For the second consecutive year, the University of Southern Mississippi has been ranked by Military Times as one of the Top-20 “Best for Vets” universities across the United States.
USM, the highest-ranked university in Mississippi, is rated No. 17 out of the 140 four-year institutions that earned recognition.
Now in its eighth year, the rankings factor in the results of Military Times’ annual survey, the most comprehensive school-by-school assessment of veteran and military student services and rates of academic achievement.
“We continue to work closely with our Hattiesburg and Long Beach campus faculty and staff leaders to grow in developing new, and unique opportunities for our student-veterans, service members, and their families,” said Maj. Gen. (ret) Jeff Hammond, director for Veteran and Military Affairs at USM. “We appreciate the care of our local communities in supporting our military students and in particular the many wonderful individuals and USM alumni who have reached out in sponsoring scholarships and our Textbooks for Troops Program. Our ambition is to ultimately be the “University of Choice” for our nation’s credentials – our veterans, service members, and their families.”
Best Colleges 2018 is an editorially independent news project that evaluates the many factors that help make colleges and universities a good fit for service members, military veterans, and their families.
More than 600 colleges took part in this year’s detailed survey.
“Of the hundreds of schools that applied, fewer than half received the Military Times Best: Colleges designation this year. Only the best made the cut,” said George Altman, Military Times editor in charge of the rankings. “For the past eight years, we’ve seen colleges and universities consistently increasing their resources, revising their policies and improving their academic outcomes for military and veteran students. The Military Times Best: Colleges rankings showcase the very best of these efforts.”
Military Times’ annual Best Colleges survey asks colleges and universities to meticulously document a tremendous array of services, special rules, accommodations and financial incentives offered to students with military ties; and to describe many aspects of veteran culture on a campus.
Military Times also factors in data from the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments, as well as three Education Department sources: the IPEDS Data Center, College Scorecard data and the Cohort Default Rate Database.
