DD 214 discharge papers to the Director of Veterans and Military Services. The student must request official military transcripts for Utah Tech University. Use the following links to order official transcripts. Login with existing credentials or create an account, and send an official transcript to Utah Tech:

Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard

Go to our veterans website, https://veterans.utahtech.edu/, click on “Forms”, then “JST CREDIT REQUEST”, complete the form and email to veterans@utahtech.edu.

Air Force/Space Force

ACE recommendations from the Guide to the Evaluation of Education Experiences in the Armed Services and the review by the academic department determine the acceptance of military course credit. Credit acceptance is determined upon evaluation and correlation to existing degree plans. Upon request, students have the option to submit JST credit for general electives if the degree pathway calls for them. Scores for military credit are not included in any GPA calculation.

Transcripts are not evaluated until after the drop date of the semester after the request is received. See the Utah Tech Academic Calendar for the current semester’s drop date.

The VA may not send benefits for several reasons:

1. Students have not completed their required monthly verification.
2. Students have not requested that we certify their courses using the Semester Certification Request form.
3. Students submit their certification request to us late. Please understand the VA usually takes 30 days or more to process certification requests. Expect benefits to come 30 days after we certify your classes.
4. Students have too few certified credits to receive a housing allowance (CH31/33) or students have too few credits to receive a monthly stipend (CH 30, CH35, or 1606).
5. VA system outages or processing errors sometimes occur which causes delays in timely VA benefit processing.
6. Students are out of benefits.

We care about your experience at Utah Tech using VA benefits. The Veteran and Military Services staff are always happy to assist with any needs.

We have found that some of the best resources and guidance you can receive is from peers who have learned the VA system and have been successful in using VA benefits while at Utah Tech. They have up-to-date experiences that may apply directly to you. They are a great source for networking.

We established a VITAL Peer Mentor program to help you get in contact with students who are experienced and have gained a lot of knowledge. These peer mentors excel in providing guidance, on and off-campus resources, and even a good listening ear. Please contact you peer mentor if you have more questions.