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 guess to clear things up I am just looking for all of the possible ways that a guy w/o a tech undergrad degree can work through things to get a tech grad degree AND do something like TPS.
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.
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.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.
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).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?
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.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
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.Is it possible to work on another BS during the second half of your first sea duty? I know it would have to be on your own money but is that even possible? Seems like that would allow for time to do other things like the joint program during shore duty??
Now I think you're finally starting to get it.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?
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....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?