Frequently Asked Questions

No! A digital version of the textbook is embedded in each course at no additional cost. Unrestricted access is available throughout the quarter. 

Lionel University accepts all VA GI Bill® benefits including CH1606, CH30, CH31, CH33, CH35, Fry Scholarship, and VA Vocational Rehabilitation.

The University also accepts Tuition Assistance (TA) and MyCAA programs.

For additional information on TA for specific branches, please visit our Military Benefits page.

Yes. If you need to supplement financing over the national maximum amount for VA or TA education benefits, you can still apply for federal financial aid by completing the FAFSA. More information is available on our financial aid resource page.

If you have elected to use Federal Financial Aid you may be eligible for a refund after the VA has made a payment to the school.

This is some additional information on military federal student loan benefits.

Federal Student Aid (FSA) consists of grant and loan programs provided through the U.S. Department of Education that are designed to assist students and their families with the costs of higher education.

Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 

The FAFSA takes about 30 minutes to complete. To determine which funds you are eligible for, you will be asked to enter information about your income and taxes paid, so please have your most recent tax returns on hand to help you complete it. Check out this video for more detailed guidance.

Enter our Federal School Code to send the results of the FAFSA to Lionel University: 042434. You will also need to complete the FAFSA for the correct Award Year in order to receive funds for the terms you are attending. 

Lionel University completes transfer credit evaluations free of charge. Once you complete your application, simply request that your past schools send your official transcripts to registrar@lionel.edu.

The application will provide information on what to request and where to have it sent. Our Admissions team is standing by to assist you with any questions you have along the way. Please feel free to schedule a meeting with one of our admissions team members here.

Yes, we accept both the Joint Services Transcript and the Community College of the Air Force transcripts. 

Once you have requested your transcripts, please allow us some time to review them. We will email you when your degree audit is ready.

Please contact the following organizations depending on your situation.

Army email: usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.tagd-jst@mail.mil or usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.tagd-jst@army.mil

Air Force if you have NOT completed courses via Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard or Army, please contact the Community College of the Air Force for further assistance: 

Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or Air Force service members that have completed Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard or Army Courses:

Department: NETC N644

In the subject line: JST Operations Center

6490 Saufley Field Road

Pensacola, Florida 32509

E-mail: jst@doded.mil

The Department of Defense (DoD) Tuition Assistance (TA) program covers up to 100% of tuition and fees, not to exceed $166 per quarter credit hours, or $4,500.00 per fiscal year (Oct. 1 through Sept. 30). Tuition assistance is available to active duty, National Guard and Reserve Component service members.

For more details about using TA, please see our Military Benefits page.

Lionel University is proud to offer the Active Duty Military Scholarship (ADMS) to our students eligible for military Tuition Assistance! To qualify for the ADMS, you must be eligible for military tuition assistance, and you need to have a current FAFSA submitted for the upcoming quarter.  Once the Pell Grant is applied, the scholarship will cover up to half of any remaining balance for the quarter.  This scholarship would be renewed each quarter the student remains eligible for TA.

How to Apply

1. Apply and be accepted to Lionel University. The no-cost application can be completed here.
2. Submit your TA vouchers to military@lionel.edu.  If you are eligible for TA but choose not to use the benefit, you can submit a copy of your orders instead. 
3. Submit a current FAFSA to determine Pell Grant eligibility.  
4. Once you are accepted to the university and have submitted the FAFSA, please submit the ADMS form. NOTE: You will not be able to access this form until you are accepted to the University. Apply using the link above.

For additional information and support, do not hesitate to contact our military team for support at 800-650-4772 x4 or military@lionel.edu

You may be eligible for Tuition Assistance Top-Up if you’re approved for federal TA and you meet both of these requirements.  This program is available to service members and veterans.

Both of these must be true:

• You qualify for Montgomery GI Bill® Active Duty (MGIB-AD) or Post-9/11 GI Bill® benefits, and
• The cost of the course and fees is more than TA will cover

For more information and application, please visit the Tuition Top-Up information on the VA website.

MyCAA will help pay for our Associate Degree program only. Within the Associate degree, students earn 6 personal training certifications. 

Enrolling is simple, please go to the MYCAA Military site. You will set up your account on the MyCAA site first, then once that is complete you will choose your school (Lionel University), then pick the course or courses you are interested in enrolling into.

Next, you will complete our short $0 online application. Once the application has been submitted, we will send you the necessary documents you will need to upload into your online MYCAA account to be approved for financial assistance.

We are currently in the review process for Credentialing Assistance and hope to offer this benefit soon.

If you drop a course or need to withdraw from school after the drop period please contact the Military Affairs office or your Student Advisor as soon as possible. The drop or withdrawal will result in an overpayment of tuition and fees if you are using Post 9/11 benefits, as well as a potential overpayment in the monthly housing stipend.  The VA will automatically grant a 6-credit hour exclusion the first time you drop/withdraw from courses while using benefits. This one-time exclusion cannot be granted if you complete the quarter and receive a non-punitive grade.

Mitigating circumstances are those beyond your control that prevent you from continuing to be enrolled or that cause you to reduce the number of credits. Examples include:

• An illness or injury afflicting you during the enrollment period
• An illness or death in your immediate family
• An unavoidable change in your conditions of employment
• Unanticipated active duty military service, including training
• Immediate family or financial obligations beyond your control that require you to suspend the pursuit of your education to gain employment.

To maximize your VA Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA), visit VA.gov or reach out to your VA Benefits Coordinator directly through the Department of Veterans Affairs. They can give you the specific details regarding what qualifies as full-time enrollment and help ensure you receive the maximum benefits.

Students may learn about education programs and benefits using the GI Bill® Comparison Tool to determine the entitlement they can receive for their education, training, and housing.

• You attended classes for only part of the month. Classes often begin and end somewhere in the middle of a month, instead of on the first and last day of a month.  The VA will base your payment only on the part of the month you attend classes. For example, if your monthly rate is $800, and your classes start on August 19, we’ll pay you $320 for August 19 to 31.
  Note: Your monthly rate is based on a 30-day period. The rate for a month that has 31 days (like October) is the same as the rate for a month with 30 days (like September). 
• We overpaid you at some point in the past. If the VA discovers an overpayment, they’ll pay you less for one or more payments.
• You reduced your enrollment hours during the term. If you stopped taking some of your classes—or reduced your training time—after you received your award letter, the VA will adjust the benefit payment amount.

If you are using Chapter 33, 30, 1606, or Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship you need to verify your attendance each month in order to receive their Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA).

If you fail to verify enrollment for two consecutive months, your MHA/kicker payments will be placed on hold.  In order to have your payments released, you will need to call the VA to verify your enrollment. When you call the VA to release your payments, you may also enroll in text message verification at that time.

Please see more details on the VA’s website.

Please see the instructions for your benefit below:

Chapter 33 – Post 9/11 benefits can verify their enrollment via text or phone call.

Via Text Message:

• Opt in: Students with a U.S. mobile phone number can use text messages as a simple, quick option for verifying monthly enrollment. As your enrollment approaches, you will receive the following opt-in text: “Post-9/11 GI Bill® housing and kicker payments now require monthly enrollment verification. Would you like to submit yours via text? Please reply YES or NO.” Reply “YES” to opt in. The text message link will expire 14 days after receipt, so please respond within that time frame.
• Verify: After opting in, you can verify your enrollment every month simply by responding to the following text message from VA: “Did you remain enrolled in your courses in MON YYYY as certified? Please reply YES or NO. If you have dropped all your courses, you must reply NO.” Reply “YES” to verify enrollment for the previous month.

The VA will never ask for your personal information, such as your social security number or bank account information, via text.

Please reach out to the Education Call Center (ECC) at 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) to update your contact information if you have not received a text message to opt-in. This will ensure that you receive the latest email updates on monthly enrollment verification and are able to opt-in to enrollment verification by text message.

Via Phone Call:

If you are unable to verify via text or email, you will need to contact the VA at 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) and ask a representative to verify your enrollment. NOTE: VA wait times may be high due to the number of students verifying enrollment each month. If you’re not sure if the VA has your phone number and/or email on file, you can also contact the VA to update your contact information and ensure you can verify via text or email.

Chapter 30 and 1606 recipients are required to contact the VA on the last day of each month to verify their attendance. If you forget to call, your payment will be held. If the number of credits or enrollment status is incorrect when you are verifying your attendance, contact the Veterans Education Benefits Office with the correct information. Do not try to correct it through the VA website.

Verify by phone: 1-877-823-2378

Verify online: WAVE system

If you are using the VA STEM scholarship you can verify your attendance using STEM text. Please see the VA’s PDF about the STEMText for more details.

Post-9/11 benefits will cover tuition and mandatory fees up to your entitlement percentage. An example of a non-mandatory fee is your transcript fee.

We certify enrollments in a two-step process. Initially, we will only certify your credits, and not report any tuition and fees. A few weeks into the quarter after the Add/Drop period ends,  the certification is amended to reflect tuition and fees. 

If you have elected to use Federal Financial Aid you may be eligible for a refund after the VA has made full payment to the school.

The practice of “rounding out” provides eligible students in their last quarter with the option to take additional classes to bring their course load to full-time and receive a full-time monthly housing allowance. During the last quarter of your degree program, you can add additional courses such as additional electives in order to have enough credits to be considered full-time. The additional course(s) need to be part of the program curriculum and cannot have been previously completed. You can only use the round-out option once for your degree program.

Lionel University fully complies with Section 103.1.(b) of the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018. For students who are covered under Chapter 31, Vocational Rehabilitation, and Chapter 33, Lionel University will not impose any penalty on any covered individual because of the individual’s inability to meet his or her financial obligations to the institution due to the delayed disbursement of funding from the VA under Chapter 31 or Chapter 33.  

Covered students will not be prevented from attending or enrolling in courses, will not be charged late fees, and will not be otherwise denied access to University services due to late payment from the VA until 90 days after the University has certified tuition and fees to the VA following the receipt of a Certificate of Eligibility or Statement of Benefits.  The Certificate of Eligibility and  Authorization to Certify should be provided to the Military Affairs Office before the start of classes to ensure that benefits are processed promptly.