Key takeaway: Yes. Servicemembers finish online degrees on active duty every year, and the difference between the ones who finish and the ones who stop is almost never intelligence or ambition. It is course format, term length, and what the school does when orders interrupt a term. The schools listed below have signed the DoD Voluntary Education Partnership Memorandum of Understanding: 1,895 of the 2,817 institutions in our directory with fully online programs report membership (IPEDS IC 2024). This site is not affiliated with the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The question underneath the enrollment question is structural. It is whether a specific program absorbs a duty roster change, a field exercise, a time-zone shift, or a deployment without a restart. Programs differ on that, and the differences sit in four places: course format, term length, the withdrawal and re-entry policy, and how much prior training the registrar applies to the degree. This page describes what varies in each.
Schools to Compare
These accredited institutions report membership in the DoD Voluntary Education Partnership MOU 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.
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$102,772
Avg net price
$12,116/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 64
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
97%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$124,080
Avg net price
$13,807/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 100
Source: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
Acceptance rate
9%
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$82,511
Avg net price
$12,548/yr
TuitionIn‑state$15,203
Out‑of‑state$49,403
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 161
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · 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
96%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$91,885
Avg net price
$14,860/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 99%
- Programs offered: 105
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
27%
Graduation rate
87%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$84,943
Avg net price
$12,470/yr
TuitionIn‑state$16,758
Out‑of‑state$50,958
Key stats
- Retention rate: 94%
- Programs offered: 133
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · 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
Acceptance rate
29%
Graduation rate
86%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$80,735
Avg net price
$14,251/yr
TuitionIn‑state$15,722
Out‑of‑state$49,922
Key stats
- Retention rate: 94%
- Programs offered: 134
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · 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
Why DoD MOU membership is the first filter
An institution that signs the Voluntary Education Partnership Memorandum of Understanding agrees in writing to a set of practices for serving servicemembers: academic advising before enrollment, transparent policies on credit and transfer, a clear statement of what a program costs and how long it takes, and limits on aggressive recruiting. Membership is reported on the IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, so membership is verifiable in public federal data rather than in a publisher’s badge.
It is a floor, not a ranking. Signing does not measure academic quality, and it carries no promise about the cost of any program. What it does mean is that the school has committed to specific conduct in a document, and that an office at the school knows how servicemember enrollment works. The military-friendly online colleges hub shows how MOU membership sits alongside the other three service indicators, and 1,646 online institutions report MOU membership along with credit for military training and a dedicated military contact.
Asynchronous courses post lectures and assignments with deadlines but no fixed meeting time. Synchronous courses require a student to be logged in at a set hour, which is a fixed scheduling commitment on a watch bill, in the field, or nine time zones from campus.
Online programs place synchronous requirements in different places, and the arrangements that exist across the market include:
- fully asynchronous programs with no live attendance in any course
- programs that are asynchronous except for a capstone, seminar, or clinical-style course
- programs that record live sessions, with recorded viewing counted as attendance in some and not in others
- exams proctored at fixed times in some programs, and remote proctoring available around the clock in others
- group projects that assume live coordination among classmates in a single time zone
Those settings are published in the course catalog and the syllabus rather than in federal data. A program that is asynchronous everywhere except two capstone courses still contains two courses with fixed meeting times.
Term length and start dates
A standard 16-week semester is a long time to protect from the needs of the service. Many online programs built for working and military students run 8-week terms with six start dates a year, and some run 5-week or 6-week terms. Shorter terms carry one course at a time, which places a clean stopping point every few weeks and limits the cost of a schedule change to one course rather than a semester.
Course sequencing varies alongside term length. Programs differ in how many start dates they offer a year, how many courses a term the curriculum assumes, and whether required courses run every term or only once a year. That last variable carries the most schedule risk: a required course offered only in the fall can extend a degree by a year when a term is missed.
Withdrawal, deployment, and re-entry
Institutions set their own military withdrawal and re-entry policies, and the IPEDS survey does not record them. The provisions differ on five points:
- what happens to enrollment, grades, and academic standing when orders interrupt a term
- whether a military leave of absence pauses enrollment without a new application to return
- how long a pause may run before readmission or a change of catalog requirements applies
- whether a mid-term withdrawal under orders appears on the transcript and counts against satisfactory academic progress
- whether a returning student resumes under the original degree requirements or the current ones
Each of these is a catalog provision published by the institution, which is where the language that governs an interrupted term lives. Schools that enroll servicemembers routinely tend to carry a named military withdrawal section in the catalog rather than handling each case as an exception.
The education office on base
Installation education offices and their counselors are the administrative link between a service and participating institutions. They administer the service education programs and route enrollment questions about education benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or a service’s education office, for servicemembers and for spouses alike. This site does not rank or describe benefit programs. Amounts, eligibility, and application steps for any benefit are determined by the service and the Department of Veterans Affairs, not by a school and not by this site.
A counseling session normally works from three documents: the degree under consideration, the school’s catalog page for that degree, and the Joint Services Transcript. Together those three establish how much of a program remains after evaluated credit is applied, and how that remainder lines up against time left in service.
Getting credit for what you already did
Your Joint Services Transcript carries American Council on Education credit recommendations for military occupational training and professional military education. A school with a process for reading it produces an evaluation of how much of that training applies to a specific degree. That figure changes the size of the remaining commitment, since a degree that begins with a year of applied credit is a different program length than the same degree from zero.
The written evaluation names which requirements the credit satisfies: general education, electives, or the major. The institutions that report this service are listed on online colleges with credit for military training, and the fields military training transfers into furthest are mapped on best online degrees for military and veterans.
What a duty schedule changes about coursework
Three variables separate coursework on a duty schedule from coursework on a civilian one: load, bandwidth, and notice.
Load. Programs built on short terms distribute the same annual credit across sequential single courses rather than concurrent ones, so an interruption costs one course instead of a full term. Programs on a standard semester calendar concentrate more credit inside each block of protected time, which shortens total elapsed time and raises what a single interruption costs.
Bandwidth. Connectivity underway and at deployed locations is limited and intermittent. Course platforms differ in whether readings, slides, and lecture recordings can be downloaded for offline use, and whether assignment submission tolerates a lapse in connection. Those are platform and instructor settings rather than reported institutional characteristics.
Notice. Duty schedules change with little warning, and institutions handle the resulting deadline conflicts differently. Some publish extension and late-work policies in the syllabus, some leave the decision to instructor discretion, and some route the request through the military or veteran services office. Scheduling accommodation at the unit level is a command matter rather than a school policy, and it appears in no federal data set.
What changes at the transition to veteran status
A degree begun on active duty is commonly finished, or at least continued, as a veteran, and the institution’s relationship with the student changes at that point. Three things move: whether the same office serves both active-duty and veteran students, whether enrollment certification continues across the separation date without a gap, and whether credit already applied to the degree stays applied under the catalog in force at return. After separation, best online colleges for veterans is the list built on credit for training plus a dedicated contact, and military support services at online colleges describes each service indicator in detail.
Quick Answers
Can you go to college while in the military?
Yes. Servicemembers enroll in online degree programs while on active duty, in the reserves, and in the National Guard. The limits are the duty schedule and the program’s flexibility, not a rule against enrolling.
Can you take college classes while deployed?
Many servicemembers do, in asynchronous programs with short terms. Bandwidth and mission tempo are the practical constraints, and the policy that governs an interrupted term is the institution’s military withdrawal and re-entry provision.
What happens to my classes if I get orders mid-term?
That depends entirely on the school’s military withdrawal and re-entry policy. The provisions that vary between institutions are whether a military leave of absence exists, whether return requires a new application, and whether a mid-term withdrawal under orders affects the transcript or academic standing.
How many courses do servicemembers take at a time?
Course-load patterns follow term structure. Programs aimed at working and military students are built around a single course per short term, which is why they run terms of eight weeks or less with multiple start dates a year instead of two long semesters. Semester-calendar programs assume two or more concurrent courses per term.
Does the school need to be a DoD MOU member?
It is not a legal requirement for a student, and it is the one verifiable federal record that a school has committed to advising, credit transparency, and recruiting standards for servicemembers. MOU membership sits alongside the other three service indicators on the military-friendly online colleges hub, and the scoring behind the school cards is documented on our 2026 ranking of accredited online colleges.
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.
