Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits Running Out?

Extend Your Eligibility through the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship

While jobs in STEM-related professions are in demand, they require skills and education. Now, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is offering veterans an opportunity to pursue that education even if their benefits are beginning to run out.

It’s called the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship, and it was developed for students training in high demand STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. According to the VA, recipients can receive up to nine months of additional Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement or a maximum of $30,000. Eligible Post-9/11 GI Bill students must have either exhausted their entitlement or will exhaust it within 180 days. Eligibility for this scholarship has two paths:

A student enrolled in a STEM program leading to an undergraduate degree who has completed 60 credit hours of their program and requires at least 120 semester (or 180 quarter) credit hours to graduate.
A student who has earned a STEM undergraduate degree and has enrolled in a teaching certification program.

Scholarship Details

Priority is given to individuals who are entitled to 100 percent of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits and to those who require the most credit hours.
The Yellow Ribbon Program may not be used with this extension. Schools may apply for Yellow Ribbon funding, but VA can’t match it.
Additional benefits can’t be transferred to dependents.
Fry Scholars are eligible to apply for the Rogers STEM Scholarship.

Additionally, students must be enrolled in or have earned a degree in one of the following disciplines:

Agriculture Science or Natural Resources Science Program
Biological or Biomedical Science
Computer and Information Science and Support Services
Engineering or Engineering Technologies
Healthcare
Mathematics or Statistics
Medical Residency
Physical Science or Science Technologies

Scholarship Namesake

This STEM scholarship is named after Edith Nourse Rogers who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1925–1961 and was a tireless advocate for Veterans. She was one of the first women to serve in Congress and had the second-longest tenure of any woman elected in Congress. Rogers served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Civil Service Committee, chaired the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and was the first woman to preside as the House of Representatives Speaker pro tempore. For additional information, please visit the Rogers STEM Scholarship website at https://benefits.va.gov/gibill/fgib/stem.asp or contact an ECPI University military and veteran student advisor at militaryaffairs@ecpi.edu.