SOC Program

SOC was created in 1972 to provide educational opportunities to service members, who, because they frequently moved from place to place, had trouble completing college degrees. Today SOC is a consortium of approximately 1,700 colleges and universities that provide educational opportunities for service members and their families. SOC is cosponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in cooperation with 13 other educational associations, the military services, the National Guard and the Coast Guard. SOC is funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) through a contract with AASCU. The contract is managed for DoD by the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES).

Hundreds of thousands of service members and their family members enroll annually in programs offered by SOC member universities, colleges, community colleges and technical institutes. Military students may enroll in associate, bachelor and graduate-level degree programs on school campuses, military installations and armories within the United States and overseas.

SOC coordinates associate and bachelor's degrees in a variety of curriculum areas for the Army (SOCAD), Navy (SOCNAV), Marine Corps (SOCMAR) and Coast Guard (SOCCOAST). These degree programs are offered by colleges and universities and are accessible to Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard installations worldwide. Within each curriculum or degree network, member colleges agree to accept each other's credits in transfer. Service members and their family members in isolated locations can take courses through such "distance learning" methods as the Internet, correspondence, computer or video.

It is both military and NOVA policy through Service Members Opportunity Colleges (SOC) that each student must have a SOC agreement after finishing six credit hours. The only exception to this rule is if the student has a SOC agreement through another college.

As a participating member of SOC, NOVA is required to issue a SOC agreement SOCMAR (Marine), SOCAD (Army), SOCNAV (Navy) to our students. A SOC agreement is a standard NOVA degree plan, on a SOC form. It is the responsibility of the student, their Education Center and the MSO to ensure the military student has a valid SOC. All of our degree plans have a corresponding SOC agreement. A student is required by SOC to have a SOC agreement completed after the student has completed six credit hours, and NOVA has completed an evaluation on the student to include their Military Transcripts, CLEP/DANTES, college transcripts, etc.