RA is the founder of We Got You 1776, a retired U.S. Air Force Air Traffic Controller.

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<h3>Plan your Post-9/11 GI Bill, Chapter 35 DEA, and Fry Scholarship with confidence.</h3><p>This tool provides a unique 'phase approach' to help military families understand and optimize the order in which they use their VA education benefits. By mapping out benefits in the most advantageous sequence, families can potentially maximize their educational funding, saving thousands of dollars.</p><ul><li><strong>Free Planning Tool:</strong> Offers a free college planning tool that visualizes how different VA education benefits work together.</li><li><strong>Benefit Stacking:</strong> Specifically addresses the complexity of using multiple benefits, such as the Post-9/11 GI Bill®, Chapter 35 DEA, and Fry Scholarship, ensuring the optimal order for maximum benefit.</li><li><strong>Phase Approach:</strong> A proprietary method that sequences benefits to achieve the greatest financial advantage for your family's education.</li><li><strong>Free Book:</strong> Provides a free, easy-to-understand guide, "The Order Matters," covering the Post-9/11 GI Bill®, Chapter 35 DEA, and the Fry Scholarship.</li><li><strong>Mobile App:</strong> A dedicated app available on the App Store and Google Play that allows users to map their benefits, view a personalized roadmap, see total benefit utilization, and generate a printable worksheet for school officials.</li><li><strong>Privacy Focused:</strong> The app is designed with privacy in mind, requiring no account, login, or personal data collection.</li><li><strong>Optional Upgrade:</strong> A yearly subscription unlocks full national database access across all 50 states and advanced dependent education calculations.</li></ul><p>This independent planning tool is built by a military family for military families, aiming to simplify the complex process of utilizing educational benefits effectively.</p>

Free GI Bill Planning for Military Families

<h3>College Tool</h3><p>College Tool is designed to help military and veteran families meticulously plan their college education around their earned benefits, including the GI Bill®, DEA, Fry Scholarship, and Yellow Ribbon programs. This application allows users to stack these benefits across different phases of their education, such as stateside, overseas, and branch-campus studies, providing a clear understanding of the financial implications at each stage.</p><ul><li><strong>Target Audience:</strong> Ideal for veterans, active-duty service members, military spouses, dependents using Chapter 35 DEA or Fry Scholarship, children of veterans, and ROTC families.</li><li><strong>Key Features:</strong></li><ul><li>Search over 8,000 VA-approved colleges (Premium feature).</li><li>Phase-based planning for stateside, overseas, and branch campuses.</li><li>Accurate calculation of Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA) / Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) based on location.</li><li>Eligibility flagging for the Yellow Ribbon program.</li><li>Modeling for Fry Scholarship and Chapter 35 DEA cash stipends.</li><li>Pace comparison for different credit loads per semester (9, 12, 15, 18 credits).</li><li>Reconciliation of tuition, scholarships, and out-of-pocket expenses.</li><li>Access to the Founders Mentorship Program for Fry Scholarship recipients.</li><li>Multi-phase visualization to plan sequential educational periods.</li></ul><li><strong>Privacy Focused:</strong> The app is designed with privacy in mind, ensuring that no entered data is saved, no accounts are required, and no analytics are tied to the user. All data is stored locally and is deleted when the app is closed. Users can generate a worksheet to save their plan.</li><li><strong>Premium Subscription:</strong> Offers enhanced features such as access to all college searches, multi-phase planning, overseas and branch campus tuition modeling, and PDF worksheet generation for $17.99/year.</li></ul><p><em>College Tool is an independent planning aid and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense.</em></p>

College Tool - Apps on Google Play

<h3>Plan college around the benefits you've earned.</h3><p>College Tool helps military and veteran families build a real, phased plan for paying for college, using the benefits they've already earned. Whether you're an active-duty service member preparing to transfer your Post-9/11 GI Bill® to a dependent, a separating or retiring veteran finalizing your education path, a spouse navigating Yellow Ribbon, or a child of a veteran heading to college on DEA (Chapter 35) or the Fry Scholarship, this app shows exactly where your entitlement covers tuition, housing, and books and where the gaps are.</p><p>Built by a veteran. Runs entirely on your phone. No accounts, no tracking, no signup.</p><h4>Who it's for:</h4><ul><li>Veterans planning to use the GI Bill® themselves or transfer to a dependent</li><li>Active-duty service members mapping out their family's education future</li><li>Retirees and separating service members planning the next chapter</li><li>Spouses navigating Yellow Ribbon and Post-9/11 GI Bill® together</li><li>Dependents on DEA (Chapter 35) or the Fry Scholarship</li><li>Children of veterans heading to college</li><li>ROTC families and military spouses balancing tuition, housing, and BAH/MHA</li></ul><h4>What you can do:</h4><ul><li>Build multi-phase college plans: stateside, overseas, US branch campus, online</li><li>See where Post-9/11 GI Bill® covers tuition, BAH/MHA, and books — and where it doesn't</li><li>Stack Chapter 33 + Chapter 35 + Fry where eligibility allows</li><li>Account for combined-cap and outer-ceiling rules (38 CFR § 21.4020(c))</li><li>Apply the Forever GI Bill® housing rule (where you physically attend each term)</li><li>Handle the 81-month outer ceiling on combined entitlement</li><li>Compare stateside vs. overseas housing scenarios</li><li>Save a PDF of your plan to share with your family or your school's certifying official</li></ul><p><strong>What it isn't:</strong> This is not a benefits filing tool. It does not submit claims, confirm eligibility, or guarantee outcomes. It is an estimator that helps you understand what you've earned and plan a path that uses it well.</p><p><strong>Subscription Details:</strong> College Tool is free to use for five states with GI Bill calculations — no payment, no expiration, no trial. The free tier is permanent. Premium Annual subscription: $17.99 per year. Unlocks every state, the top 50 overseas options, and dependent education calculations. Auto-renews at $17.99/year unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the renewal date. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings.</p>