Veterans looking to receive college credit for the knowledge they picked up in the service deal with inconsistent transfer systems from school to school, said veterans advocates and higher education officials.
Colleges that receive most of their students straight out of high school do not often follow the American Council of Education's recommendations for evaluating military knowledge for course work equivalency, said Council of College and Military Educators President Louis Martini.
"I don't think it's anything malicious," he said. "It's just that traditional brick-and-mortar institutions are not really used to dealing with that population."
Martini, who is also director of the Office of Military Education at Thomas Edison State College, said schools need to be informed about the special needs of military personnel-turned-civilian students.
"Some schools may not think it is in their best interest or in their mission to work with those type students," he said.
Jim Selbe, director of the Center for Lifelong Learning, part of the American Council on Education, said the Council sets standards for giving veterans credit for training they received in the military. The Council found that 14 percent of colleges do not award any credit for military training.
Selbe said teams of professors on the Council review military training to decide if it can be equated with college-level coursework.
If a school does not accept credit for work done in the military, veterans can still seek credit by taking a College Level Examination Program exam. The test is free for military service members and veterans.
Ellen Peterson, director of undergraduate student services at Boston University's Metropolitan College, said the school is a member of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges consortium, but does not grant credit for skills-based training.
"What we would not take is rifle range or basic training," she said. "But there are other areas, there are speech courses, a number of management and human resources credits that do come through."
Peterson said BU is willing to evaluate all possible transfer credits for prospective students, veterans and otherwise, as part of the application process.
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