Student-veterans mark the 2018 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at a ceremony outside the Administrative Services Building.
St. Cloud State is 71st among American four-year colleges for supporting and educating service members, according to a “Best for Vets” ranking by Military Times.
In a ranking dominated by southern and southeastern schools, St. Cloud State stands out as the only Minnesota four-year college to make the 2018 ranking.
Among peer schools, St. Cloud State is the only “Best for Vets” school from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and one of just two schools from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Upper Iowa University, Fayette, Iowa, is ranked 68th.
Related links
Schools ranked below St. Cloud State include notables such as Boise State University, North Carolina State University and University of Michigan.
The “Best for Vets” ranking evaluated university culture, academic outcomes/quality, student support, academic policies, cost and financial aid. View the methodology.
“St. Cloud State has been offering additional support to the veteran and military community for years,” said Zac Mangas ’13, director of the Veterans Resource Center.
Mangas said St. Cloud State has improved policies and procedures for student-veterans, and offered free tutoring, employment help and programs to ease the transition to civilian life.
“The university really has been at the forefront in creating a pathway for student veteran success. We have other colleges and universities reaching out to us in hopes of modeling what the university has implemented,” he said.
The most recent federal data documents 3,011 four-year colleges in the U.S. Military Times solicited 150 for evaluation and subsequently ranked 137.
At the undergraduate level, St. Cloud offers seven engineering degrees, long an interest area of service members.
At the graduate level, degree programs range from applied behavior analysis to technology education.
Military Times is an independent publisher of military news, based in Vienna, Virginia.
In addition to its magazine-style website, it publishes daily newsletters, video content and podcasts, as well as a variety of special reports throughout the year, including the annual military benefits guide and the Best for Vets reports on education and employment opportunities. Military Times’ publishing lineage is traced to the newspaper Army Times, founded in 1940.
