Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP)
The Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) provides education benefits to spouses and children of military service members killed, missing in action, taken prisoner, or who have been rated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as totally and permanently disabled or at least 90 percent disabled as a result of military service.
The Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS) is responsible for managing the program and collaborates with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and Virginia’s public colleges and universities to assist spouses and children of qualified military service members and Veterans in attaining their educational goals.
Please visit the VMSDEP website for eligibility requirements and the online application.
Please direct school-specific VMSDEP inquiries to studentaccount@umw.edu.
University of Mary Washington VMSDEP Process
The process for applying the tuition and fees waiver to the student account at UMW is dependent on the action of the eligible student.
Each Semester a student wishes to use the benefit, the student is required to update the term information in the VMSDEP portal account. Please be sure you have registered for classes. Tuition and fees need to be assessed in your student account before the waiver can be applied. This should be done by the first day of class to avoid any delays or penalties.
VMSDEP has established permanent open and close enrollment dates for the program:
- Fall: Open July 1 – Close October 31
- Spring: Open November 1 – Close March 31
- Summer: Open April 1 – Close June 30
UMW extracts participant names from the Institutional VMSDEP portal on a weekly basis.
The waiver will be visible in the student account once the Office of Student Accounts has manually applied the waiver.
Tier 2 students eligible for the stipend: The stipend is validated after the add/drop date. If state funds are available, the stipend will be disbursed to your student account as financial aid. Please note that this is approximately 6-8 weeks after the beginning of the term.
UMW will not process retroactive VMSDEP requests. We strongly encourage students to update the VMSDEP portal prior to the first day of class and no later than the publicized close enrollment dates noted above.
Please note, the summer is considered a term and if requested, it will count against one of the 8 semesters awarded by VMSDEP. Plan accordingly. Some students choose to self-pay for summer since it’s usually a reduced schedule and does not maximize the use of the tuition waiver. Additionally, stipends are not available for Tier 2 students.
If you have received non-refundable tuition-specific aid, it will be adjusted and removed after the waiver is placed in your student account. In addition, Federal Financial Aid will be adjusted based on the updated cost of attendance.
