You know the difference a college degree can make in your career. But how can you fit a college education into your busy schedule? At University of Phoenix for military personnel, you can earn your degree via the Internet whenever and wherever you want -- at the base, on the ship -- wherever you have Internet access.

University of Phoenix is an approved provider of SOC, or Servicemenbers Opportunity Colleges. SOC colleges and universities are dedicated to helping servicemembers and their families get college degrees. Military students can take courses in their off-duty hours at or near military installations in the United States, overseas, and on Navy ships.

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, and Marine Corps benefit by participating in degree programs at SOCAD, SOCNAV, SOCMAR, or SOCCOAST schools. Colleges and universities (including University of Phoenix) 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.
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