(SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jan. 20, 2015) Military Times magazine, a Gannett publication, again has included SUNY Empire State College among its “Best for Vets: Colleges 2015.”

Highlighted in the online and nontraditional category, the college has been recognized each year since the magazine first began publishing Best for Vets five years ago.

This honor noted several specific features of the college including:

• low in-state undergraduate and graduate tuition and waiving most fees for veterans and active-duty military
• award-winning Office of Veteran and Military Education
• low student-faculty ratio and strong support staff
• acceptance of academic credit for military training recommended by the American Council on Education.

“Five consecutive years of inclusion in Military Times’ Best for Vets is a tribute to the college’s faculty, staff and, most of all, to the students themselves,” said Merodie A. Hancock, president of SUNY Empire State College. “Educating and supporting veteran and active-duty military students is not just a source of great pride, it’s how the college community expresses its appreciation to these remarkable students.”

“We factor in what is, to our knowledge, the most detailed school-by-school data on veteran students’ academic success anywhere,” said Amanda Miller, editor of Best for Vets. “Two years ago, only 11 percent of the hundreds of schools surveyed could provide that level of detail. This year, that figure is up to 45 percent. By recognizing only the schools that do the most, we believe we’re helping to raise the bar in veteran student services.”

In addition to strengths listed by Military Times, the college supports veterans and members of the military community through:

• education partnerships with all branches of the military
• Credit Where Credit is Due: Veteran and Service Member Pathway to the MBA
• Graduate Certificate in Veterans Services
• Student Veterans and Military Club.

Last year, the college’s MBA program also again was named to “Best for Vets: Business Schools 2014” by Military Times.

About Best for Vets

Best for Vets provides servicemen and servicewomen a gauge to help determine if a school or degree program will benefit them. The rankings factored in service member enrollments, percentage of tuition covered by the GI Bill® and availability of specific programs to help service members.

The extensive evaluation process also factored in statistics commonly used to track student success and academic quality, including student loan default rates, retention rates, graduation rates and student-faculty ratio.

About Military Times

The Military Times newsweeklies and digital platforms are the source for news and information for service members and their families, providing information about payroll, benefits, finance, education, health care, recreational resources, retirement, promotions, product reviews and entertainment. For more information, visit www.militarytimes.com.

About SUNY Empire State College

Empire State College, the nontraditional, open college of the SUNY system, educates more than 20,000 students worldwide at eight international sites, more than 35 locations in the state of New York, online, as well as face to face and through a blend of both, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels.

The average age of an undergraduate student at the college is 35 and graduate students’ average age is 40.

Most Empire State College students are working adults. Many are raising families and meeting civic commitments in the communities where they live, while studying part time.

In addition to awarding credit for prior college-level learning, the college pairs each undergraduate student with a faculty mentor, who supports that student throughout his or her college career.

Working with their mentors, students design an individual degree program and engage in guided independent study and course work onsite, online or through a combination of both, which provides the flexibility for students to choose where, when and how to learn.

Students have the opportunity to enroll five times during the year.

The college’s 73,000 alumni are active in their communities as entrepreneurs, politicians, business professionals, artists, nonprofit agency employees, teachers, veterans and active military, union members and more.

The college was first established in 1971 by the SUNY Board of Trustees with the encouragement of the late Ernest L. Boyer, chancellor of the SUNY system from 1970 to 1977.

Boyer also served as United States commissioner of education during the administration of President Jimmy Carter and then as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

More information about the college is available at www.esc.edu.

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Media contact: David Henahan, director of communications

518-587-2100, ext. 2918

David.Henahan@esc.edu

518-321-7038 (after hours and on weekends)