School Certifying Officials (SCO)

A School Certifying Official (SCO) serves as a liaison between students and other stakeholders, such as the Office of Veterans Programs (OVP) at Penn State, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DoD), Pennsylvania's Department of Education State Approving Agency (SAA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Your SCO will work to ensure that you're in compliance with VA reporting regulations and procedures as well as to help resolve any eligibility issues.

SCOs also manage all GoArmyEd, Air Force Portal (AI), and Navy Portal (MNP) functions, primarily for tuition assistance (TA) and grade-reporting purposes. An example of this is that the SCO will post your grades in the appropriate Military Portal system at the end of every semester.

Failure to Report Grades or Complete Course

Please note that if you fail to have your grades reported, both you and your command will receive letters from the branch requesting either the grade or reimbursement of the TA funding. If they don't receive a response, the amount of TA that you had received will be withdrawn from your pay. There are also repercussions if you fail, or fail to complete, a course that you have received TA for. If you find yourself in one of these situations, or if you have further questions, you can reach out to a World Campus SCO Monday–Friday, from 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (ET) in one of the following ways: 

Military Module Navigation

There are two methods of moving through the military-affiliated student modules in NSO. The first is by using the same Next and Previous buttons that you use in the rest of the course. This method will allow you to move between pages in the module itself, so that you can focus solely on military-specific information without returning to the general information sections of NSO. The other method is by selecting the Return to Module X link at the bottom of the screen. This will take you back to the pertinent section of NSO and allow you to view more detail about military-specific information within the context of the more generalized information that is applicable to all students.

Return to Module 1: Funding Your Education.