The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) has been recognized as a top post-secondary school for veterans and their spouses for the seventh consecutive evaluation period. CSM also ranked in the top 10 for small community colleges in the nation in the latest listing determined by VIQTORY, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business.
Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation are evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. More than 1,800 schools nation-wide participated in the 2022-2023 survey.
“CSM takes pride in partnering with active-duty military, veterans, and military-dependent students to make sure you get the most of the benefits available to them,” said CSM Veteran Affairs (VA) Coordinator Laticia Ragin. Ragin reported that CSM serves a large military population in Southern Maryland due to its central campus locations near numerous military bases and installations. “We are grateful for the men and women who have served, and who continue to serve, in the armed forces and we work hard to assist our student veterans and their families as they build or transition their careers.”
CSM’s commitment to veterans is reflected in numerous ways. The college is approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Maryland Higher Education Commission, so that eligible veterans, servicepersons and certain dependents of veterans can receive VA educational benefits for credit certificate and associate degree programs as well as some Workforce Development programs. First-year seminar courses are available to assist veterans in transitioning to the college experience. Concepts taught in this course that add value to the veteran experience are time management; critical thinking; navigating college resources; diversity; social and emotional intelligence; and program, progression and completion planning.
About Military Friendly® Schools: The 2022-2023 Military Friendly® Schools list will be published in the May issue of G.I. Jobs magazine and can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com. Methodology, criteria, and weightings were determined by VIQTORY with input from the Military Friendly® Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community.
Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey response set and government/agency public data sources, within a logic-based scoring assessment. The advisory council measured the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for student retention, graduation, job placement, loan repayment, degree advancement or transfer and loan default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.
