Veterans are eligible for advance GI Bill education benefit payments for college or vocational schools. That advance payout includes the first and following month of your college enrollment. There is one caveat here: if you take advance pay, you don’t get your following payment until more than two months later. Remember to include this “lag time” into your budgeting for school. The advance payment is a good option, but if you are trying to simply pay off the amount of your tuition and fees, check with the school before taking an advance MGIB benefits payment.

Some schools will put your tuition “on hold” pending your regular GI Bill payment schedule. This means you have an extension of the deadline based on the anticipated payout of your first GI Bill education benefit. If this is the case it may be to your advantage to get on the regular schedule of MGIB payments.