Rounding Out Policy

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) allows the practice of “rounding out” in which VA allows a school to certify courses that are not a part of the student's approved program of education in an effort to increase a beneficiary’s training time or rate of pursuit. Rounding out is only allowed during the beneficiary’s final academic term. By authorizing payment for these extra courses, non-Chapter 33 students are eligible for up to full-time benefit payments and Chapter 33 students can receive the maximum allowable housing allowance (MHA) during this final term. This procedure can be done only once per program.

• “Rounding out” is available to any student whose training time or rate of pursuit is less than full-time. 

• Students can “round out” a schedule with additional courses to bring his/her course load up to a full-time schedule in his/her last term only. 

• Additional class(es) must be included within the program of study even though not required to graduate. 

• Such classes must be specified by name in the approved program curriculum, and not have been already completed.   

• A student may only round out once per program.

A student may round out with classes that are not offered as part of their program of education with any class offered by the educational institution only under the following circumstances: 

• The student has taken (or is enrolled in) every class offered as part of their program.

• The remaining course options in the student’s program are not offered during the student’s final term.

EXAMPLE 1: A claimant needs to complete 120 credit hours to obtain a B.A. degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations. After passing 117 credit hours, the claimant only needs to earn an additional 3 credits to graduate and enrolls in International Law and Organizations.  In order to achieve full-time status, the claimant also enrolls in 3 additional 3-credit-hour courses American Political Campaigns and Elections; Constitutional Law; and Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Political Theories – which have not been taken previously and are included, by name, in the B.A. degree program.

EXAMPLE 2: The same individual in Example 1 enrolls in International Law and Organizations, which fulfills the requirements for graduation. Constitutional Law, and Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Political Theories are the only remaining classes in the B.A. degree that the student has not completed. The individual enrolls in Constitutional Law raising the student to 6 credit hours but Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Political Theories is not offered during the student’s final term. This leaves the student at less than full time RoP and does not qualify the student for MHA because the student’s RoP is not over 50%. Since the student has now exhausted all courses approved for the B.A. degree that are available during the term, the student enrolls in Art Appreciation for 3 credits. Even though Art Appreciation is not part of the program, it is allowed as the final course for the student to round up because the student has completed all available program courses.

Course Substitutions

If the college allows substitutions for program requirements, VA will allow course substitutions if the school approves them and they are documented in the student's file.