How this works
Four steps, about ten minutes: 1) Fill in this tab — your program, benefit, terms, aid, and expenses. 2) Check the Semester aid tab to see how your benefits stack against Baylor’s bill, step by step. 3) Pick a Debt payoff plan — the payments you choose there flow straight into your budget. 4) Use Month by month to see your cash flow — including the tight weeks at the start of each term before aid disburses. Everything updates as you type and nothing you enter leaves your device. When you’re done, Save plan (PDF) gives you a printable summary report of it all — and that same PDF reloads your work later via Load file.
Your program
Your degree level and benefit chapter determine which rules apply. Yellow Ribbon at Baylor is undergraduate only.
This short list is a check, not a catalog: it holds only programs with special GI Bill status — suspended under the 85/15 rule, plus graduate Yellow Ribbon opt-ins. Most Baylor programs aren’t on it. If yours isn’t listed, that’s good news — keep “not on this list.”
How do I find my eligibility percentage?
Enrollment by term
Enter the credit hours you plan to take in each term. Housing allowance depends on how many hours you carry relative to full time for that term's length, so a 3-hour minimester can still pay at the full-time rate.
Scholarships and grants
Enter what you expect per term. Tuition-restricted awards are applied to your bill before VA benefits — that's a VA requirement, and it's why a tuition scholarship may not change what you actually pocket.
Why didn't my scholarship help?
Federal student loans
If you filed the FAFSA, your award letter may offer federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans. These are optional — you choose to accept all, part, or none of each. Enter only what you plan to accept for the year, and research these and other loan options at Baylor One Stop: Loans.
Subsidized vs. unsubsidized — what's the difference?
Should I accept these loans?
Housing, meals, and parking
Pick the plans you intend to use. None of these are covered by Post-9/11 tuition benefits or Yellow Ribbon — they land on your bill. Housing and meals are charged in your main terms (Fall and Spring); parking is annual.
Income
Your housing allowance is calculated for you from the hours above. Add anything else you receive each month.
Monthly expenses
What you spend in a typical month, whether or not school is in session.
Fixed
Variable
Loans and credit cards
List every balance you're carrying. The Debt payoff tab decides payoff order — snowball, avalanche, or a custom order you set yourself. The monthly interest rate is calculated from the APR. Don't list this year's federal student loans here — no payments are due on those while you're enrolled, so they belong in the Federal student loans section above. Minimum is the total you pay each month, including any flat monthly fee — a $250 fee means your real minimum is at least $250, and only what you pay beyond the fee ever touches the balance. Loans with a $0 balance are left out of the payoff plan and the monthly budget.
| Name | Balance | APR % | Monthly rate | Minimum | Monthly fee |
|---|
What's a monthly fee?
How your aid stacks
Baylor applies aid in a fixed order set by VA rules. Each term below shows that sequence step by step.
Year at a glance
| Term | Hours | Tuition & fees | Scholarships | VA pays | Yellow Ribbon | T&F owed | Other charges | Other aid | You owe | VA direct |
|---|
T&F owed is what’s left on tuition and fees after scholarships, VA payments, and Yellow Ribbon. You owe then adds other charges and subtracts other aid (grants and loans) — a green negative number means money comes back to you instead. VA direct is the housing allowance and book stipend the VA pays straight to you; it never touches the Baylor bill.
Pay off your debt
Pick a strategy, then set how much extra you can put toward debt each month. The tool compares your plan against paying only the minimums.
Payoff order
| Loan | Balance | APR | Minimum only | With your plan | Sooner by |
|---|
Balance over time
Month-by-month cash flow
Your housing allowance changes month to month. The VA pays only for days you're actually in class, so August and December are partial — and summer months with no enrollment pay nothing at all.
Running balance
Detail
| Month | Days in class | Housing allowance | Tuition & fee aid | Other aid to you | Other income | Baylor charges | Living expenses | Loan payments | Net | Balance |
|---|
Staff access
These settings control the figures every student sees. Enter the staff passcode to unlock.
How secure is this?
VA rates
Rates change every August 1. Update them at the start of each VA academic year.
Baylor charges
From One Stop. Enter the per-semester full-time rate and the per-hour rate for part-time and summer terms.
Federal Direct Loans
Interest rates reset every July 1 (set by the May Treasury auction) and the origination fee resets every October 1 — check studentaid.gov. The annual limits here are the highest possible for each level; the tool uses them only for gentle "double-check this" warnings, since a student's real limit depends on year in school and dependency status.
Housing, meal, and parking options
The plans students choose from. Add or remove tiers as Baylor publishes them. Housing and meal costs are per semester; parking is per year.
Housing
Meal plans
Parking
Term dates and full-time thresholds
From the Baylor academic calendar. "Full-time hours" is the VA full-time equivalent for a term of that length — 12 for a standard semester, fewer for compressed terms.
| Term | Starts | Ends | Weeks | Full-time hours | Max hours |
|---|
Programs suspended under the 85/15 rule
Baylor publishes this list. Suspension blocks Ch. 33, Ch. 30, and Ch. 1606 for students entering or changing into the program — students already enrolled keep their benefits, and Ch. 31 and Ch. 35 are never blocked. Check the Registrar's page each term.
Source: registrar.web.baylor.edu/VABenefits/IneligiblePrograms
Yellow Ribbon
Set which degree levels Baylor offers Yellow Ribbon to, and the per-student annual cap for each. Leave a cap at 0 for unlimited (covers up to 100% of remaining tuition and fees). Baylor currently offers it to all undergraduates with no cap.
| Level | Offered? | Annual cap per student (0 = unlimited) |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | ||
| Graduate | ||
| Law |
Program-specific eligibility
These are graduate programs only. Undergraduate Yellow Ribbon is handled by the level default above (offered to all undergraduates with no cap). Use this list for specific graduate programs that opt into Yellow Ribbon with their own annual per-student cap. A program you add here appears in the student’s program dropdown on the "Your information" tab; when a graduate student selects it, Yellow Ribbon is calculated using the cap you set. A cap of 0 means unlimited.
Reset
Help & money resources
The offices and tools behind every number in this planner. When something on your real bill doesn’t match, start here.
Baylor billing & aid
One Stop Student Financial Services — your e-bill, payment plans, financial aid, and refunds, all in one office. 254.710.2611.
Cost of Attendance tool — Baylor’s official cost estimator; good for cross-checking this planner’s figures.
Loans at One Stop — federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans plus other borrowing options; pair with studentaid.gov for the federal fine print.
Tuition & fees · Meal plans · Parking permits
Baylor VA Education Benefits — your School Certifying Officials for certification questions, Yellow Ribbon, and benefit changes. 254.710.8870.
Programs suspended under 85/15 · Yellow Ribbon at Baylor · Law School veteran info
VA benefits
GI Bill Comparison Tool — look up Baylor to see your exact housing allowance and benefit amounts.
Verify your enrollment — Post-9/11 students must verify monthly (text or email) or housing payments stop. Set this up in week one.
Ask VA — written questions about your specific benefits and payments.
VA Education Call Center: 888-442-4551 (Mon–Fri). Have your file number ready.
These are estimates. Actual awards depend on your Certificate of Eligibility, your certified enrollment, and Baylor's published rates. Confirm anything that affects a real decision with Baylor VA Education Benefits at 254.710.8870 or One Stop at 254.710.2611.
To keep your housing allowance, verify your enrollment with the VA at the end of every month. Missing a verification stops payment.
Nothing you type here leaves your device. Nothing is stored on a server. Use Save plan (PDF) to keep a copy — the report doubles as your save file and reloads via Load file.
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.