There has been a theme of school related post in my blog thus far so let's keep it going with one more. Whether you're in the military currently, thinking about going into the military or have already retired I'm speaking to you. There is a saying that nothing in this life is free. While that may be true in the broad sense of the word you can get truly "free" college credits for your military service as well as "free"schooling if you qualify. I know what your thinking "if you only knew what I had to go through in the military you wouldn't call anything "free". I could agree with you more, I myself served in the military for 8 years and while I was proud to do it, it was very trying at times. But back to the point at hand, turning military service into college credit.
While the fact that you don't get any credit or a degree through most military schooling is generally well known, the fact that almost all schooling has an ACE credit recommendations may not be. What this essentially means for you is that your particular courses have already been assessed and given a credit designation. The best example I can give you that fits everyone is that of, Basic Training. Whatever your branch you have to go through some form of a basic in order to serve. While it may seem that this is null and void in the credit department, you can actually get physical fitness credits for this. While these credits may not fit into your degree they will likely be accepted as some form of elective in one of your basic class categories.
With the merging of the different branches of service together and the creation of the joint bases, they have also merged all the transcripts. This is the new and improved transcript service that is offered at one location to anyone regardless of branch of service. These transcripts are fittingly called Joint Service Transcripts or JST for short. The best way to see exactly what you have is to register for an account at the Transcript request site and see what credits recommendations were made. This transcript can be sent to your respective school to be evaluated for acceptable credits based off your desired degree program. This is not to say that every school will accept these credits, but there are many military friendly schools that will accept many of the credits.
As for the free schooling if you live and served on active duty and enlisted or were a resident of Texas than you may be eligible for the Hazlewood Act which gives you 120 credit hours to any state funded school. Unlike your GI bill you don't have to have contributed to anything to be eligible and you can use it for any level degree not just a Bachelors.
The reality is that you have served and you have options that may save much time/money so it would be silly not to at least explore your options. The worst thing that can happen is that you will spend a couple hours researching this and end up back where you are now. If you have questions about it check the links I have included or send me a message and I would be happy to help in any way I can.
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28650594@N03/7980227141">Puerto Ricans commemorate 9/11 [Image 14 of 18]</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
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