-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
getting another degree
- Thread starter staff03
- Start date
I wouldn't push your OCS back to try and get a Master's. If you do not have a tech undergrad, you are going to have a difficult time competing with the guys that do. Getting a TPS slot is not easy. If you get to fly period, count yourself lucky, if you can manage to get into TPS, consider yourself luckier. About midway through your JO tour you could start a Master's. That would put you finishing it about a year into a shore tour.
I know it is very wishful thinking, for some reason I just like to have all of the info on every possible path my career can take just in case. So if you start a MS midway through JO tour does that leave enough time to still apply for TPS during the last part of your shore tour? And one reason I want a technical grad degree is to make myself more competitive for positions like this one.
JO tour=36 months....start your MS at 18 months and you finish about 6 months into your shore tour, given a 2 year program. You will have what you need to apply but how you fly, and your FITREPS will play heavily into whether you get selected.
So seeing as how I don't have a technical undergrad, a technical grad degree will take considerably longer. Would it be possible to do some work toward that starting 18 mo. into my JO tour and then apply to NPS or AFIT with at least a bachelor's equivalent in the degree and earn a master's through one of those?
That might help you get in, but won't help towards the masters itself. AFIT will only take 12 transfer credits, and they can't be used for any other degree (http://www.afit.edu/en/ENY/prospective.cfm).
Here's their specific requirements for the degree I got:
http://www.afit.edu/en/ENY/PDF/Program_Requirements.pdf
Looks like you can set yourself up by taking undergrad courses (or masters courses on your own time before applying), but from reading that stuff it sounds really hard to get into a tech masters w/o a tech BS.
Is it too late for you to switch degrees? If it moves your OCS date back a semester or so it might be worth it. But... to be perfectly honest with you, a tech masters hasn't helped me at all in flying. And I got so sick of it that I have little desire to go to TPS right now. It's lots of very technical stuff (think of a nerd in a flight suit). Tech degrees can help you get jobs out of the Navy, but unless you really like the nerdy stuff, you might want to look more into what TPS is like before doing anything drastic.
Explore these websites for more info:
http://www.afit.edu/
http://www.nps.edu/
Ya it is way too late to switch degrees now unfortunately. I was really hoping that taking some tech courses before NPS or something would help but it looks like it wont. The NPS-TPS joint program looked interesting. And that tech stuff does interest me although it is very nerdy :icon_wink
I don't know of an NPS-TPS joint program (although that would be nice... Monterey, CA
vs. Dayton, OH 
). The AFIT-TPS program is what you'd want, and you'd get the degree I linked the requirements for. I think you have to apply for NPS and TPS separately if you want that route.Don't see why not. But, as has been mentioned, if you're doing it on your own time (and $$), you'd probably want to start work on a masters.
I definitely see the benefits there of just starting on your masters. Somehow I just think that my lack of undergrad classes in a tech field will really hurt me on getting accepted for a masters. Nice to know I can always start over again with another BS . I will definitely look into all options. By the way, regardless of what degree you work on during the last 18mo of your sea tour, how do you find time and a place to do it?
. I will definitely look into all options. By the way, regardless of what degree you work on during the last 18mo of your sea tour, how do you find time and a place to do it?
Now I think you're finally starting to get it.
You can find time, but it depends what platform you fly, where you're stationed, if your squadron's deploying, etc. etc. There are just too many variables to account for until you're there. If you're really set on it, you'll want to start early to make sure you have the time to do it. If you're taking evening classes and then, oops, squadron's going on a det for the next 2 weeks, that means missing class (which is why shore tour is a better time to do it). Just be prepared for lots of unknowns, and you'll probably have to stick with correspondence courses for most of what you do during your sea tour.