Requirements For Continuing Education In the Army

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Education matters for enlisted army personnel; if you are aiming for a specific position or field, expertise is necessary if you want to get in at the entry level. This is why the Army puts emphasis on continuing education as a complement to regular military training, whether the soldier is off or on duty. Since you usually have no control over where you may be stationed or deployed, it is very much possible that you will be assigned to an overseas post for an indefinite period. Fortunately, those who want to continue their college studies can still do so with distance education and similar alternatives. You can also have your education on a stipend with a DANTES program (dantes.doded.mil) and other scholarships.

In order to qualify for a continuing education on an Army scholarship, you have to be a U.S. citizen, and less than thirty-one years old on the year that you fulfill of the necessary requirements for college enrollment (transcript, diploma, readjusted credits). This is a non-waiverable requirement which applies to all applicants. You shouldn’t have a record of conviction involving domestic violence or crime, and must have undergone through a standard national agency check, with a DODMERB medical certificate.

You are required to have at least two years of active duty, as well as three months of the same for each month of training in any specialized field. A GT score of at least 110 is necessary, as well as APFT score of at least 180 for the previous six months. You have to be a high school graduate, or should posses certification or diploma of equivalent merit, and must submit a letter of acceptance with your chosen college (it must have an Army ROTC program in place). Your established record should also qualify you for reenlistment, and a waiverable requirement which entails that you have a maximum of three dependents is also in place.

If you opt to do away with the scholarship (with its intricate requirements), you’ll have to deal with the costs of a degree on your own, and if you do choose to take an online degree course, there are several procedures which have to go through. Online schools which target NCOs and COs have varying requirements, but all of them comply with army regulations. Visit an online school and fill up an application form; the school may also require you to submit copies of your high school or GED transcript as well as your AARTS transcript. If you are on a continuing college education and the credits from your previous school don’t match with those on the course you are enrolling for, you’ll have to take the involved courses even if they are very similar from the one on your transcript; you can otherwise request the online school’s registrar to reevaluate the credits to see if any of the unrecognized units can be reconsidered to your advantage. Your online application can take for up to a few days to be assessed; after such time you’ll be notified if you do qualify for any of their offered courses.

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