With its ongoing efforts to help the military earn a college degree, Pierce College has provided classes online, eliminated the costs of textbooks and provided on-campus tutors.

The end goal has always been to help service men get a degree, not to increase enrollment. But Pierce College recently received an unintended reward.

Pierce College, which has an extension campus on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was recently named by the Military Times as the third best community college in the country for veterans and active military. It is tops in the state.

"This is part of our DNA," said Mark Haskins, executive director of Pierce College at JBLM. "Opportunity is the first thing we provide."

Between 1,100 and 1,400 military a quarter are enrolled at Pierce College. That's about 10 percent of the college's enrollment of 12,000. About 400 of that military enrollment is a family member, typically a spouse.

"We prioritize our services to the active-duty servicemembers, but we get a lot of spouses, too," Haskins said.    

Pierce College has been offering online classes since about 2000. Now, they offer about a hundred classes online every quarter. That's an attractive option for the military who are often deployed or reassigned and having to move.

"So, they need to be online as well," Haskins said.

To help cut costs, Pierce College recently launched a textbook-free AA degree so that all books and materials can be provided by the instructor online. That saves a student about $2,000 for an AA degree.

"We're kind of pioneers in this business," Haskins said. "We just keep trying to do it better. My motive isn't to put another student in a seat, my motive is to get them through a successful completion of their degree as quickly as possible."

Haskins remembers hearing a soldier's story about having to postpone taking classes because he couldn't afford a chemistry book. Online textbooks solve that problem.

Tuition assistance doesn't pay for textbooks.

"We don't want our soldiers and airmen to pay for them either," Haskins said.

Pierce College is committed to helping veterans get their college degree. In the past year, Pierce College added tutoring onto the JBLM campus.

Pierce College took a significant jump in the Military Times' rankings. Last year, Pierce College was 13th nationally.

Over the years, Pierce College has made significant investments in reaching and providing an educational option for the military.

To help students earn their degree, Pierce College offers tutoring a couple of nights a week on its JBLM campus for some of the tougher classes like mathematics.    

"We've made a lot of investments in the past year and that helps explain the increase," Haskins said about Pierce College's jump in the Military Times' national survey. "We're very happy to have moved up to number three. Of course, number one in Washington. Shouldn't be a surprise since Pierce College serves more veterans in Washington state than any other school in the state."

This is the Military Times' eighth annual Best For Vets ranking, which is based on a school-by-school survey of veteran and military students. More than 500 community colleges took part in this year's survey.  The survey asks colleges to document services, special rules, accommodation and financial incentives offered. It also asks for a description of veteran culture on campus and academic outcomes.