{"id":30116,"date":"2017-11-20T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/11\/20\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:48:39","slug":"218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/education-transition\/2017\/11\/20\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"218 schools make Military Times: Best Colleges 2018 rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There may not be a big-eared mouse or giant castle on the campus of Tarrant County College in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, but the faculty and staff want students to feel like they\u2019re at Disney World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Assistant Director of Student Development Services Eddie Brassart, that means \u201cwalking the talk\u201d and providing \u201caggressively\u201d friendly customer service \u2014 tips he picked up from the 1997 book \u201cInside the Magic Kingdom\u201d that\u2019s required reading for all new hires at the school\u2019s Trinity River Campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you ask Army veteran Sharon Dancer, a first-year student at the college, she\u2019ll tell you without hesitation there are similarities between her school and the happiest place on earth. Staff at the veterans center constantly seek her out to ask what they can do for her, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever been to Disney World and just looked at all the people, they\u2019re just all happy. I mean, everything is at peace,\u201d she said. \u201cI have got that feel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pixie dust seems to be working. In our latest annual ranking of the best colleges for veteran, active-duty and military dependent students, Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus ranked near the top of its category of two-year schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Military Times Best: Colleges 2018 list, formerly known as Best for Vets: Colleges, included 218 colleges that submitted an exhaustive, 150-question survey to be considered for our annual rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>The Rankings<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/bestforvets.militarytimes.com\/2018-11-20\/colleges\/4-year\/\">4-year schools<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/bestforvets.militarytimes.com\/2018-11-20\/colleges\/2-year\/\">2-year schools<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/bestforvets.militarytimes.com\/2018-11-20\/colleges\/online-nontraditional\/\">Online &amp; nontraditional schools<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/bestforvets.militarytimes.com\/colleges\/career-technical-colleges\/2018\/\">Career &amp; technical schools<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rankings were more competitive than ever this year, as a record number of schools participated in our annual survey, and less than half made the cut. We evaluated colleges based on their survey responses and also used data from the federal Education, Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to determine how schools stacked up across five categories: university culture, academic quality and outcomes, policies, student support, and cost and financial aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">D\u2019Youville College, University of South Florida and Armstrong State University ranked the three highest among four-year schools. Central Community College-Nebraska and Northwestern Michigan College also topped the list of two-year institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among online and nontraditional schools, the University of Maryland University College, Liberty University and Central Texas Colleges made up the top three. Savannah Technical College, ECPI University and Fayetteville Technical Community College were ranked the best career and technical colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The majority of schools that responded to the survey \u2014 67 percent \u2014 were public. A little over 23 percent were private nonprofit universities, and 7 percent were for-profit institutions. Eighty percent of the schools on the list are public, 17 percent are private and 3 percent are for-profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/11\/20\/methodology-military-times-best-colleges-2018\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MTBestColleges2018Logo-downsized.png.png?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Methodology | Military Times Best: Colleges 2018<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">To create the 2018 rankings, we evaluated colleges\u2019 survey responses based on what veterans have told us is important to them, as well as on our own editorial judgment. We also factored in data from the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments, as well as three Education Department sources: the IPEDS Data Center, College Scorecard data and the Cohort Default Rate Database.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Growing, graduating military students<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of schools that said they tracked graduation rates for students with military ties, 58 percent reported rates that were higher than or equal to the graduation rate for their overall student population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The average graduation rate for military students was 49 percent, according to information recorded in the surveys, compared to a 44 percent average overall graduation rate at these schools, based on Department of Education data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many schools also did a better job retaining military-connected students. At D\u2019Youville College in Buffalo, New York, 98 percent of full-time military students who started at the college in fall 2015 returned in fall 2016, compared to 80 percent of full-time students overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ben Randle, director of veterans outreach and support services at the college, said that\u2019s largely due to wraparound services provided by the school\u2019s veterans center, which include help with education benefits and financial aid, mental health counseling, peer tutoring and mentoring, and \u2014 coming soon \u2014 a daycare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll of those things take a lot of pressure off of the students so they can actually concentrate on what\u2019s most important, and that\u2019s completing and using their benefits wisely and graduating,\u201d Randle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When he started working for the college in 2008, the school, which specializes in allied health programs, had 35 veteran, active-duty and military dependent students. This year, there are 728 who fit that description, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The University of South Florida has also seen recent growth, with more than double the number of first-time veteran students entering the school this fall as compared to fall 2016, said Jason Miller, associate director of the Office of Veterans Success on campus. This has been accompanied by an expansion of veteran-centered programs, including a veterans-only class aimed at landing a job after college that grew out of a smaller job mentorship program at the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The class, now in its second semester, features experts from various industries in the Tampa area and offers veterans a chance to polish their resumes and interview skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Savannah Technical College near Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia has also expanded its military-focused offerings with the recent launch of a welding program primarily for transitioning service members. The free four-month program comes with textbooks, a pre-hire agreement with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries and five certificates upon completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany soldiers&#8230;they\u2019re scared to get out, and they don\u2019t have anything going for them on the outside,\u201d said Army Specialist Michael Williams, 21, a recent graduate of the program. \u201cThis gave me a platform and an opportunity to find success outside of the military before actually getting out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=34d2e3c0-2ccd-43bc-8778-aa7a4f08e60e\" poster=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/video-poster-34d2e3c0-2ccd-43bc-8778-aa7a4f08e60e.jpg\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Virtual engagement<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holding office hours at 1 a.m.? It\u2019s all in a day\u2019s \u2013 or a night\u2019s \u2013 work for Gary Mansi, a professor at ECPI university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the online world, one of our challenges overall for any student is that we\u2019re not face-to-face, and we\u2019re not in an environment that\u2019s controlled by us,\u201d said Mansi, who teaches computer and information science classes for the university that\u2019s based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. \u201cYou have to be really flexible and able to change things quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For him, that means working on the weekends to meet with a student deployed to Afghanistan or recording lessons to send to a student on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A large majority of schools that responded to our survey said they had at least one full degree program offered online. And when asked whether they have a veterans office or center where military students can meet, socialize, study or get help with benefits or academic work, 13 percent said they offered the equivalent of these services online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At University of Maryland University College, where nearly half of all students are veterans or active-duty service members and most students take classes online, students can take advantage of Mil-Vet Checkpoint, the school\u2019s online version of its student veteran lounge. There, students can interact with other veterans, see job advertisements and access digital books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s the same experience, whether you\u2019re taking classes with us stateside, Europe or Asia,\u201d said Keith Hauk, associate vice president for stateside veterans initiatives and military support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Virtual student engagement is also a priority at Liberty University, another majority-online school with more than 21,000 military and veteran students, according to data provided in the survey. Amanda Mitchell, a project specialist in the Office of Military Affairs, said Liberty live streams events from the school\u2019s Military Emphasis Week and is gearing up for an online engagement day, where military students will share their stories and participate in an all-day forum on social media with the general student population using #HonorThem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCommunity is an important and sometimes overlooked aspect of online education and we try to leave no stone unturned in providing opportunities for online students to connect with us and with each other,\u201d Mitchell said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Staff training<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Armstrong State University in Savannah, Georgia, Director of Military Education Outreach and Success Phil Gore trains recruiters in military-speak, because if they don\u2019t know what JST stands for, they can pretty much count on a student walking away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It goes beyond acronyms. Gore said he also tells recruiters not to be put off by a service member\u2019s high confidence level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the military, you\u2019re taught to be very direct, very candid. Others might take that as you being abrupt and rude,\u201d he said. \u201cThe recruiter on this side of the table and the service members on the other side of the table \u2014 everybody has a common goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three quarters of schools responding to the survey offer training in military issues for administrators, teachers, or the general student population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Central Community College in Nebraska, veteran students created a guide for new faculty, which includes FAQs related to military students, common challenges they face and tips for spotting signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries. The guidebook is part of a four-part mandatory training series, which also includes student panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Travis Karr, director of veteran and military services, said the training has expanded beyond the school to community leaders and other colleges, creating a culture of understanding that goes beyond the veterans center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow the whole college is looking at what they can do to help our student veterans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Military Times Best: Colleges 2018 rankings are out, and 218 schools made the list. The rankings were more competitive than ever this year, as a record number of schools participated in our annual survey, and less than half made the cut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":61177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,7,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3388],"class_list":["post-30116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-education-transition","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DIIR2BBRQZE3RBYSNFBHRNQN74","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/rankings\/2017\/11\/20\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>218 schools make Military Times: Best Colleges 2018 rankings - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Military Times Best: Colleges 2018 rankings are out, and 218 schools made the list. The rankings were more competitive than ever this year, as a record number of schools participated in our annual survey, and less than half made the cut.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"218 schools make Military Times: Best Colleges 2018 rankings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Military Times Best: Colleges 2018 rankings are out, and 218 schools made the list. The rankings were more competitive than ever this year, as a record number of schools participated in our annual survey, and less than half made the cut.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/education-transition\/2017\/11\/20\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-20T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T06:48:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Natalie Gross\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Natalie Gross\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/education-transition\\\/2017\\\/11\\\/20\\\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/education-transition\\\/2017\\\/11\\\/20\\\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"218 schools make Military Times: Best Colleges 2018 rankings\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2017-11-20T17:00:00+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T06:48:39+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/education-transition\\\/2017\\\/11\\\/20\\\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 1488,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/education-transition\\\/2017\\\/11\\\/20\\\/218-schools-make-military-times-best-colleges-2018-rankings\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/5SXGTDKRIRF5RNJKRCKD3GOMWU.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Education &amp; 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