If you’re weighing the Virginia Army National Guard and you’re also looking at nursing school, the real question isn’t “Do I get GI Bill money?” It’s “Which VA education program applies to me, and what does it pay at this campus, with my schedule?” The VA’s GI Bill Comparison Tool for Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe is built to answer that, but only if you feed it the right inputs and read the results the right way.
This playbook walks you through the exact fields and decision points the VA tool uses for ARIZONA COLLEGE OF NURSING, TEMPE, including the Select Reserve GI Bill (Chapter 1606) and Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) options the tool estimates. All facts below are pulled from the VA’s entry for this school and linked VA pages. See the VA’s GI Bill Comparison Tool listing for Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe.
- Phase 1: Start with the decision that can’t be undone
- Phase 2: Pick the benefit type that matches your military status
- Phase 3: Set your Post-9/11 tier using the VA’s service-length brackets
- Phase 4: Lock your housing estimate by choosing in-person vs not
- Phase 5: Check whether Yellow Ribbon can reduce unmet tuition
- Phase 6: Read complaints and caution flags like a risk report
- Phase 7: Gather the four items you’ll need before you apply
- Phase 8: Cross-check the one thing the tool can’t know for you
Phase 1: Start with the decision that can’t be undone
If you’re eligible for more than one VA education benefit, you may have to choose, and the VA says that choice can be final. The VA’s comparison tool warns that if you’re eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Montgomery GI Bill, you must choose which benefit to receive, and “this decision is final and cannot be changed.” That language appears in the tool’s “A decision with consequences” section for this school.
This is the step most people skip, and it’s a mistake. People jump straight to the monthly housing number and miss the “you can’t change it later” line.
Use the VA tool’s warning as your sequencing rule: identify every benefit you might qualify for first, then compare estimates. The VA lays out the consequence in plain terms in its comparison tool entry for this campus.
Phase 2: Pick the benefit type that matches your military status
The VA tool only estimates what you select, so choose the program and military status that match your situation right now. For Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe, the estimator supports multiple benefit programs: Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33), Fry Scholarship (Chapter 33), Montgomery GI Bill (Chapter 30), Select Reserve GI Bill (Chapter 1606), Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E, Chapter 31), and Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA, Chapter 35), as shown on the tool page.
The tool also asks for your military status category: Veteran, Active Duty, or National Guard / Reserves. That “National Guard / Reserves” option matters if you’re in the Virginia Army National Guard and trying to understand how a Reserve-component GI Bill estimate behaves in the tool.
If you want the VA’s own framing of benefit rates and what can change, keep the tool open and also review VA education benefit rates, which the school page links to directly.
Phase 3: Set your Post-9/11 tier using the VA’s service-length brackets
If you’re using Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) in the estimator, the percentage tier is the lever that drives the estimate. The VA tool lists the service-length tiers it uses for Chapter 33 as: 36+ months (100%), 30 months (90%), 24 months (80%), 18 months (70%), 6 months (60%), 90 days (50%), plus 100% for Service-Connected Discharge and 100% for Purple Heart Service, as displayed on the Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe entry.
These tiers are presented in the tool as selectable brackets. They’re not suggestions, and they’re not a promise of eligibility. They’re how the tool structures the estimate.
The estimator also asks whether you used Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for tuition, housing, or books for a term that started before January 1, 2018 (Yes/No). Don’t guess. Pull your records before you click.
Phase 4: Lock your housing estimate by choosing in-person vs not
The housing allowance in the VA estimate depends on whether you’re taking classes in person and whether you’re full-time. On the Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe page, the VA tool asks whether you will be taking any classes in person (Yes/No), and it lets you set enrollment status as Full Time, ¾ Time, More than ½ time, or ½ Time or less.
For this campus, the tool lists an estimated housing allowance of $2,289 per month for a full-time student taking in-person classes at ARIZONA COLLEGE OF NURSING, TEMPE (Main Campus) in Tempe, Arizona. That figure appears in the campus locations and housing estimates section of the tool entry.
One example estimate shown on the same page (based on a pre-filled set of inputs in the tool) displays a housing allowance of $2,289 per month, a book stipend of $1,000 per year, and “Total paid to you” of $21,601, with tuition and fees shown as $0 in that example. Treat it as a worked example, not a forecast. The tool itself explains that estimates can shift with non-traditional academic schedules and tells you to contact the institution for details.
If you’re sanity-checking the math, the example’s term breakdown shows housing allowance totals of $10,301 for Fall and $10,301 for Spring, $20,601 per year, with the book stipend making up the remainder to reach $21,601 in that example estimate, as displayed on the tool page.
Phase 5: Check whether Yellow Ribbon can reduce unmet tuition
If you have unmet tuition and fee costs under Post-9/11 GI Bill rules, Yellow Ribbon is the tool’s built-in mechanism to model how the gap might shrink. The VA’s page explains that the Yellow Ribbon Program can help reduce out-of-pocket tuition and fee costs at participating schools. The school contributes an amount, and VA matches it, potentially covering up to the full cost of tuition and fees.
For ARIZONA COLLEGE OF NURSING, TEMPE, the tool lists Yellow Ribbon information for undergraduate degree level: Funding available for 1000 students and a maximum school contribution of $10,000 per student each academic year toward unmet tuition and fee costs. The Yellow Ribbon section of the estimator repeats “Maximum amount per student: $10,000/yr” and “Number of students: 1000.”
The estimator asks whether you will be a Yellow Ribbon recipient (Yes/No). The VA also says you should contact the school to confirm the number of students eligible for funding if it applies. For the VA’s eligibility overview, see VA’s Yellow Ribbon Program page.
Phase 6: Read complaints and caution flags like a risk report
The VA tool includes complaint data and cautions, and you should read them before you commit to a start date. The comparison tool explains that caution flags appear when VA or another federal agency has increased regulatory or legal scrutiny of an educational program, and VA recommends students consider these warnings before enrolling in flagged programs.
For complaint counts, the Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe page reports “This campus” (Tempe) as 0 total student complaints. For “All campuses,” it reports 2 total student complaints, with complaint types listed as: Financial issues (1), Quality of education (1), Refund issues (1), Student loans (1), and Other complaints (1). The page also defines what each type can include, such as financial information gaps, quality concerns like outdated equipment or lack of advising contacts, and refund policy issues, all in the VA tool’s own language.
One more data point on the page: “Veterans tuition policy: No” is listed for this campus in the comparison tool entry. That’s not a judgment. It’s a labeled field in the tool, and you should factor it into your questions for the school.
Phase 7: Gather the four items you’ll need before you apply
The fastest way to stall your benefits is to start an application without your basic details ready. In the “How do I prepare before starting my application?” section, the VA tells you to find out if you’re eligible for VA education benefits and to gather the documents and information you’ll need to apply.
- Social Security number
- Bank account direct deposit information
- Education and military history
- Basic information about the school or training facility you want to attend or are attending now
The same section also warns that to apply for VR&E (Chapter 31) or educational and career counseling through Personalized Career Planning and Guidance (Chapter 36), you need to use a different application. The comparison tool page links to how to apply for VR&E (Chapter 31) and how to apply for educational and career counseling (Chapter 36).
Phase 8: Cross-check the one thing the tool can’t know for you
The tool can estimate payments, but it can’t tell you which benefit you should elect if you have multiple options. The VA explicitly flags that some choices are final and that you may have to give up one benefit to use another, even while remaining eligible for benefits you didn’t give up, per the “A decision with consequences” section in the comparison tool entry.
This is where you slow down and verify facts with the official sources, not social media threads. If you’re weighing a Virginia Army National Guard path and trying to map it to school costs in Tempe, this is also where a structured checklist helps. TakeOath and tools like Prime Chase Data can help you keep your inputs consistent across scenarios, but the authoritative numbers still come from VA and the school’s certifying office.
One last guardrail: citizenship-through-service questions are real for some readers, but the VA education estimate tool doesn’t answer immigration eligibility, timelines, or outcomes. For anything immigration-related, confirm current requirements with USCIS and an official recruiter. Don’t rely on a blog post.
Next step: open the VA comparison tool entry for Arizona College of Nursing, Tempe, run two estimates with your real enrollment status (full-time vs ¾ time) and your real class format (in-person vs not), then write down the exact benefit program name and Chapter number you selected. That single line prevents most “I thought I picked the other one” mistakes.
Sources
- GI Bill Comparison Tool listing for ARIZONA COLLEGE OF NURSING, TEMPE (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
- VA education benefit rates (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
- VA Yellow Ribbon Program overview (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
- How to apply for Veteran Readiness and Employment (Chapter 31) (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
- How to apply for educational and career counseling (Chapter 36) (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)