Educational Opportunities for Military Personnel at Mountain State University

Military Programs

Independent Study

Credit by Exams

Prior Learning Credit

Tuition Assistance

Veteran Benefits

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Send us a request online or call, 1.866.FOR.MSU1

Prior Learning Credit
Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) allows you an opportunity to have the learning associated with your work and life experiences evaluated for college credit. You must formally request to have your prior learning experiences associated with jobs, training, hobbies, personal interests and life experiences evaluated for its equivalency to specific courses, and/or its ability to satisfy institutional and degree requirements. When possible, we use American Council on Education (ACE) recommendations when evaluating military and corporate training programs.

As part of the process, you submit a "portfolio" as evidence supporting your request for prior learning credit. A portfolio serves to identify and describe a your prior learning experiences in light of the courses and other requirements associated with a degree. Its prescribed format is designed to provide a faculty evaluator with sufficient information necessary for the assessment of your learning experiences. The faculty evaluator determines if the evidence provided in the your portfolio satisfies the learning requirements associated with a specific course and/or degree program. If the evidence contained in the portfolio is sufficient, then it can be formally recognized and placed on an official College of West Virginia transcript.

While Mountain State University does not limit the number of hours that it will assess and transcript through the prior learning assessment process, there may be a limit to the number of such hours that can be applied towards the graduation requirements associated with specific Associate and/or Baccalaureate degree programs. You are strongly encouraged to speak with an academic advisor and a PLA advisor before beginning to prepare a portfolio.

For more information on PLA contact the Mountain State University Information Center at, 1.866.FOR.MSU1 or view information online by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of the United States Army