About STAState Tuition Assistance

Funded by the State of Texas, the State Tuition Assistance Program is an education benefit that provides money for college to eligible members of the Texas Military Department pursuing their educational and career goals. This benefit is available to active drilling members (not AGR) of any of the 3 following Texas components:

  • Texas Army National Guard (TXARNG)
  • Texas Air National Guard (TXANG)
  • Texas State Guard (TXSG)

Applicants interested in requesting assistance must:

  • Have completed Basic Training (or its equivalent)
  • Be attending an accredited Texas college or university
  • Be pursuing:
    • an academic certificate
    • their first undergraduate degree
    • their first graduate or professional degree

Interested in applying for State Tuition Assistance? Click on the “How Do I Apply” link below to find the application form. But first, take note of this new requirement for the new school year.

Degree Plan. We must have a degree plan on file for each applicant. It can be an electronic printout from your student portal or you can scan an actual document

 

Additional Questions?

All applicants can submit inquiries by email: email

Texas Air National Guard Airmen may also contact:

 

 

 

 


Our office reviews each application to determine whether an applicant meets all the qualifications for a State TA award and to determine the qualified amount of each award. The review process focuses on 3 categories of information. An applicant must get a GO in all 3 in order to be approved to receive a State TA tuition award. The categories are: 1) Military Service, 2) Financial Eligibility and 3) Scholastic Eligibility

Click on the “More Information” link below to find more information about the review process.

 

More Information

Application Instructions: 

State TA for Fall and Spring can now be requested submitting one application form.

1.   Fill out the State TA application form.

FY20 Application Form

(Applications are no longer being accepted for the 2019-2020 school year. The 2020-2021 request form will be available here by July 2020)

♦ Select the option to download the document

♦ Open the saved document in Adobe Reader

♦ If using a mobile device, you can download the Adobe Reader app

♦ In the open document, click on the pencil icon to "Fill & Sign"

♦ Filling out the form electronically works best when using Adobe Reader

2.   Sign the form and save the completed form in a digital format.

3.   Attach the saved file in an email to ng.tx.txarng.mbx.trp@mail.mil.

4.   Submit Additional Documents AFTER the semester begins.

 

5.   Submit an Official Transcript AFTER the semester ends.

   

 

See “Deadlines” section for current deadlines of all steps


Click the link below for more details on the application instructions.

Deadline summary:

  Fall Semester Spring Semester
1) Primary Application Deadline August 11, 2019 December 1, 2019
   Secondary Application Deadline September 8, 2019 February 2, 2020
2) Supporting Documents Deadline September 30, 2019 February 29, 2020
3) Official Transcript Deadline January 12, 2020 June 7, 2020

Additional Information On Deadlines

Award Funding Limitations


State TA awards up to 12 credit hours of tuition and mandatory fees per academic semester during Fall and Spring semesters only, not to exceed $4,500 per semester. The current budget level of this program paired with levels of participant demand do not allow awarding full 12 credit awards to all eligible applicants. Most applicants will receive a State TA award up to 6 credit hours of tuition and fees, not to exceed $2,250 per semester. 

In addition to the financial criteria described in the “How Do I Qualify” section of this site, award amounts are based on:  1) available funding, 2) the number of eligible applicants for that semester and 3) the successful completion of courses.

More Information

State Tuition Process Status
Figure 1. Summarized 5 step process for State TA.

The State TA Program will reimburse Service Members with out-of-pocket expenses for tuition and mandatory fees. Students are responsible to the school for all charges at the beginning of the semester. If all steps are followed, after the semester is over an award payment is sent to the school. The school will either apply the funds to new charges or refund the amount to the student.

Figure 1 shows a simplified model of the State TA process. Status updates are sent to all applicants throughout the semester. At a minimum, the completion of each of the 5 steps in this model will be announced to the applicant in a status update email.

The general process is detailed a little more fully below. More specific steps required to apply for this benefit can be found in the “How To Apply” section.

More Information

  • STATE TA awards are based on: 1. available funding, 2. number of eligible applicants and 3. successful course completion. Since any one of these factors can change from one semester to the next, an award amount received one semester may not be the same as one received another semester even for the same person.
  • Applicants will receive multiple email status updates throughout the semester. If you are not receiving status updates, contact the Education Office to ensure that your application was received and is being processed. See the section on “How It Works” for a list of expected status updates.
  • The tuition award will only reimburse classes that are successfully completed. Classes that are withdrawn, incomplete or failed will not be reimbursed. Official transcripts are required to confirm grades.
  • This program does not pay until after the end of the academic semester. Therefore, it is the applicant’s responsibility to work with the school to satisfy the payment requirements at the beginning of the semester. Most schools will not defer charges based on your application for State Tuition Assistance. 
  • Schedule changes should be reported by submitting an updated course schedule and fee statement to the Education Office.
  • The State TA award will be issued at the completion of the academic semester and only after an official transcript is received in the Education Office.
  • By Texas State law, this program is only authorized to issue payments directly to a college or university in Texas. We cannot issue payments to out of state institutions or to individual persons.
  • Payments are sent as a bulk payment that includes all awards for all award recipients at a given school. Schools may take 7-10 days from the date the payment is received in their accounting system to process the payment. It may take additional time for the school to update the student’s account.
  • If the STATE TA payment creates a positive balance on the student’s account, then the school may issue a refund of the appropriate amount. The school may offer other options to handle the positive account balance.

The last step to complete a Tuition Assistance request is to send in your official transcript to show you passed your classes. Only OFFICIAL transcripts will be accepted. Unofficial versions or screen shots of your grades will NOT be accepted.

PLEASE NOTE: Send in your official transcript AFTER your grades have posted. If you send in your transcript without the grades showing, you will have to order another transcript.

The general rule is to send your transcript to our office in an electronic/digital format. Most schools now provide an electronic PDF version that can be ordered online and sent electronically directly to our office. If this option is available to you, this is the method you should use.

If you are a student at Texas A&M University College Station or Galveston campus only, click on the link below for more information on steps you need to take when sending your transcript. "Do NOT follow the steps in the next paragraph. Click on the More Information link below and in the detailed instructions, read the information under Option #1, A."

For students of all other schools, login to the transcript ordering site for your school.

On the transcript order screen, search the list of recipients to find "Texas Military Department, Tuition Assistance". Select that option as the recipient and complete the ordering process. If you are unable to find this listing, enter our email address as the recipient: "ng.tx.txarng.mbx.trp@mail.mil". If your school does not offer electronic transcripts, order a paper copy for yourself. Once you have it, scan it and send a copy to our office.

Once we receive your transcripts, we will send out confirmations AFTER your grades have been logged into our system. At certain points it may take a few days from receiving the transcript to update the grades. Please be patient, but if a week passes or the deadline approaches with no confirmation from our office please send an email to confirm if we received your transcript.

Click on the link below to see a more detailed explanation of the suggested steps to send in your official transcript.

More Information

FAQ

  • Active drilling members in “Good Standing” with TXARNG, TXANG or TXSG.

  • Eligible ranks are: Enlisted (E1-E9), Officers (O1-O5) and Warrant Officers (W1-W3).

  • Applicants must be accepted and registered in a Texas qualifying college or university. Part-time or full-time students are eligible.

  • Applicants must have completed Basic Training prior to the start of the semester. TXSG must complete BOT, RBOT or AIT.

  • Members must continue to serve in their component through the end of the semester. The Service Member’s Expiration of Term of Service (ETS) or Mandatory Retirement Date (MRD) must be a date after the official last day of class. State Guard Members do not have a contract ETS date, but must serve through the end of the semester in order to receive the award payment.

  • ROTC (GRFD and DANG) Cadets utilizing the Room & Board scholarship option or non-scholarship contracts are eligible.

  • Members on AGR status are not eligible.

  • Applicant must attend a public or private college or university with headquarters in Texas as defined in Texas Education Code Section 61.003. For profit schools are not eligible.

  • Must have and maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA.

  • Based on available funding, STA is available for fall and spring academic semesters only. If you are in classes that do not align with the standard fall and spring semester, your classes will be assigned to either the fall or spring processing period based on the start and end date of your classes. Payments are issued out only at the end of the standard fall and spring semesters.

  • The average award payment is for up to 6 credits of tuition and fees, not to exceed $2,250 per semester.

  • Applicants registered for more than 6 credit hours in a semester will be considered for an award upgrade to a "maximum award", which is the equivalent of up to 12 credit hours worth of tuition and mandatory fees. Our available funds normally allow only a small number of award upgrades each semester.

  • Private school reimbursement rates are calculated based on the average STA award for public schools each semester.

  • Public school Out-of-State/Non-Resident tuition or Out-of-district fee charges are not eligible for reimbursement. Tuition awards will be approved at the in-state, resident rate or in-district rate.

  • Applicants pursuing their first undergraduate, graduate or professional degree have funding priority, in that order.

  • State tuition assistance is available for five academic years or ten semesters.

  • Incomplete, Dropped or Failed classes are ineligible for reimbursement.

  • Continuing education classes are not eligible for reimbursement, these are classes that do not earn academic credits and do not qualify for formula funding by the State of Texas.

  • Yes, State TA can be used or “stacked” with other federal tuition assistance or state programs to cover up to 100% of tuition and eligible fees.

  • If other programs are covering 100% of the tuition and eligible fees, then there is no remaining amount that qualifies for a State TA award.

  • Yes, however, your Pell, SEOG, grants and/or scholarships will be included when calculating your eligible award amount. Grants and Scholarships may reduce the amount of qualifying charges that State TA can pay. If there is any doubt, go ahead and apply for State TA. We will review your information during our normal processing and let you know if you have any remaining charges that qualify for a State TA award.

  • Loans will not be included in the calculation of eligible award amount.

  • If we do not receive information on all the financial aid you are awarded, then our calculation for a State TA award may exceed the maximum amount of aid that your school is allowed to apply to your account. In this case, your school may not accept all or part of your State TA award payment based on the total amount in financial aid that you have been awarded. Additionally, intentional failure to disclose other financial aid, grants or scholarships may be grounds for denial, permanent disqualification from the program as well as prosecution under the Texas Military Code of Justice.

All eligible applicants are first assigned a "standard award" amount which is the equivalent of up to 6 credit hours worth of tuition and fees. At the end of the semester applicants that are registered for more than 6 credit hours of classes are reviewed and upgraded if funding is available. Priority for award upgrades is based on various factors including:

  • Working on an undergraduate degree

  • ROTC Cadet that does NOT have an ROTC scholarship contract

  • Not receiving financial aid such as Pell Grant, SEOG, Texas Grant, or other scholarships

  • Attending a private college or university

  • Will be graduating in the current school year

  • First year student (fewer than 30 semester credit hours)

  • It’s a statutory requirement that can only be changed by the Texas Legislature.