Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship

The Department of Veterans Affairs just announced it will begin accepting applications for the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship from surviving spouses of military personnel who die in the line of duty after September 10, 2001. Before this change only children of those who died in the line of duty were eligible for this benefit.

The Fry Scholarship will enable eligible spouses up to 36 months of the full Post-9/11 GI Bill which includes a tuition-and-fee payment and monthly housing allowance. Some spouses currently eligible for or already receiving benefits under the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program may now be eligible for the Fry Scholarship.

For more information regarding the Fry Scholarship, call 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) or go to the VA GI Bill Website: http://gibill.va.gov

free online college classes

One way to earn free college credits is to use National CCRS (formerly National PONSI) recommendations which are accepted by 1500 colleges and universities across the U.S. Typically these credits will come in as transfer credits so consult your college before attempting to transfer the credits although almost all state colleges take the college recommendations from National CCRS. You can check here to see if your college is on the list of schools accepting the credits : http://www.nationalccrs.org/colleges_universities/cooperating/home.html

The Saylor Foundation has three entry level courses that you can take which have assignments and quizzes for free.

Here are the 3 steps to taking the courses:

Step 1.

   Choose a class:

   •BUS205: Business Law and Ethics
   •BUS210: Corporate Communication
   •POLSC201: Introduction to Western Political Thought
Step 2.

Take the Final Exam
The final exam can be proctored by any certified librarians, military education services officer, embassy  representatives; a local school official, such as a principal, dean, or guidance counselor. Have your representative fill out the proctor form provided by Saylor.

Step 3.

Send your transcript to the college you are attending so they can be added to your academic record. Here is the transcript request form

     There are other ways to earn college credits quickly such as DANTES exams and CLEP exams that are low cost and many corporate trainings have been evaluated for credit by groups such as National CCRS or the American Council on Education (ACE) , colleges and universities have trusted ACE and NCCRS to provide reliable course equivalency information to help their decisions to award academic credit for many decades.