There are a lot of schools that call themselves “Military Friendly” these days, especially after the New GI Bill introduced tuition reimbursement for veterans returning to school.  But veterans who have to work and active duty military members often have no option beyond distance learning.  Plenty of Iraqi veterans began their collegiate work on a laptop while on duty in Baghdad and environs; troops shipping out to Afghanistan today are doing the same thing.

Some schools with online degree programs make an effort to provide economic breaks to military members, present and former, and to accommodate the unusual scheduling issues that can arise for active duty soldiers, sailors and airmen.  Veterans are also often challenged by the ability to convert service training, much of it highly sophisticated, into college credit.  A good place to start is with the Army/American Council on Education Registry Transcript System, known as AARTS.  This computerized database will produce a record of your successfully completed training experience and convert it into college credits as recommended by the American Council on Education (ACE), traditional arbiter on this issue.

This list is a collection laid forth in no particular order, of schools that we believe provide good online options for military members and returnees.

1. George Washington University announced a significant tuition matching fund program for veterans last year.  Their investment in the program for 2010 is over $2.5 million.   The online degree choices for are fairly slim for bachelors degree programs, but expand significantly in the masters degree category and for certificate programs.
2. Empire State College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, has a well organized veterans support organization within the administration.   The undergraduate degrees are limited, but the College makes a point of declaring its flexibility in working with veterans who wish to customize their undergraduate work in order to reach a specific academic goal.
3. Capella University is one of the best for-profit institutions in the country, with a full deck of accreditation approvals for its academic specialties and a wide array of selections for both graduate and undergraduate study.  The school takes pride in its receipt of a Top 20 Military Friendly Award and more to the point, has an administration attuned to the twists and turns of GI Bill financing and military credit transfer.
4. Penn State offers over seventy degrees and certificates through its World Campus.  The school participates in the Yellow Ribbon program and provides tuition assistance for servicemembers and veterans and their spouses.  Some GIs have completed the online MBA program at Penn State.
5. University of Maryland University College has been one of the most active universities in the country in terms of developing customized online programs for trained personnel from every branch of the military.  This University of Maryland outreach institution also has one of the largest online degree programs in the country.  It’s the most creative online degree program for active military members and veterans in the country.
6. Kaplan University is a quality for-profit institution with excellent online options for both graduate and undergraduate work.  There are significant tuition discounts for both active duty members and veterans.  The academic options are rich in breadth and depth.
7. Northeastern University is one of those rare traditional U.S. Universities that is among the top 100 ranked schools and has advanced to the point where it offers an excellent online selection of academic choices.  The University is also providing tuition support to match funds put up through the Yellow Ribbon program in order to make enrollment at Northeastern tuition free for a limited number of participating military members.
8. Old Dominion University has also been proactive in developing online options for active duty personnel.  Their Navy College Distance Learning Partnership makes merging training and college credit about as painless as it can be.  Their online degree selection is excellent and they maintain an active military liaison office to help with the inevitable glitches.
9. The Rochester Institute of Technology has been quietly turning out college graduates in Central New York since 1829.  It has become one of the finer technology schools in the country, a fact that is reflected in their excellent offering of distance learning degrees in which you can find a number of options in engineering and information technology.  Their graduate school extends to business and healthcare today as well.  And RIT also maintains an active Veterans and Military Services Office.
10. Arizona State University takes a ‘single point of contact’ approach to bringing military students onto the online campus, which has to make academic pursuits a little easier for military members serving somewhere other than in the Arizona desert.  ASU’s selection of online degrees is decent, and it expands if you are perceived as a transfer student, which may be the case for trained military personnel who have successfully transferred credits.