Veterans Education and Transition Services

New Student Veterans

Congratulations on your admission to the University of Maine. The VETS office would like to thank you for your military service. We are honored to be able to assist and support you as you pursue your education here at UMaine.

Here is a quick link to our veteran’s welcome packet: Welcome Packet

As a newly admitted student you will be invited to attend a UMaine Summer Orientation session, and we encourage you to do so. These sessions are designed to introduce you to the services, and resources that are available to you as a UMaine student. However, we recognizes that your other commitments and life roles may make an over night stay difficult. Therefore we have designed an alternate summer orientation session for non traditional students (which includes veterans).   The alternate schedule is coordinated by the Commuter and Non Traditional Student Programs (CNTSP) and the VETS office and details of this can be found at http://umaine.edu/cntsp/new-students/nontradorientation/.

A M Project Guide is also available to any incoming student veterans who wish to have an easier transition to college life. These Guides are upper classmen student veterans. For more information click here.

As a new student veteran you’ll want be sure to review our VETS checklist below. Also please check out the checklist for new commuters and non-traditional students.

Checklist for New or Returning Student Veterans

1. Get your COE(Certificate of Eligibility) or NOBE(Notice of Basic Eligibility) from the VA by going on http://www.gibill.va.gov/ and clicking on “Apply for Benefits”(obtaining your COE/NOBE may take a while, continue with following steps if you have completed the online portion).
2. Transferring Students, will have to fill out another form on VONAPP (http://www.gibill.va.gov/), a 22-1995.
3. Sign up for classes (for help doing this contact the Admissions Office).
4. Pass in your COE/NOBE to the UMaine VETS office (you MUST do this in order to be certified to receive veterans benefits).
5. Come into the VETS office on the 1st floor of the Memorial Union and fill out a signed Request for VA Educational Benefits form. This form is available on our website and in our office (you must do this for every semester, as soon as you have signed up for classes).
6. Log onto Mainstreet and fill out your “Anticipated Resources” to avoid being charged a late fee from the Bursars office.
7. IMPORTANT (For Ch. 30, 1606, & 1607) at the end of every month you must log onto WAVE (Web Automated Verification of Enrollment) to let the VA know you are still attending the University of Maine. Go to http://www.gibill.va.gov/ and click on “Verify Attendance”.
8. If you have any changes to your COE, Class Schedule or academic standing you MUST let the VETS office know immediately.

*Failure to follow these steps may result in debt to the Department of Veterans Affairs and/or delay of payments