The Navy is serious about education. This holds true both with its service members as well as their families. For this reason, this branch of the Military currently offers several education based programs.
SOCNAV
With the help of the service members Opportunity Colleges (SOC) degree program for the Navy, family members have the ability to work towards degree completion no matter where they are located.
The big benefit of this program is that multiple colleges are in the network, with each one accepting credits from the others. This allows you to continue your education, despite the fact that you may be transferred with your spouse several times.
The colleges in the SOCNAV network offer both associate and bachelor degree programs.
Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society
Did you know that the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society offers tuition aid programs to spouses of service members on active duty and stationed outside of the United States? With this program, your spouse can become a full or part-time student.
The maximum allowable award is $1,500/year for undergraduate students and $1,750/year for graduate students.
VADM E.P. Travers Scholarship and Loan Program
No matter who you are, part of the Navy or not, you should always search for scholarships and loans before enrolling in the college of your choice.
To apply for this program, you must be the spouse or child of a retired or active duty member of the Navy or Marine Corps. Along with this, you are required to enroll full-time as an undergrad student.
Every year, this program awards roughly 1,000 grants at an amount of $2,000 each. Along with this, applicants may have the ability to apply for an interest free loan with a repayment period of 24 months, with the clock starting one month after acceptance.
As you can see, it is not just the person in the Navy who has the ability to further their education. If your spouse or parent is currently serving in the Navy or Marine Corps, or has served in the past, you should consider the above education programs.
You owe it to yourself to consider each and every type of Navy family education program. You may soon find that you are able to obtain financial aid which can help ease the burden of attending the college or university of your choice.
These are all extremely helpful programs, My wife is looking specifically at taking advantage of the SOCNAV programs. Anyone have any experiences (good or bad) with it?
-Nick