Pay attention, fellow military spouses!

You know how some things sound way too good to be true? I was suspicious when I first heard about the MyCAA program, which supposedly offers eligible military spouses up to $6,000 in financial aid to train for portable careers. Then in October I learned that a friend of mine was using the money to pay for her graduate school tuition, so I thought I would give it a shot. The application process is easy but not what I would call intuitive. Still, it didn't take long before my master's degree in library science was approved as qualifying under the program. Even once I was approved though, I couldn't quite figure out how to get the money from the Department of Defense to FSU. My friend suggested that I call the financial aid office and ask about "third-party payers." Sure enough, that was the magic language, and within minutes I was connected to a woman who gave me her email address and asked me to fill out a short form and send that along with my approval documentation to her.

I just checked my account, and sometime within the past 24 hours, my balance for 6 graduate credits dropped from $2,307.24 to $45.24, which is basically the technology fee and a slight increase in tuition from the numbers I used in filling out my application. How awesome is that?!

There are a few technicalities to be aware of. Timing is everything, as classes have to be within 90 days of starting at the time of the application in order to qualify. Also, they won't reimburse you for courses you've already paid for, so I will only get to use about $4,500 of my $6,000 allotment in covering my last 4 classes. I'm cool with that though and just wanted to spread the word that yes, this program does indeed work!