Key takeaway: 2,001 of the 2,817 institutions in our directory that offer fully online programs report both credit for military training and a dedicated point of contact for veterans, servicemembers, and their families (IPEDS IC 2024). The schools below are drawn from that group and ordered by BOC Score. This site does not rank or describe education benefit programs, and eligibility is determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or a service's education office. Admission, graduation, licensure, and employment are decided by the institution, the licensing board, and employers, not by any benefit. This site is not affiliated with VA or DoD.
Veterans and active-duty students choose online programs for the same reasons as everyone else, plus two of their own: training and experience that should count toward a degree, and a schedule that survives deployments, duty changes, and moves. The federal data behind this page separates schools by which of those services they report.
Schools to Compare
These accredited institutions report credit for military training, a dedicated veteran and military point of contact, and at least one program completable entirely online (IPEDS IC 2024). Ranked by BOC Score within that group.
How We Rank Schools
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most
recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS).
To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the
U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked
against schools at the same credential level:
BOCSCORE
- Graduation rate 30%
- Median earnings, 10 years after entry 25%
- Average net price (lower is better) 20%
- Retention rate 15%
- Fully online availability 10%
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score.
Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Acceptance rate
11%
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$92,446
Avg net price
$13,481/yr
TuitionIn‑state$16,347
Out‑of‑state$50,547
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 127
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
89%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$71,588
Avg net price
$6,541/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 172
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
94%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$83,648
Avg net price
$13,138/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 206
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
91%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$72,200
Avg net price
$11,655/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 117
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
86%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$81,054
Avg net price
$14,355/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 95%
- Programs offered: 177
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
85%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$78,466
Avg net price
$14,091/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 95%
- Programs offered: 234
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
87%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$90,768
Avg net price
$16,665/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 95%
- Programs offered: 84
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
85%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$82,860
Avg net price
$15,678/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 96%
- Programs offered: 150
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
94%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$87,555
Avg net price
$18,809/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 164
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
88%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$68,726
Avg net price
$13,936/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 94%
- Programs offered: 241
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
What “military-friendly” means in the data
Marketing language is cheap; federal reporting is not. Each year institutions tell the U.S. Department of Education which of these services they offer. Among the 2,817 online institutions in our directory:
| Service reported to IPEDS (IC 2024) |
Online institutions reporting it |
| Credit for military training |
2,197 |
| Dedicated point of contact for veterans, servicemembers, and families |
2,268 |
| Member of the DoD Voluntary Education Partnership MOU |
1,895 |
| Recognized student veteran organization |
1,291 |
| Both credit for training and a dedicated contact (this page’s filter) |
2,001 |
The counts overlap: most institutions reporting a dedicated contact also report credit for military training, while a recognized student veteran organization is the rarest of the four. A school reporting all four has built a structure around military students rather than a landing page, and that group numbers 1,013 institutions, listed on the military-friendly online colleges hub.
Credit for military training
Most military occupational training and many professional military education courses have been evaluated by the American Council on Education, and the results appear on your Joint Services Transcript. A school that reports credit for military training has a process for reading that transcript and awarding credit where it maps to its curriculum. How much credit you receive varies by school and by degree: elective credit is common, credit toward major requirements is rarer, and some schools cap the total.
The IPEDS survey records only that the institution awards credit for military training. Four things vary underneath that single yes, and all of them are registrar and catalog policy rather than federal data:
- whether the registrar evaluates a Joint Services Transcript before enrollment and issues the result in writing
- which requirements the evaluated coursework satisfies: general education, electives, or the major
- whether a cap applies to combined transfer and prior-learning credit, and whether military credit counts against that cap
- whether the institution also awards credit for industry certifications earned in service, which is a separate policy from transcript evaluation
Support services and student veteran organizations
A dedicated point of contact means one office or person is responsible for veteran and military students: certifying enrollment, coordinating with the registrar on transcripts, and helping with the administrative side of a deployment or relocation. For an online student who may never visit campus, that contact is the school. The survey records only that the contact exists; contact method, whether the office serves online students specifically, and response time all vary by institution.
A recognized student veteran organization is a smaller signal but a useful one. Schools that report one usually also run peer mentoring, orientation sessions for military students, and events that online students can join remotely.
The DoD Voluntary Education Partnership MOU
Institutions that sign the Department of Defense’s Voluntary Education Partnership Memorandum of Understanding agree to a set of standards for serving servicemembers, including academic advising, transparent transfer and credit policies, and limits on aggressive recruiting. Membership is reported to IPEDS and appears in the table above. It is not a quality ranking, but it is a floor: a member school has committed to specific practices in writing.
Education benefits, without promises
This site does not rank or describe education benefit programs. Eligibility, remaining entitlement, and what a given enrollment pays are determined by education benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or a service’s education office, not by this site and not by a school’s marketing. Every participating institution has a certifying official who handles program-specific enrollment questions, and that office is the one holding the answer for a particular degree at a particular school.
Admission, graduation, licensure, and employment are decided by the institution, the licensing board, and employers, not by any benefit. Graduation rate, retention, and median earnings sit on the cards above and come from federal sources reported independently of any benefit program, which is why nothing on this page orders schools by what a benefit might pay.
For the full wording we use across this cluster, see military support services at online colleges.
What varies among the schools on this list
Every institution here reports the same two services. They differ on five points that the IPEDS survey does not measure.
Course format. Programs range from fully asynchronous to ones built around live sessions and fixed exam windows. Deadline policy during a deployment is set by the institution and, in many programs, by the individual instructor.
Leave of absence and re-entry. Some catalogs carry a named military leave of absence that pauses enrollment and resumes it without a new application. Others treat an interruption as a withdrawal followed by a readmission process, which can bring the current catalog requirements rather than the original ones.
Outcome data. Graduation rate, retention, and median earnings on the cards above come from federal sources reported independently of the service indicators. A school can report both military services and still show weak outcomes; the two data sets do not predict each other.
Programmatic accreditation. Fields with a licensing exam, including nursing, counseling, and teaching, require the program itself to hold field-specific programmatic accreditation. That is a separate designation from the institutional accreditation every school in our directory holds.
Who the office serves. At many institutions the same office serves military families as well as the servicemember, and at others family services sit elsewhere. The family-facing view of this data is on online colleges for military spouses.
Quick Answers
Which online colleges give credit for military training?
2,197 of the 2,817 institutions in our directory with fully online programs report credit for military training to IPEDS (IC 2024). The schools listed on this page report that service along with a dedicated point of contact for veterans and military families.
How is credit for military training evaluated?
Schools typically read the Joint Services Transcript, which carries American Council on Education credit recommendations for military training and occupations, and award credit where those recommendations match their curriculum. The amount varies by school and degree, and the written evaluation that settles it is issued by the institution’s registrar.
It is the office or person responsible for veteran and military students: enrollment certification, transcript coordination, and administrative help during deployments or moves. For online students it is usually the main relationship with the school.
Will a benefit pay for these schools, and will it get me a job?
This site does not determine whether a program will be paid for, how much will be paid, or whether a student will graduate or be hired. Education benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or a service’s education office are settled by those offices and by the school’s certifying official. Admission, graduation, licensure, and employment are decided by the institution, the licensing board, and employers, not by any benefit.
Are these schools accredited?
Every institution in our directory holds accreditation from an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Where a professional license depends on it, the specific program carries its own programmatic accreditation, a separate designation from the institutional accreditation recorded in our directory.
More in this section
Benefit eligibility is determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and your service’s education office. Nothing on this page guarantees education benefits, credit transfer, admission, or a particular cost. Confirm every detail with the school’s military or veteran services office before you enroll.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey (IC 2024), veteran and military services indicators (VET2 through VET5) and distance education program flag (DISTPGS); directory counts as of the September 2026 data refresh.
