Maintaining Your Benefits

Loyola is committed to helping veterans and individuals receiving military education benefits navigate the process to ensure the continuation of their benefits.

This page outlines one-time and recurring actions to maintain military education benefits.

Complete the Veterans Benefits Registration Form on Self-Service

Once entitlement is established by the DVA, individuals using veterans education benefits must submit a Veteran Education Benefits Registration form to Loyola University Maryland's School Certifying Official. This form, which is available to students via their student account in Self-Service, needs to be completed for each semester that you wish to use your benefits. Loyola University Maryland's School Certifying Official will then prepare enrollment certification based on your enrollment status and submit it to the DVA for processing and payment. Only courses that satisfy requirements outlined by the curriculum guide or graduation evaluation form can be certified for VA purposes. If you take a course that does not fulfill a program requirement, it cannot be certified for VA purposes. 

Enrollment Status

All students using their educational benefits from the DVA are required by law to keep the University informed of the following:

• Periods of enrollment
• Audits and withdrawals
• Change of degree programs
• Catalog change
• Address change
• Change in dependents (VA Form 22-686c required)
• Requests for course substitutions (approval must be obtained prior to enrolling in course)

Students are advised to report any change in credit hours to the Loyola University Maryland’s School Certifying Official (SCO) as soon as possible, as delays in reporting a change in status may impede the processing of your benefits.

Verify your monthly enrollment

When you use VA education benefits, you may be required to verify your enrollment at the end of each month.

Depending on your benefit type, there are several ways to verify your enrollment, including through text, email, Ask VA, phone, or online. How you can verify depends on which VA education program you are using. Students using Chapter 35, Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) should visit the enrollment verification page for DEA.

You can change the method of verifying your enrollment to whichever one is most convenient for you. If you encounter any issues with a verification method or have questions about verifying your enrollment, please contact the VA through Ask VA.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

All students receiving DVA education benefits are required to maintain satisfactory academic progress according to published standards established and enforced by the University. Loyola University Maryland's Standards of Progress have been approved by the State Approving Agency (SAA) and accepted by the DVA.

You must maintain satisfactory academic progress and complete all your classes. Classes for which benefits will be paid for by the VA must fulfill requirements for graduation in your stated program. Any subsequent programs must be requested and approved by the VA. Summer credits are counted a little differently, so please contact Loyola University Maryland’s School Certifying Official (410-617-2347) or vabenefits@loyola.edu for more information.

U.S. Code, Title 38, Sections 1674 and 1724, requires that education assistance benefits to veterans and other eligible persons be discontinued when the student ceases to make satisfactory progress toward completion of their training objective. Accordingly, Loyola University Maryland will discontinue certification of enrollment and will inform the DVA of a termination (due to unsatisfactory academic progress) for undergraduate students who remain on academic probation for two consecutive semesters and for graduate students who are subject to dismissal. This may result in the student being overpaid. Students have a right to appeal terminations. The DVA determines whether or not payment will be terminated and the conditions for reinstatement.

Repeating Classes

Benefits will not be paid for repeating courses in which a passing grade is received. For undergraduate students, a passing grade is D (1.000) or better. For graduate students, a passing grade is C (2.000) or better. The only exception (at this time) is when University policy requires that the student earn a higher grade in a specific course. The academic program of a student on warning or probation may be restricted by the Dean. If enrollment restrictions include repeating courses for which the student initially received a passing grade, the DVA will not reimburse the student for the course. There is, otherwise, no limit on the number of times an eligible person may repeat a course for which a failing (or otherwise unacceptable) grade is received, provided the University's overall Satisfactory Progress Standards are met.