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College while active duty

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Beefalo

Registered User
I just wanted to get some opinions and insights from people who have taken college courses on active duty. I know the Navy has partnerships with Navy friendly colleges that give out credits for military training and also offer various distance learning courses to active duty sailors.

Is there enough time to balance out some classes while active duty as an ET or FC on sea duty? What are the quality of these programs in terms of diffuculty, quality of education, and support.

I noticed that as an ET/FC once you make PO3 you get roughly 35-55 credits at Old Dominion in engineering or Fort Hayes in information networking and telecommunications. Has anyone had any experience with these programs? I will have already knocked out most of the lower general education requirements and noticed that the military credits go mostly towards your major. So it looks like once I make PO3 I wll have completed 3/4 of my degree at these two schools and will have 1 full academic school year left.

So I think knocking out 1 full year of school in 4-6 years is plausible while active? Once I complete my degree or am close to completing it can I apply to OCS or will I have to wait to my enlistment is up? I plan to buy a labtop after either recruit training or A or C school to use mainly as an education platform. Do you think this would help?

PS..does anyone know of any school offering naval science or anything related in a distance learning package? I think it would look great for my app if I had a course or some courses in naval science or anything related.
 
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BIG J

BOHICA
I am an ET3 on shore duty in Hawaii. I have been selected for OCS and leave in April. When going into "A" school youj want to go ET, this being that FC's don't have shore rotation except for security. Best choice for going to college is get shore duty. But, you can still do if you are on a ship, it just makes it alot harder. Pick whatever school will give you the most credits and finish out your degree. One other big part is that when you arrive to your first duty station, be as active as possible in taking on leadership roles and stay squared away. This will help you out extremely when putting in your package. Also, you do not have to wait until your enlistment is over, you can apply as soon as you receive your degree.
 
fc2spyguy

fc2spyguy

loving my warm and comfy 214 blanket
pilot
Contributor
BIG J said:
I am an ET3 on shore duty in Hawaii. I have been selected for OCS and leave in April. When going into "A" school youj want to go ET, this being that FC's don't have shore rotation except for security. Best choice for going to college is get shore duty. But, you can still do if you are on a ship, it just makes it alot harder. Pick whatever school will give you the most credits and finish out your degree. One other big part is that when you arrive to your first duty station, be as active as possible in taking on leadership roles and stay squared away. This will help you out extremely when putting in your package. Also, you do not have to wait until your enlistment is over, you can apply as soon as you receive your degree.
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Completely ignore anything in that post that pertains to an FC, because it is completely wrong. There are many diferent shore duty stations for FCs including where I am at, White Sands Missile Range.

Ok, first question, is there time while on sea duty? Yes, while in port working on a ship has a fairly constant schedule. You'll probably show up at 0700 and leave between 1500-1630. After that unless you're on duty it's your time to do with as you please. Plus, when you're working with places like ODU they understand that ship schedules can change and are very willing to work with you. In terms of their quality I wouldn't really be able to speak on that as while at sea I didn't make the effort.

School is like anything else that you want to do. If you want to do it and you are dedicated to doing well then more than likely you will. It's all about motivation, stay motivated and good things seem better and bad things just roll like water off the back.

Knocking out 1 academic year in 4-6 years in the Navy shouldn't be a problem as long as you consistantly take classes.

As far as a laptop I don't see how it could hurt at all. You would just have to have it checked out by the ADP people on a ship and that's about it.
 
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Beefalo

Registered User
Cool info. Just got my ship date changed from June to February so ill be in the fleet before you know it. Since I leave earlier I got a unexpected bigger bonus totaling 6,000. Not a bad deal since I didnt even expect any bonus. ill make sure to put everyones advice on this board to good use.
 
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twidget

Deskaholic
Beefalo,

I got my degree from ODU in 2003 while on Active Duty through the Navy College Partnership program. Like you, I had most of my Gen Ed requirements met from previous schools so I only had to take the major and minor required courses, plus about 6 other requirements I hadn't met yet. Luckily I was on shore duty in Norfolk, so I took almost all the classes on campus. I took 2 asynchronous CD courses. These were not too difficult, but were still somewhat challenging. I definitely got more out of the classroom stuff, but my work schedule sometimes got in the way. There are 8 major classes, 2 labs (not sure how they do this distance learning), and 4 minor classes required. If you are at all motivated, you should be able to take at least 2 per semester even on sea duty.

You can get more info from the Navy College website and at ODU.

Good Luck, let me know if you have anymore questions.

Go ET! :)
 
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Beefalo

Registered User
Twidget,

How long did it take you to finish your degree there? Are they self paced or do they have a linear schedule?
 
T

twidget

Deskaholic
Beefalo said:
Twidget,

How long did it take you to finish your degree there? Are they self paced or do they have a linear schedule?
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It took me about 2 years and the schedule is flexible, though the registration is tied to the start of a semester. I think they'd prefer if you complete it within the semester but from my experience are very understanding if your schedule does not permit this. It was a bit hard for me to make time for myself to complete the courses. So, after taking 7-8 months for one of the CD courses, I took all the other classes on campus.
 
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Beefalo

Registered User
Oh ok good info. Are you allowed to take classes while in A school? Probably not.

Will it help finish my degree quicker if I get stationed at Norfolk? will it matter if its on sea or shore duty? I was researching the ET3/FC3 billets and it looks like most of them go to Norfolk.
 
fc2spyguy

fc2spyguy

loving my warm and comfy 214 blanket
pilot
Contributor
It would definately be easier to take classes on shore duty rather than sea. As far as where ET3/FC3 go it's all over the place. There is a wider variety for an ET because the equipment they work on (for the most part, a few exceptions) is all over the Navy. Where as a FC is limited to platforms once they get the C school. Shore duty is somewhat limited as far as locations but its definately not just security billets. You WILL as an FC head to a ship first.

They likely will not let you take classes while at A school. They'll want you to concentrate on A school. Which, by the way isn't the easiest A school. It will require a couple hours of studying a day for most people.
 
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Beefalo

Registered User
Well I think I got it figured out. ill be in A,C school for a little over a year and then ill get my assignment. Once I get assigned to a duty station or ship then I can start taking classes.

Now the hard part. ET or FC?

Im leaning more towards FC. Do all FC's get to practice firing weapons and blowing stuff up? Is it not as fun as it sounds?
 
fc2spyguy

fc2spyguy

loving my warm and comfy 214 blanket
pilot
Contributor
Firing weapons, pretty much everyone does that on the ship now with all the force protection stuff. As far as blowing stuff up it all depends on what system you work on as an FC. If you go AEGIS you work on one part of a weapons system. I explained this in another thread I'll link it after this. Tomahawk guys do engagement planning and networking stuff. MK-86 guys work on the Gun Fire Control System. They shoot the 5" guns on a Cruiser. There is another school that you can go to for 5" guns on a destroyer but I forget exactly what it is.

Then you have seasparrow,Close In Weapons System, MK-92 (going away if I remember right) and other ones that you can get. All of them are weapons systems that you could work on. AEGIS is pretty top heavy right now so our advancement has slowed a little but it always goes in waves so there really is no telling where it'll be 5 years from now.

If you have anymore questions let me know.

Here is the link for a description on AEGIS plus some other good info for you.

http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9209&page=2&pp=20&highlight=aegis
 
fc2spyguy

fc2spyguy

loving my warm and comfy 214 blanket
pilot
Contributor
Beefalo said:
How do they pick ET or FC? How much say do you actually get?
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When I went through tech core it was all based on class standing. They had a certain number of FC/ET/DS (note: DS is gone now) billets and you picked base on how you were ranked in the class. Purely scholastic scores, nothing else.
 
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