UNCW maintains policies that reflect program integrity requirements consistent with regulations issued by the Department of Education (34 C.F.R 668.71-668.75 and 668.14) related to restrictions on misrepresentation, recruitment, and payment of incentive compensation.
This applies to UNCW itself and its agents, including third party lead generators, marketing firms, or companies that own or operate the educational institution.
As part of efforts to eliminate unfair, deceptive, and abusive marketing aimed at Service members, UNCW will:
For more information, please review the UNCW policy regarding marketing, recruiting, and advertising of our school to prospective students who are military service members.
UNCW recruiting strategies utilize self-reported contact information; if a student is contacted by UNCW and they wish to unsubscribe from future communications, they have the ability to unsubscribe their own accounts.
Additionally, eligible Service members are directed to speak with their Educational Services Officer (ESO) or counselor within their Military Service prior to being enrolled at UNCW. This is to ensure that Service members understand their own eligibility for Tuition Assistance and their potential financial responsibility toward the school.
If an eligible Service member decides to use TA, educational institutions will enroll him or her only after the TA is approved by the individual’s Service. Service members will be solely responsible for all tuition costs without this prior approval. This requirement does not prohibit UNCW from pre-registering a Service member in a course in order to secure a slot in the course.
If a school enrolls the Service member before the appropriate Service approves Military TA, then the Service member could be responsible for the tuition. All Military TA must be requested and approved prior to the start date of the course. The Military TA is approved on a course-by-course basis and only for the specific course(s) and class dates that a Service member requests.
If a military student “self-identifies” their eligibility and the Service has not approved the funding, then the Service member will be solely responsible for all tuition costs, not the Service.
Before offering, recommending, arranging, signing-up, dispersing, or enrolling Service members for private student loans, Service members may work with a counselor in the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid at UNCW; this financial aid advisor will be able to offer individual loan counseling, including, but not limited to:
For more information about student loan counseling at UNCW, review policies for financial aid disclosure or email Shannon Miles, Associate Director of Financial Aid.
If a student is called to active duty or deployed during a semester, they are eligible to receive a leave of absence for that service period per UNCW policy. Should you need this, notify the Registrar’s Office from your UNCW email account of your situation and provide a copy of your orders unless you are prohibited from doing so.
The leave of absence may extend for as long as three years after the completion of the service period. During the leave of absence, you will not be made an inactive student at UNCW.
If you are in good academic standing and return within the three year window following your service period, you do not have to complete the readmission process. However, if you leave while on academic probation or suspension or exceed the three year window, then you will need to apply for readmission through the Office of Admissions.
When you are able to return to UNCW, email the Registrar’s Office with your intention. You will be asked to complete an online returning student questionnaire and then reactivated to be able to register. After that, you can connect with your academic advisor to plan out next steps. Direct any questions about how this leave will affect your account balance and financial aid to Student Accounts or Financial Aid.
Once a military student reaches out to the Registrar’s Office regarding a call to duty and their withdrawal due to that circumstance (see Military Deployment Leave of Absence), UNCW policy is to back date the withdrawal to process 100% removal of the tuition.
Official withdrawal procedures begin in the Dean of Student’s office for Undergraduates and the Graduate School for Graduate Students. Room and board refunds are pro-rated differently; if applicable, please contact Housing and/or Auxiliary Services.
The refund schedule provides current dates for refunds and the percentages associated with those dates, as follows:
The University of North Carolina Wilmington is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.
Contact the Commission on Colleges at:
1866 Southern LaneCall 404.679.4500 for questions about the UNC Wilmington accreditation. Certain academic programs at UNCW require additional outside accreditation to validate the degree in the work force.
All undergraduate students at UNCW must meet with their academic advisors prior to course selection. Undergraduate students may find the applicable major and minor program sheets to assist them with developing their Degree Plan, which may also be completed using the Degree Audit function in SeaNet.
All students, including graduate students, may peruse the Academic Catalogue for the degree requirements and timelines for degree programs.
Students at UNCW utilize our degree audit system (DegreeWorks by Ellucian) to review degree requirements including specific courses needed, hours needed, and GPA minimums. The audit is available online to students from the point of matriculation.
Requirements are determined by the student's catalog year and are unchanging unless the student undertakes a change to his or her catalog year or degree program. The degree audit shows both UNCW earned credits as well as those accepted for transfer, including credit earned through military training.
Degree requirements in effect at the time of each service member’s enrollment will remain in effect for a period of at least 1 year beyond the program’s standard length, provided the Service member is in good academic standing and has been continuously enrolled or received an approved academic leave of absence.
Adjustments to degree requirements may be made as a result of formal changes to academic policy pursuant to institutional or departmental determination, provided that:
Any undergraduate student transferring to UNCW may use up to 90 semester hours of external academic credit toward their UNCW degree. These credits must be from regionally accredited institutions attended. Of those 90 hours, no more than 64 semester hours can be accepted from two year institutions.
For military students, credits earned for military training and experience are accepted for transfer and are counted as upper-level, four year institution credits toward the 90 hour limit.
You will need to provide your Joint Services Transcript (JST) to the university for evaluation of your credit (or CCAF transcript if Air Force). You can look up how UNCW equates military credits using our transfer articulation tool.
You will qualify to have the requirement for PED 101 Physical Activity and Wellness waived upon verification of Basic or Recruit Training from your military transcript or submission of your DD214 showing good standing at your separation.
Evaluation of credits earned from non-military sources (including other colleges and universities and testing programs such as AP, CLEP, and IB) follow the same process used for other undergraduate students.
You will need to submit an official transcript or report from each source directly to UNCW. When we receive those, your credits will be evaluated for acceptability. Registrar staff will add your credits to your UNCW record while observing the 64 hour/90 hour limits.
If you have credits beyond those totals, our staff will select those credits that seem most suitable to your academic program. You can work with your academic advisor later if you believe some used credits need to be swapped out for unused credits that would be more beneficial for you.
The UNC System is currently developing a database of uniform course equivalents for military credits to be used at all UNC System schools. When launched, this database will replace the UNCW database currently in use.
The development of this project is expected to change how credits are worked with at UNCW. Additional details on this project will be posted to this website as they are shared with us.
Once you start at UNCW, you may be able to transfer additional courses you want to take. You would follow the same rules as other undergraduate students as found in the University Catalogue, and planning for taking non-UNCW credits starts with your academic advisor.
UNCW accepts After admission to the university, all students receive a degree audit report prior to making a decision on enrollment. The degree audit report shows how credit transfers and counts within their program of choice.
The Transfer Credit Equivalency Tool is another resource that can be used to ascertain how credits will articulate. Prospective students can use this tool from our website any time, even prior to submitting an application.
All UNCW students and alumni are encouraged to use Career Center resources to assist them with transitioning into a meaningful career post-graduation. In particular, the university's student employment portal helps students find jobs and internships, while& events and programming help students explore career pathways.
The Office of Military Affairs offers one-on-one career counseling and a list of career resources for military-affiliated students.