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Guard Tuition — Full, But It Is a Forgivable Loan, Not a Grant

Full tuition at the state university system for a serving Guard member, and up to the state university rate at a private or out-of-state institution where the degree is not available here. Residency is not required. What is required is the obligation on the other side: two years of service for every academic year funded, and the money becomes repayable if the obligation goes unmet.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

Full tuition at the state university system for a serving Guard member, and up to the state university rate at a private or out-of-state institution where the degree is not available here. Residency is not required. What is required is the obligation on the other side: two years of service for every academic year funded, and the money becomes repayable if the obligation goes unmet.

What it's worth: Up to full tuition at the state university system; capped at the state university rate at a private or out-of-state institution; tuition only, reduced by other grants and scholarships

  • Certificate programmes require a six-month service commitment per certificate. The two-years-per-academic-year rule applies to full-time academic years of 12 credits or more, not to certificates.
  • The benefit caps at 130 credits across the programme.
  • The other terms are verified against the administering agency.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are a serving member of the state National Guard.
  • You are in this state.

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

Deadline: Application postmark deadline — and funding runs out before the deadline in practice
  1. 1Read the obligation before the offer. Two years of service for each academic year funded is the price of the money, and it is enforced through a promissory note you sign at the start.
  2. 2Apply early rather than by the deadline. Funding is stated as limited and awarded first come, first served, which means the postmark date is the last day, not the safe day.
  3. 3Exhaust the federal benefits first — federally funded tuition assistance and any post-9/11 entitlement. The state benefit is written to sit behind them and a claim that skips them is not clean.
  4. 4File both pieces: the unified scholarship application through the student portal, and the certification form through the Guard education office. One without the other does nothing.
  5. 5Budget for everything that is not tuition. This benefit is stated to cover tuition exclusively — fees, books and living costs are yours.
  6. 6If you are considering an institution outside the state system, establish in writing that the degree is not available in state. The benefit is written around that condition, and the cap is the state university rate whatever the school actually charges.
  7. 7Ask what "good cause" means for release from the obligation. Termination of service short of the commitment triggers pro rata reimbursement unless the Guard determines good cause, and that determination is the whole game.
Form
Unified Scholarship Application through the student assistance corporation, plus the tuition benefit certification form from the Guard education office
File with
The state student assistance corporation
Annual recertification
The office asks you to confirm each year.
CorrectionIt is described everywhere as full tuition, and it is — but the mechanism is a forgivable loan. A member who leaves the Guard early, fails to finish the programme, or does not work in the field here afterwards can find the benefit converting into a debt. That is not a footnote; it is the structure.
Worth knowingResidency is not required, which is unusual and generous. A Guard member who lives across a state line but drills here is inside the benefit.
Worth knowingThe part-time formula — one month of obligation per credit hour, capped at twelve months a semester — is worth doing on paper before enrolling. A member taking two courses a term for years accumulates obligation steadily without ever funding a full academic year.
Known gapThe administering corporation does not publish a lifetime cap on the benefit, or how the obligation interacts with a mobilisation that interrupts study. Ask the Guard education office before the first term.

Sources

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