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Minnesota GI Bill — $5,000 a Year

Up to $5,000 a year and $15,000 lifetime, for school, apprenticeship or on-the-job training — for veterans, for serving Guard and reserve members with five or more cumulative years since 11 September 2001, and for families of the fallen and the severely disabled. The apprenticeship path can also generate two $1,000 job placement credits.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

Up to $5,000 a year and $15,000 lifetime, for school, apprenticeship or on-the-job training — for veterans, for serving Guard and reserve members with five or more cumulative years since 11 September 2001, and for families of the fallen and the severely disabled. The apprenticeship path can also generate two $1,000 job placement credits.

What it's worth: Up to $5,000 an academic year; $15,000 lifetime

  • Apprenticeship and on-the-job training draw from the same programme at up to $3,000 a fiscal year, inside the $15,000 lifetime aggregate.
  • Two job placement credits of $1,000 each are available on that path, at six months and at twelve months of employment.
  • The aggregate cap on the apprenticeship and on-the-job-training path is $5,000 in one fiscal year.
  • National Guard and reserve members with five or more cumulative years of service after 11 September 2001 are eligible in their own right — this is not a veterans-and-survivors-only programme.
  • The $5,000 annual and $15,000 lifetime headline figures are verified against the statute.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are enrolled at, or applying to, an eligible institution or training programme.
  • You are the veteran.
  • You were honorably discharged.
  • Spouses and children of the deceased or severely disabled qualify where federally benefits-eligible.
  • Your home is in Minnesota.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Complete the FAFSA first — it is a programme condition, not a formality.
  2. 2Apply through the financial aid office; every Minnesota public institution participates.
  3. 3If you are the spouse or child of a service member who died or is severely disabled, apply on your own eligibility — the family routes stand on their own.
File with
Your institution’s financial aid office, after completing the FAFSA
Documents you will need
dd214
Each term
Claimed per academic term.
Worth knowingThis is money, not tuition remission — $5,000 a year against a $15,000 lifetime aggregate — so it stacks differently against the federal GI Bill than a remission programme would.
Worth knowingThe programme also pays for licensing and certification examinations, graduate entrance examinations and preparatory courses — uses veterans routinely assume are out of scope.
Known gapMaintaining satisfactory academic progress and child support compliance are conditions, and the Guard route carries its own service tests we publish only in outline.

Sources

Why only one source type: The statute on the revisor's own site states the amounts, the routes and the conditions. The Department of Veterans Affairs administers it, and its pages sit on a host we could not verify separately today.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.