JCC Ranks Top 10 Gold-Level 2024-2025 Military Friendly® School

 Jefferson Community College (JCC) continues to create sustainable and meaningful education paths for the military community. In the latest 2024-2025 Top 10 Military Friendly® School listing by VIQTORY, publisher of GIJOBS Magazine®, Jefferson ranks 7 in the small community college category. The College was first designated a Military Friendly® School in 2011 and is a designated 2022-2023 Military Spouse Friendly® School. 

"We're immensely proud to be designated as a Military Friendly school once again," says Daniel J. Dupee, II, College President. "The College’s dedication to serving the distinct educational needs of military personnel, their families, and veterans remains steadfast. This designation underscores Jefferson's unwavering commitment to delivering an exceptional educational journey for individuals balancing their pursuit of higher education with their service to our nation."

Jefferson is one of 2,693 schools that participated in the Military Friendly® Schools survey. At the beginning of Fall 2023 semester, approximately 408 veterans, military-affiliated students, spouses, and dependents of veterans were enrolled at Jefferson, comprising more than 17% of the student population.

Betsi L. Bentz, JCC Director of Community Services at Fort Drum, expressed that receiving the Military Friendly® designation "reinforces our deep ties with Fort Drum and validates our commitment to delivering top-notch educational services to our military community affirming we are on track in our efforts.”

Military Friendly® ratings are determined by three data sources to score institutions and create Military Friendly® lists. Sources include public data, proprietary survey data, and personal opinion/feedback from veterans themselves. Survey topics and questions are reviewed and developed with the assistance of an independent Military Friendly® Advisory Council comprising of independent subject matter experts and industry partners representing the field of veteran education. Institutions are assessed on their ability to meet thresholds for military student support and retention, admission and orientation, culture and commitment, financial aid and loan repayment, graduation and career outcome, and academic policies and compliance. Military Friendly® surveys consist of more than 150 questions and the survey methodology, criteria, and weightings are available on the Military Friendly website at www.militaryfriendly.com. 

The 2024-2025 Military Friendly® Schools list will be published in a special feature of the GIJOBS Magazine and can be found on the Military Friendly® website.  

Learn about military and veterans programs available at Jefferson on the College’s website.  

About Military Friendly® Schools
The Military Friendly® Schools  list is created each year based on extensive research using public data sources for more than 8,800 schools nationwide, input from student veterans, and responses to the proprietary data-driven Military Friendly® Schools survey from participating institutions. The survey questions, methodology, criteria and weighting were developed with the assistance of an independent research firm and an advisory council of educators and employers. The survey is administered for free and is open to all postsecondary schools that wish to participate. Criteria for consideration can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com. 

About Jefferson Community College 
Established on November 7, 1961, Jefferson Community College was the area’s first institution of higher education. Supervised by the State University of New York (SUNY), Jefferson offers 50+ associate degrees, certificates and microcredentials for career preparation or transfer; local access to bachelor’s and advanced degrees through partner institutions; lifelong learning through workshops and seminars; business and industry training; and provides community-based research and a forum for the productive discussion of ideas and issues of significance to the community through the Center for Community Studies. Jefferson is accredited by the Middle States Association and currently serves approximately 2,500 students, including a significant number of service members and their families.