NATCHITOCHES - Military Advanced Education has awarded Northwestern State University the designation of a Top School in its 2015 MAE Guide to Colleges & Universities, measuring best practices in military and veteran education. The Guide was released in the December issue of MAE, and is available online at mae-kmi.com.

The Guide presents results of a questionnaire of the military-supportive policies enacted at more than 600 institutions including private, public, for-profit, not-for-profit, four-year, and two-year colleges. From community colleges to state universities, online universities and nationally known centers of higher learning, MAE's 2015 Guide to Colleges & Universities arms students with information about institutions that go out of their way to give back to men and women in uniform.

Northwestern State has a campus in Leesville-Fort Polk and on Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. The university also has 36 online degree programs. Northwestern State has a Veterans Affairs Office on its Natchitoches campus, a military liaison on its Leesville-Fort Polk campus and a coordinator on its Barksdale Air Force Base campus.

"It is an honor to be recognized by a national publication for our efforts to serve military members," said NSU Barksdale Campus Coordinator Donna Johnson. "At Northwestern State, we help active duty members, reservists, veterans, and their dependents navigate the processes associated with attending the university. Our military-affiliated students often face obstacles that our traditional college students do not encounter. Because of this, it is important to be able to help bridge any gaps that may exist for our military students as they attend college."

Credit for military training is available from NSU along with CLEP tests, Yellow Ribbon comparable tuition, scholarships for military students, tuition assistance and transfer credits. Northwestern State has an Army ROTC program and Air Force ROTC is available through a cooperative agreement.

Northwestern State staff assists active duty personnel, spouses, dependents and veterans. They are available to assist in evaluating transcripts, developing degree plans and scheduling classes as well as helping obtain benefits.

Information on electronic classes at Northwestern State is available at ensu.nsula.edu. Northwestern State's Veteran Affairs Website is at registrar.nsula.edu. The e-mail address is [email protected] You can learn about the Barksdale campus at barksdale.nsula.edu or contact Johnson at [email protected]. Additional information on the Leesville/Fort Polk campus can be found at leesville.nsula.edu. Military Liaison Officer Denise Jackson can be contacted at [email protected].

Now in its eighth year of publishing the Guide, MAE was the first publication to launch a reference tool of this type. This year, institutions were evaluated on their military culture, financial aid, flexibility, on-campus support and online support services. Each school's performance rating by category is represented by an easy-to-recognize dashboard. This will enable prospective students to quickly target schools that follow best practices in military education, and then put these in context with other academic or career considerations.

"We believe the Guide serves as an invaluable tool for both education services officers and transition officers when advising service members about their educational opportunities," said Kelly Fodel, MAE's editor. "We used strict criteria to individually evaluate the submissions of respondents, and we had a record number of schools participating this year.

"Not only is the 2015 Guide printed in our December issue of Military Advanced Education, but also published in a searchable database online. We designed this database with the military student in mind. We want to help them make informed choices, so we are giving them access to all the survey questions and answers provided by the schools, as well as explanations about critical issues like activation and deployment policies, withdrawal policies, scholarship and financial aid information and important support information."