Military Advanced Education & Transition has awarded the Georgia Southern University College of Business the designation of a Top School in its 2016 Guide to Colleges & Universities. The guide measures best practices in military and veteran education. Recently released, and is available online at www.mae-kmi.com.
        The military education guide presents results of a questionnaire of military-supportive policies enacted at more than 600 institutions including private, public, for-profit, not-for-profit, four-year and two-year colleges. From community colleges to state universities, online universities and nationally-known centers of higher learning, the Guide to Colleges & Universities gives students information about institutions that go out of their way to give back to military men and women in uniform.
        Now in its ninth year of publishing the guide was the first publication to launch a reference tool of this type.
        This year, institutions were evaluated on their military culture, financial aid, flexibility, general support, on-campus support and online support services. Each school's performance rating by category is represented by an easy-to-recognize dashboard. This enables prospective students to quickly target schools that follow best practices in military education, and then put these in context with other academic or career considerations.
        "Our goal is to be a dynamic resource for active service members and those who have moved from the military to their civilian careers, helping them find the school that best fits their plans for the future," said Kelly Fodel, editor of Military Advanced Education & Transition. "We think this year's guide is our most comprehensive to date, thanks to our newly established advisory board. The board evaluated the drafts of the questionnaire, made pages of notes and suggestions and helped to redefine questions for clarity. We thank them for their thoughtful edits and additions to our process."
        Not only is the 2016 guide printed in the December issue of Military Advanced Education & Transition, it is also published in a searchable database online. Students will have access to all the survey questions and answers provided by the schools, as well as explanations about critical issues like activation and deployment policies, withdrawal policies, scholarship and financial aid information and important support information.
        "While we realize that all schools are unique, we focus our annual survey on the best practices that make a true difference to service members and student veterans," said Fodel. "These best practices have been asserted by various higher education groups and reinforced by veteran groups, and we consider our survey to be the most detailed and informative in the industry."
        Visit www.mae-kmi.com for online access to the 2016 Guide to Colleges & Universities, or pick up a copy of the December issue of Military Advanced Education & Transition.