Admission of Students with IEP, Technical or Vocational Diplomas

APUS requires a high school diploma or its equivalent to matriculate into its programs. APUS does not consider IEP certificates of completion, or Technical/Vocational diplomas, as the equivalent of a high school diploma.

If a student has an IEP certificate of completion, or Technical/Vocational diploma, they may choose one of the following options to gain admission to one of our degree programs, but they will likely not be eligible to use Federal Student Aid of any kind to cover their tuition costs.

• Students may seek admission as a non-degree seeking student, which means they must enroll in Individual Courses/Undergraduate Courses for Transfer as their program. Once a student has completed 12 semester hours at APU with a GPA of 2.0 or above, they may apply to change to enroll in a degree program. If a students requests to change their major to a degree or certificate prior to successfully completing 12 semester hours with a minimum 2.0 GPA, we will not be able to process their request.
• Students may seek admission to a degree at APUS after successfully completing 12 semester hours or more at a recognized accredited community college with a GPA of 2.0 or above. However, if using this option, students will not be able to register at APUS until we have received and been able to verify this on their official transcript, unless they are enrolled only as a non-degree-seeking (undergraduate courses for transfer) student.

Students who have erroneously stated they have an IEP certificate of completion, or Technical/Vocational high school diploma on the application for admission may provide one of the below for review in order to determine eligibility to pursue a degree or certificate program:

• An unofficial or official high school transcript/diploma
• An unofficial or official college transcript showing completion of 12 or more hours of college credit with a GPA of 2.0 or above

If a student has an IEP certificate of completion, or a Vocational/Technical high school diploma, per federal guidelines they will not be eligible to use federal student aid, despite being admitted to a degree or certificate program, unless they already were approved for and have used federal student aid prior to 2012.