markkyle66
Active Member
Did your officer recruiter say that this was a go as far as BDCP is concerned? I'm still waiting to hear back about this from mine.
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BDCP for online degree programs?
- Thread starter markkyle66
- Start date
Did your officer recruiter say that this was a go as far as BDCP is concerned? I'm still waiting to hear back about this from mine.
For what it's worth, I hated math in high school, but I scored above average on the SAT. I went to school for ME and hated school with a passion until I changed majors 1.5 years in. The only reason I chose engineering in the first place was because I heard it was the best way to become a Naval Aviator. Now I know different, and wish I had never signed up for ME in the first place. Make sure you choose your major for the right reasons; it took me sitting through Calc I, II, III and IV, Diff. Eqs., Linear Algebra AND Statics before it occured to me (dumbass) that math wasn't going to go away if I stayed with engineering.
i've had a math tutor but average a 'B' in math. i think it's the result that counts. recently, calculus grades have been more like a 'C', so i'm going to retake calculus next year. i retook algebra 1 back in 7th grade in summerschool because i had 'C'. i consider 'C' to be sort of unacceptable for math. just me.
whichever college i go to, i'm definitely planning on looking for whatever tutoring they offer in math. i expect i will need tutoring in calc, linear algebra, diff eq. but i don't see that as a big deal. i'm used to tutoring by now.
markkyle66
Active Member
DSL1990 and others... I appreciate your $.02 on my original post, but you guys are getting way, way off topic from my original post (BDCP elligibility for online/hybrid degrees guys) with the math stuff. Not meaning to be "one of those guys", but others with the same problem as me will search this thread up and not get much out of it. So try to keep it relevent please.
Thanks guys
Thanks guys
You haven't searched AW for very long, have you? This is the norm for our threads. When, and if, information arrives it will get where it needs to go. In the meantime, back off and let things work themselves out.
DSL,
I decided about halfway through HS senior calc that the AE pipe dream simply would be a waste of my time. I could get proficient and even do well at math, but could NEVER master the stuff / didn't really understand what was going on.
There were other things I was good at, things I could get academically excited about instead of grinding painfully against. I ended up going to a school without an engineering program. A ridiculous experience with Calc 2 my freshman year put any fears I'd made the wrong decision to rest.
So my point is: Sometimes, "quitting" or accepting that you just may not be cut out for something IS the prudent thing.
Your mileage will vary. Good luck. I hope you succeed, but don't limit yourself by insisting on the hardest path.
thanks eddie,
that's good insight. right now, i think i am ok though in math. i'm not going to win any math awards, but i am getting it, and it's not really causing me such a headache- if it was, i'd have quit math awhile ago- i definitely wouldn't have taken calc this year. but i'm plowing ahead. of course, i may need to find the escape hatch, but that's for later if i need it. i just don't know what i would do instead. i'm really not interested in anything else (except maybe JT's major! :thumbup_1). i'd do a flying major if i went to embry-riddle, but i'm not sure i want to go to ERAU either, although the navy would certainly cover the high cost
i really like engineering. this year, one of the things i got most excited about was designing a bridge using a bridge program in my Tech class, and then measuring it, drawing it, and building it for real out of pieces of manila folder (don't ask why our teacher didn't have us using popsicle sticks like everyone else 
). our teacher loaded our bridges by adding water to a bucket until the bridges broke. now the pieces of my bridge are displayed in a glass case in my school. (i won!) engineering can be cool.
thanks eddie,
that's good insight. right now, i think i am ok though in math. i'm not going to win any math awards, but i am getting it, and it's not really causing me such a headache- if it was, i'd have quit math awhile ago- i definitely wouldn't have taken calc this year. but i'm plowing ahead. of course, i may need to find the escape hatch, but that's for later if i need it. i just don't know what i would do instead. i'm really not interested in anything else (except maybe JT's major! :thumbup_1). i'd do a flying major if i went to embry-riddle, but i'm not sure i want to go to ERAU either, although the navy would certainly cover the high cost
I really think you need to research what you are getting into. I can tell you AE is NOT designing bridges with a program building it out of popsicle sticks and seeing the results.
I can tell you I've always been good at math. Didn't study much. Got As in calculus. Got to college, slept every day in Calc I/II/III and got As without trying. I got an A all the way up to the advanced math classes.
Engineering STILL kicked my ass. (I graduated with a 3.46 so I did OK, but still). It's not the math, necessarily. It is the problem solving and APPLICATION of the right math to a given problem/scenario. You need to have an absolutely COMPLETE understanding of the math so that you can easily and correctly apply it to a given scenario.
It wasn't the MATH classes that were hard to me. Those were supposed to be basic. It was the ENGINEERING classes which applied that math to real-world problems which were tough. The people who were struggling in the classes I was sleeping through usually ended up failing courses, switching majors or leaving the school. NOT necessarily saying this is your fate if you chooses engineering, but really understand what you are getting into before you decide.
Back to the OP:
If your degree is from a 4 year accredited school/program, then the Navy doesn't give two shits how you're getting it.
actually, only at 1 school am i signed up for AE, and that is the school i probably won't go to (ERAU). the rest, I'm signed up for ME or CE (ME not available).
honestly, i haven't gone through the curriculum at all 4 of these, but i did go through ME at VMI and read the list of courses and the description of each course. i think it is going to be quite interesting and i am very excited about a number of the classes. the only class which leaves me entirely cold is fluid mechanics. thermo also seems like it will be boring, but i know it's needed for engines and things like that. the rest seem like they will be very interesting. even fluid mechanics has the possibility of being interesting since i know it is needed for aviation, so i can imagine it becoming quite interesting. i'm really looking forward to all of it. i haven't checked the curriculums and classes for citadel, VT or norwich yet. i'm definitely going to look those over too if decide to go to one of those schools. i think everyone should look over the class lists for any major you sign up for so there aren't any surprises.
BlackBearHockey
go blue...
Then for others, C's get degrees. Taking calc in HS is a lot different than in college. Not so much the actual calculus part, but you're taking your year-long class in three months going to class for an hour 4x/week. There are a number of students on both of these sides: 1) glad they took it over again, 2) wish they would have just gone on to calc II. If you don't think you'll stick with engineering, just take the credit (some colleges will give you credit for calc done in HS). You'd be amazed at how many people give up on engineering and are very happy, keep an open mind. People come in to college like kids go to BUD/s, they see a movie or tv show about someone building some huge crazy bridge and want to be an engineer, when in reality, it's a huge kick in the balls.
You'll get a ton more feedback letting people answer your question, tangent, or perform a combination. Take all the advice you can.
As to your original question, make sure you're getting an accredited degree. From what I've heard on AW (yes, that's my only experience with BDCP), as long as you're getting an accredited bachelors you're good to go. However, in NROTC there are some stipulations with what classes you take online or via distance learning.
Somewhat similarly, I was looking into M.Ed's from Penn State, and a couple you can get online. I double checked to make sure that there is no differentiation between the M.Ed's you get online and those you get in the classroom. Some were the same, others slightly different.
Long story short, if you're getting a full-fledged accredited bachelors, you should be ok, but you should also find out for sure from your recruiter.
I got my AE degree from ERAU.
Again, I wish you the best of luck, but I really think you should be wary of an engineering degree if you have trouble with math. It isn't like "Oh, thermo looks interesting" and "I think fluids and aero will be useful to me as a Navy pilot". The courses aren't going to help you as a pilot and they are difficult. TRUST ME.
And with that, I'll put the mallet down and leave the horse be....
There is a 50% washout for my college, I started out with 8 friends in engineering, there's only me and 2 other guys. You fail a class 2 times your out, go below a certain GPA your out, you drop more then 6 classes through all four years your out, you blow your brains out because you hate your major... well you know. So here is my point, you make to to the senior year and your taking heat transfer, mechanics control/ vibration lab, capstone design, and you also taking thermodynamics II again because the first time you fucked it up. Well this is a modest 12 hours, but you know you have to average a C+ between your two thermo grades or they kick you out, and pass all the other classes which require at least 2 hours a day each of study, and you have the pressure on you because you don't want to start over in another major because you want OCS asap. You get were I am coming from? This is all a hypothetical stand point, but I have seen similar things happen, and they end up in computer science
On the flip side, I enjoy the challenge and the work involved despite the bad times, when you make something complicated work and work well, it's rewarding... so I hear.
And Bogey is right on when he says that using mathematics in dynamic real world application, very different.
On the flip side, I enjoy the challenge and the work involved despite the bad times, when you make something complicated work and work well, it's rewarding... so I hear.
And Bogey is right on when he says that using mathematics in dynamic real world application, very different.