To be eligible for Veterans Administration Educational Benefits (GI Bill™), students must be a degree- or certificate-seeking student in an approved accredited transfer/career certificate program (programs offered by third-party institutions are not eligible) and making satisfactory academic progress.
Satisfactory academic progress for veteran benefits is defined by the college's Satisfactory Academic Progress policy.
Prior Credit
Students who transfer hours from another institution or receive credit for previous training/experience will have those credits apply to their program at Moraine Valley. Schools must evaluate prior credit and grant credit as appropriate. Courses accepted into a program will count as being successfully completed and cannot be repeated.
Remedial Courses
Remedial and deficiency courses are courses designed to correct deficiencies in basic mathematics, English and reading at the elementary or secondary level. These courses can be certified as part of an approved program, but only for students who tested in such courses.
Course Applicability
Only courses that satisfy requirements outlined by the curriculum guide, catalog, or graduation evaluation form can be certified for VA purposes. If a student takes a course that does not fulfill a program requirement, it cannot be certified for VA purposes. Excessive free electives, online remedial courses, and audit courses, for example, cannot be certified.
Repeating Courses
Classes that are successfully completed may not be certified again for VA purposes if they are repeated. However, if a student fails a class, or if a program requires a higher grade than the one achieved in a particular class for successful completion, that class may be repeated and certified to VA again.
Example 1: If a Nursing program requires a “B” or better in Biology, then that class may be repeated if a “B” or better was not earned. That requirement must be in the school catalog.
Example 2: If a course is required for graduation, a student may repeat the course and be certified for it until it is successfully completed. No further information needs to be provided to VA regarding those courses.
Example 3: If a student chooses to repeat a course that was successfully completed, just to improve their GPA, that course cannot be certified to VA.
Guest Students
A student may take courses at more than one school that apply to his or her degree. The school that will grant the degree is the student’s “primary” school. All other schools are “secondary” schools. You must have a “primary” school letter for Moraine Valley to certify your courses. For more information, visit the Veterans Resource Center located in Building G, Room G240.
Rounding Out
A VA student can round out a schedule with non-required courses to bring his/her course load up to a full-time schedule in his/her last term only. This allows students to continue to receive benefits at the full-time rate in their last term of enrollment, even though fewer credits are required to complete the program.
This procedure can be done only once per program.
In rounding out a full-time schedule, VA students may use any credit hour unit subject, including a subject that has previously been successfully completed (received a passing grade). Students who wish to “round out” their schedule must complete a rounding out contract before being certified for the term.
Credit for Military Service
Moraine Valley accepts military course work and training for college credits. Credits could be used towards your associate degree and/or certificate program. Military evaluations require a DD-214, SMART Transcript, AARTS Transcript, or ACE Recommendation. Student may obtain transcripts from the following:
- Order military transcript for U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine and U.S. Coast Guard through Joint Service Transcripts.
- Order military transcript for U.S. Air Force through Air University.
The ACE Military Guide can also be utilized to provide recommendation for formal course articulations offered by all branches of the military.
Credit for Completion of Military Course Work
- Students are awarded only General Elective Credit (GEN-999) for military experience.
- Moraine Valley will award up to a maximum of 24 hours of GEN-999 credit from the military, to cover the elective requirement for an A.A. or A.S. degree.
Credit for Completion of Basic Training
- Students submitting a DD-214 showing completion of Basic Training will receive four semester hours in General Elective Credit (GEN-999).
Students pursuing a career program may speak to the individual program coordinator about a potential substitution for a required career course, which would only be granted at the program coordinator's discretion. If a student has “certificates of completion,” student can contact the Academic Outreach Office, Building L, Room L-244, to determine if it qualifies as Achieved Prior Knowledge/Learning credits.
To request transfer credit, students are required to complete the Request for Evaluation of Transcript Form via MVConnect.
