Why Participate in a SOC Program?

Recognizing the problems faced by military students whose jobs require frequent moves, SOC member schools make it easier to obtain college degrees rather than just accumulate course credit by:

• Limiting the amount of course work students must take at a single college to no more than 25% of degree requirements
• Designing transfer practices to minimize loss of credit and avoid duplication of course work
• Awarding credit for military experience
• Awarding credit for tests such as CLEP, ECE, and DSST national testing programs

Active-duty students may use tuition assistance to fund their programs; reserves and veterans may use the Montgomery G.I.Bill.

Servicemembers and their adult family members in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard benefit by participating in degree programs at SOCAD, SOCNAV, SOCMAR, or SOCCOAST schools. Colleges and universities that participate in the network degree programs for the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps agree to:

• Guarantee to accept each other's courses in transfer within curriculum areas such as management, computer studies, interdisciplinary studies, and others
• Award credit for military service schools and occupational experience
• Act as "home colleges" and issue Student Agreements that serve as as degree plans to enrolled students

When a student moves on to a new duty station, the Student Agreement acts as a contract-for-degree, so that courses, tests, and military experience that are part of the degree plan are transferred back to the home college. When all degree requirements set out in the degree plan are met, the home college awards the associate or bachelor's degree.

Students who are unable to attend courses in regular classrooms may take courses by distance learning, which includes correspondence, computer, or video that can be taken anywhere. Other colleges don't require that students take any courses from their schools — they use a learning assessment approach in which they evaluate for credit previous learning experiences, manage the degree program, and award the degree when the requirements are met. Tuition assistance may be used to pay for courses in these programs.

SOCGuard provides a variety of paths to a college education. Members of the Army National Guard (ARNG) may attend SOC colleges and benefit from their flexible policies, or they may participate in SOCAD. Army National Guard recruits may apply for and gain admission to college at the same time they enlist in the ARNG. They then begin attending college after completion of Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training, using federal and state tuition assistance and Montgomery G.I. Bill benefits. The Guard College Plan enables ARNG enlistees to go directly from high school to college using the Montgomery G.I. Bill and state education benefits where available.

ConAP gives new Army recruits the opportunity to apply to a SOC college in their home area when they enlist in the Army. When they complete their enlistment, they are ready to attend college rather than begin the process of application; they have a college that will give them credit for their military experience; and they have Montgomery G.I. Bill benefits to pay for their course work.

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Comments to: socmail@aascu.org