Frequently Asked Questions
American Public University is part of the American Public University System, which is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). The HLC accredits degree-granting institutions located in the United States, and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). In addition, some academic programs also have specialized accreditation.
Complete our short online application to start the admission process. You’ll be asked to choose your academic program (major) when you complete the application form. It should only take a few minutes to complete the form, and there is no fee to apply.
After you submit your application, an admissions representative will walk you through the steps you need to get started, including the documents you'll need to submit. You can register for courses after you have been admitted to the university and your program. If you’re a graduate student, you may register for your first course after proof of a conferred bachelor’s degree is received. Selective programs may require additional documentation before registration is permitted.
As an undergraduate student with previous academic credits, you’ll need to provide a previous college transcript and submit a transfer credit evaluation (TCE) application. The TCE takes 2-3 weeks to complete after we receive all of your documents. The TCE form is found in the student ecampus under the Student Services menu. For more information, visit our transfer credit website.
The total cost per program is based on completing all the credits required for the program, minus any credits you transfer. View your program of interest to see how many credit hours are required. There is also a per-course technology fee, but in general, we have fewer fees than most public or private universities. View all tuition and fees.
As an accredited university, we are able to accept many forms of financing from public and private sources, including military tuition assistance (TA) and federal student aid (FSA).
Most courses start monthly on the first Monday of every month. You can register for a course as early as 5 months and up to one week before the course starts. However, if you are using federal student aid (FSA), you must declare an FSA academic year start date at least 10 days prior to registering for the first semester of each academic year.
All classes begin at 6 a.m. ET on the first Monday of the month. Log into the student ecampus and click Enter Classes to get started. Read and save your syllabus, and begin working on your first-week assignments. To avoid being automatically dropped from a class during the first week, you'll need to log into each course at least once and submit a 250-word post to the class forum before 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday at the end of week one.
For courses in 8-week sessions: plan on 15-18 hours for undergraduate courses and 18-22 hours for graduate courses. For 16-week sessions: plan on 9-10 hours for undergraduate courses and 10-15 hours for graduate courses.
- AP: 3955 CLEP: 7023
- Department of Education: 3529300
- Excelsior College: 03102
- Federal Student Aid (FSA): 038193-00
- (West Virginia) LSAC: 5070
- Military TA: 3389A
- TOEFL: 3355
We have an office in Charles Town, WV. View our contact us page for our address, email, and phone numbers.
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