Education opportunities

Community College of the Air Force

The Community College of the Air Force offers an opportunity for enlisted Air Force personnel to obtain an accredited associate degree in Applied Science while serving on active duty, in the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve as mobilization augmentee. This degree is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the American Council of Education.

The Community College of the Air Force goals are to provide high quality associate degree programs to enhance Air Force readiness, an incentive for recruiting and retaining high quality personnel and career related collegiate programs. An additional goal is to facilitate enlisted member's pursuit of personal and professional objectives through education.

Through a combination of Professional Military and Civilian Education, Air Force personnel may pursue a degree in their present career field or AFSC previously held. Degree completion is accomplished by submitting official civilian college transcripts and other applicable documents i.e. DANTES test scores. Each time documentation is submitted, a progress report is sent to the student reflecting a complete breakdown of degree requirements needed for completion. The Education Center forwards a progress report copy to the student who is then encouraged to seek counseling to plan each step of the degree completion process.

Why pursue/complete a CCAF degree?

1. You can earn an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree, which is a fully accredited two year college level technical degree.

2. You receive a transcript documenting credits earned plus educational counseling and planning.

3. You may pursue a career-related education through a combination of Air Force technical training and civilian college courses.

4. You may pursue an academic associate or baccalaureate degree with a civilian institution and CCAF at the same time with courses applying to both programs.

5. The educational level reflected on your official military records can be updated from the CCAF transcript.

How do I register?

All students are registered upon completion of a three level granting technical school in the CCAF program related to their Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC). Only one CCAF degree program may be pursued at a time. Air Force technical and PME schools report completions directly to CCAF, therefore, certificate copies are not necessary.

For your convenience, we will provide transcript request forms to obtain official college transcripts for CCAF. CCAF cannot accept "student copy" or "issued to student" transcripts. Consolidated transcripts also are not acceptable since they do not meet CCAF's full disclosure policy; a transcript from each institution must be submitted.

30 semester hours of testing credit may be used for completion of any program. CLEP and DANTES transcripts may be submitted to CCAF for credit application.

Montgomery GI Bill

With the Montgomery GI Bill, you can get up to $30,000 for college if serving on active duty and up to $9,468 if you serve part time (a six-year contract, in general) in the Reserve or in the National Guard.

The MGIB program provides up to 36 months of education benefits, which may be used for degree and certificate programs, flight training, apprenticeship/on-the-job training, and correspondence courses. Remedial, deficiency, and refresher courses may be approved under certain circumstances. Generally, benefits are payable for 10 years following your release from active duty, date of program eligibility, or date of severance from the Reserves/National Guard.

Testing Programs

CLEP General Exams -- It is possible to earn 30 hours of college credit by passing one of these exams. There are five types: English, Social Sciences and History, Mathematics, Natural Science, and Humanities. Each gauges the knowledge you would presumably get during the first two years in college.

CLEP Subject Exams -- For every one of these exams that you pass, you receive three hours of college credit, though six or 12 hours are also possible. There are 30 CLEP subject exams in Business, Data Processing, English Composition, History, Languages, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Psychology, Western Civilization, and Social Sciences. Passing just one CLEP subject exam can save you hundreds of dollars and countless hours.

DSST Program -- The DSST program is a series of examinations in 35 college subjects that complement the CLEP Subject Exams. Passing a DSST exam also gets you three hours of college credit.

Regents College Exams -- The Regents College is a "virtual university" that counts 30,000 military personnel among its 80,000 worldwide graduates. Eight different degrees are available to military personnel through the Regents College. There are 38 Regents College exams available, including an extensive Nursing Series. In addition, over 900 colleges and universities accept Regents college exams for credit.

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