Get in contact with the VA about all of their options, I have heard "rumors" of some states paying for instate tuition for vets and you get to keep your GI bill (remember rumors). Also, I think the GI bills doesn't state you can only go to school for 3 years continuously, but that it pays for 36 months of school which as I took it meant a degree, as if you didn't go to school in the summer time and stuff like that. Doesn't the GI bill pay monthly?