IVG Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for the Illinois Veteran Grant, a student must:

• Meet one of the following two criteria:
  • Have served at least one year of federal active duty service in the Armed Forces of the United States, which may include the Illinois National Guard and the Reserve component of the Armed Forces, or
  • Regardless of length of service, have served in a foreign country in a time of hostilities in that country; was medically discharged for service related reasons; or was discharged prior to August 11, 1967.
    
• Have received an honorable discharge (general discharge under honorable conditions is not eligible) for each period of federal active duty service, and/or be honorably serving.**  Contact information is available for Illinois military personnel who need to request a copy of the DD214 (equivalent to the DD214 Member 4).
• Not be a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).
• Meets one of the following two criteria:
  • have been a resident of Illinois at the time of entering federal active duty or within six months prior to entering the service, or 
  • have been a student at an Illinois public 2- or 4-year college at the time of entering federal active duty.
• Meets one of the following two criteria: 
  • have established, or plan to establish, Illinois residency within six months after leaving federal active duty service, or
  • if married to a person  in continued military service:
    • have applied for this grant within six months after and including the date that the spouse was stationed within Illinois, or
    • if the spouse was stationed outside Illinois, have established or plan to establish Illinois residency within six months after and including the date the spouse separated .
• Reside in Illinois unless the student is serving federal active duty service at the time of enrollment in college or residing with a spouse in continued military service who is currently stationed outside of Illinois.
  
• Not be in default on any student loan, nor owe a refund on any state or federal grant.

In order to receive benefits, qualified applicants must be enrolled at an Illinois public 2- or 4-year college and maintain the minimum grade point average (GPA) required by that college.

An IVG Benefits Program Guide is available for use in understanding IVG benefits.

*If the student receives benefits from the IVG Program while serving on federal active duty service, upon discharge the student will be required to verify that service has been characterized as honorable.

Eligibility Units

Illinois Veteran Grant recipients may receive benefits limited to the equivalent of four academic years of full-time enrollment, which includes summer terms. IVG eligibility units are based on the enrolled hours for a particular term, not the dollar amount of the benefits paid. Credit and noncredit hours, for which benefits are used, are converted to eligibility units according to the following chart:

Recipients may continue to accumulate up to 120 units, after which point eligibility for program benefits will cease. Full program benefits may be extended for one additional term if the recipient has accumulated fewer than 120 eligibility units but does not have enough units remaining for the number of hours in which s/he is enrolled for the term.

In the event that a recipient withdraws from a course(s) prior to the end of a term, eligibility units will be assessed in proportion with the total dollars that are paid. If the recipient has had any portion of his/her tuition and fees paid, at least one eligibility unit will be charged to the recipient.

Example: A recipient is enrolled for 12 semester hours at a cost of $600. The recipient withdraws from enrollment and incurs expenses of $300 in accordance with the institution’s tuition refund policy. The recipient would use 6 eligibility units and would receive $300 in benefits.

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