2024 MilitarySupportiveColleges.com Select Schools – Central

The Continental district stretches from the frigid northern border in North Dakota all the way down to the humid Texas Gulf Coast. In between is a lot of mountains, deserts, and forests. It’s what the folks on the coasts calls Flyover Country.

But the DoD recognizes it as a place that supports some of the best training opportunities anywhere in the country. Lots of sunshine and clear skies over Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas mean more predictable sorties for flight training. The mountains of Colorado invite long, punishing conditioning marches and survival skills training. And nestled deep beneath the miles of empty cropland and grazing range of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Nebraska, lay the subterranean forests of America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, closely guarded by Air Force squadrons.

Featured Programs:

Sponsored School(s)

Southern New Hampshire University

Featured Program: SNHU has been helping military service members reach their goals for nearly 80 years—from those coming home from WWII, to those still serving around the globe. See all the ways we can help you maximize your benefits, save time, and save money on the path to your next transition.

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UMass Global

Featured Program: Educating members of the military is at the root of who we are. It’s how we got started more than 65 years ago — providing outreach education to Marines stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro — and our dedication to supporting U.S. service members, veterans, and their families has grown ever since. Military Times ranked us 14th nationwide for primarily online institutions and 19th in the western region in 2023.

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This means the Heartland is a place where many military personnel are stationed. And whether it’s the mountains and prairies that grab your imagination or the big city bustle of Dallas, Denver, or other major metros, you may very well decide this is a great part of the country to stay and get your college degree.

The Heart of the Country is Home to Many of the Most Military-Supportive Universities in the U.S.

No matter what state you decide to settle in across the central U.S., you’ll have plenty of choices for higher education. Superb state university systems exist across the region, and highly respected private schools exist in quiet small towns and big thriving cities.

Your biggest challenge will be deciding where to apply. And for that, this list of the top military supportive schools in the region will be priceless.

These are all schools that accept your military education benefits, and more: they all go the extra mile toward making both vets and active duty military students feel at home and offering the extra support they need to transition to higher education from military service.

How do we know all that? Well, we used the most important metric we could find:

Every school on our list offers Yellow Ribbon program funding to all qualified applicants, and fully funds their tuition to cover all tuition costs above GI Bill® limits.

Why is this criteria so important? It’s an amazing opportunity for veterans to attend some of the most elite schools in the region without a dime of out-of-pocket costs, of course. But more importantly, it means the school has skin in the game. They are putting cold, hard cash toward making sure that every military student can make the most of the education they offer.

Not all students need Yellow Ribbon, of course—it covers costs for out-of-state tuition rates or private schools that charge more than the GI Bill® maximum. But we found that if a school is willing to go that far, then they are probably also going to go the extra mile when it comes to other important benefits: