Semester Pay Planner

One question at a time. At the end you get the full-month rate VA would pay for each stretch of your term — a rate, not your deposit — with every rule and ODU figure behind it one tap away.

Updated October 2026: one question at a time. Choosing a term no longer ticks a session for you: pick each session you take.

Print or screenshot your result before you leave: nothing you enter here is saved or sent anywhere, and it is gone when you close the page.

The rules behind every number, in order

1 · Rate of pursuit: Your credits divided by the credits your school calls full time, "rounded to the nearest hundredth", never above 100% — 38 CFR 21.9505. Classes in overlapping sessions are combined for the period they overlap — VA's current School Certifying Official Handbook (On-line), Revision 8.00, 2026-08-13 (KnowVA article 554400000149088, updated 2026-09-01, read 2026-09-02 in a browser — the page is script-rendered): "When enrollment periods overlap, credit hour equivalents for the period of overlap are combined"; and in its overlapping-terms section, "If a student has a period during which their individual or combined RoP drops to 50% or less, no MHA is payable during that period." The same handbook: "SCOs should always report actual credit hours to VA, not equivalent credit hours (ECH)" — VA makes the conversion; this page only previews it.
2 · Short sessions: Undergraduate: a session outside the standard length (15–19 weeks for semester hours, 10–13 for quarter hours — the windows VA prints in its own 2021 advisory charts) is converted first: credits × 18 (semester hours) or × 12 (quarter hours) ÷ whole weeks — the quotient, fraction kept, is the equivalent credit hours (VA's Semester Hour Equivalency Chart, read 2026-09-28: "Sem Hrs X 18 Div by Length of Term in Weeks" — 3 hours in 8 weeks is 6.7); weeks are days ÷ 7 with a remainder of 3 or fewer disregarded and 4 or more counted as a week — 38 CFR 21.4272(g). VA makes this conversion, not the school. Graduate: no conversion since 2021 — "VA will no longer convert the credit certified to an equivalent credit hour (ECH)"; the SCO reports a full-time modifier for the term — the school's own if it has one, otherwise an adjusted modifier the SCO determines from VA's chart — and rate of pursuit is credits ÷ that certified modifier; this page uses the modifier you enter from the SCO and computes nothing without it — VA Procedural Advisory, 2021-08-13; extended to Chapter 31 by the VR&E SCO Handbook § G.4.
3 · More than half time: Housing allowance is paid only for a month "on more than a half-time basis" — 38 U.S.C. 3313(c)(1)(B)(i). VA: "your rate of pursuit must be more than 50%." Exactly 50% is not more than half. Last term: since 2025-01-01, a Chapter 33 or STEM student above half time in the last term of the program is paid the full-time housing allowance — VA's handbook: Section 208 of the Dole Act "allows Post-9/11 GI Bill (chapter 33) and STEM students… to receive full-time Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA) during their last term, provided they initially enroll at, or round out to, more than 50% Rate of Pursuit (RoP)"; "Under Dole Rounding Out, students' entitlement is charged based on the actual number of credits they are enrolled in, not on the full-time housing payment they receive"; the SCO "checks the 'Rounding out last term' box"; once "for a specific program and facility combination" (SCO Handbook (On-line), Dole Rounding Out, Revision 8.00, 2026-08-13; 38 U.S.C. 3680(a)(3); VA Education office hours Q&A, FY2025 February, updated 2025-06-04). This page applies it only when you say this is your last term; the SCO's box on the certification is what pays it.
4 · The in-person rule: Entirely online, the stipend is "50 percent" of the national-average amount — 38 U.S.C. 3313(c)(1)(B)(iii); the location-based rate: "An individual, other than one on active duty, who is pursuing a program of education with at least one in-residence course and who has a rate of pursuit of greater than 50 percent at an IHL located in a State, may receive a monthly housing allowance" — 38 CFR 21.9641(c)(1) (the current section; 21.9640 covers periods before August 1, 2011). VA's own words are conditional: with at least one in-person course you "may be eligible" for the location rate — the School Certifying Official's certification of that class as in residence is what decides it. This page shows the location-rate figure only as the figure you would be eligible for if the class is certified in residence; it awards nothing. Rate protection: "The monthly housing allowance payable under paragraphs (c)(1) through (5) of this section will not decrease as long as the individual— (i) Has not had a break in training that exceeds 6 months. An individual called to active duty (during an enrollment period or 6-month grace period) will not see a decrease as long as the individual resumes training at the educational institution within 6 months from the release from active duty; and (ii) Previously received the monthly housing allowance based on the same type of training (residence, distance, foreign) at the same educational institution. A change in facility (transferring to a different school or a different branch of the same school) constitutes a change in educational institution." — 38 CFR 21.9641(c)(8) (eCFR, read 2026-09-28). A student already paid at ODU may be held at an earlier, higher rate, so this page’s figure can be lower than VA’s payment; the award letter or the benefits office has it.
5 · The multiplier: The housing figure is multiplied by your rate of pursuit "rounded to the nearest multiple of 10" — same statute. VA's own example: 9 of 12 credits is 75%, paid as 80%. Then your benefit tier applies. Figures here are shown to the cent from whole-dollar inputs; VA's own final rounding of the payment is not published on the pages cited.
6 · Months and breaks: Paid "at the end of each month"; a partial month is prorated — 38 CFR 21.9641(c) — by a day-count method this page does not reproduce, so it shows monthly rates, not partial months. No housing allowance between terms: "In 2011, Congress passed a law that prohibits VA from paying MHA during school breaks" (va.gov, 2024-04-11) — on this page a gap between sessions is shown as a non-payable stretch. A vacation inside a session (spring break) is different: you are still enrolled, and this page uses it only to count weeks under 21.4272(g)(2); whether VA treats a particular within-term break as a break from school is the SCO's certification, not this page's.
7 · Chapter 31: Training time comes from the printed table at 38 CFR 21.4270(c) — 14 hours full time, 10–13 three-quarter, 7–9 half — and from its footnote where a school certifies 13 (¾ = 10–12) or 12 hours ("9 through 11 hours as 3/4 time, 6 through 8 hours as 1/2 time"); graduate standards are "as certified by a responsible official of the school", proportional. Active-duty service members in Chapter 31 training are not paid subsistence — "Service members, who are on active duty and who have been authorized to participate in training under the Chapter 31 program, are not entitled to receive subsistence allowance" (VR&E SCO Handbook § F.3); the page asks and refuses accordingly. Standard subsistence is the fiscal-year table in force on the stretch's dates — FY2026 (2025-10-01 to 2026-09-30) or FY2027 (2026-10-01 to 2027-09-30); a term that runs across 1 October is split there and each part is priced by its own table; the elected Post-9/11 rate is entire / ¾ / ½ of the ZIP figure, or ½ / ⅜ / ¼ of the national average when solely online — 38 CFR 21.260(c), footnote 5 — and for Chapter 31 the ZIP is that of the "institution, agency, or employer providing the rehabilitation program", the parent institution if you attend more than one (not Chapter 33's majority-of-classes rule). The elected Post-9/11 rate follows a rate year VA adjusts each January 1 (VR&E SCO Handbook § F.2); this page carries the 2026 rate year only, so a term that runs across 1 January is split there and a stretch outside that year shows UNKNOWN. Below half time subsistence "is not payable" — 38 CFR 21.314 — with two exceptions VA decides, not you: reduced work tolerance and quarter-time under an extended evaluation plan. Ask your counselor.
8 · Dropping a class: A class dropped before its first day was never attended; the school removes it — and if it had already been certified or paid on, the SCO reviews for a debt (VA lists "Student withdrew on or before the first day of term" among the causes of a school debt — VA, GI Bill Overpayments and Debts, updated 2026-05-18). A class dropped after it has started — even inside the school's add/drop period — is a reduction, not "never enrolled": VA to certifying officials, "The charges for the original credit load must be reported (using the 'Amend' function) even if the student reduces during the drop/add period. SCOs will follow with an adjusted certification that includes the reduced credits" — "The law entitles the student to a prorated T&Fs payment" (VA Education Service, December 2021 office hours, slide 20); "If this reduction happened during drop/add, the 6-credit hour does not apply"; "A drop that occurs after the 1st day of the term doesn't create any books and supplies debt, but there may be housing debt, dependent on whether VA makes the reduction in credit hours before the affected housing payment is released" (VA Education Service, August 2021 office hours, slide 35). When a reduction takes effect is VA’s decision, and it depends on the case: when in the term the drop happens, whether any other class remains, whether a grade is assigned and whether it is punitive, whether there are mitigating circumstances, whether the withdrawal is because of active-duty orders, and — when every class is dropped — whether the training is in residence or online. For Chapter 33 the rules are 38 CFR 21.9636, paragraphs (c) and (d) (eCFR, read 2026-09-28). This page does not pick the date for you: the SCO gives it. The SCO reports the change and its date; VA sets the effective date (38 CFR 21.4200(l), 21.9636(b)). Chapter 31 has its own rules — your counselor has the date. After the add/drop period, a withdrawal with a non-punitive grade sends benefits back to "the first day of the term" unless there are mitigating circumstances, and VA "automatically grants mitigating circumstances for up to 6 credits the first time, and only the first time" (VA, Changes or Withdrawal of Classes, 2021). Money already paid becomes a debt. ODU Fall 2026 full term: add/drop ends Sep 2, 2026; last day to withdraw Nov 13, 2026. Spring 2027: Jan 20 and Apr 9, 2027. Summer 2027 full term: May 19 and Jul 30, 2027. Fall 2027: Sep 1 and Nov 12, 2027. Talk to the benefits office before you drop, not after.

Semester Pay Planner

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