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

• You may seek admission as a concurrent high school student, which means you must enroll in non-degree-seeking status. Once you have completed 12 semester hours at APU with a GPA of 2.0 or above, you may apply to change to enroll in a degree program. If you request to change your 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 your request.
• You 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, you will not be able to register at APUS until we have received and been able to verify this on your official transcript, unless you 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 you have an IEP certificate of completion, or a Vocational/Technical high school diploma, per federal guidelines you will not be eligible to use federal student aid, despite being admitted to a degree or certificate program, unless you already were approved for and have used federal student aid prior to 2012.