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Graduate school and my career...

LetsFly said:
Looks like it's an easy decision then. It's hard to get such frank answers out of senior officers at the Academy some times... Maybe because it's been a while since their JO tour. Much appreciated!
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These things change all the time. 2 year groups prior to this current one that FOSx2, I had a friend go to AFIT, spend a 2 years in flight school then be on the golden path to VP community CO, and decided instead to go the FTS route.

2 YGs later JAC has a squadron mate that went to PG school, went jets and didn't get through his first fleet tour until he was up for O-4 and FOSx2.

It's all luck and timing. The sooner you get to the fleet, the better chances you'll have the right timing to make O-4 and stay on the path to DH, XO/CO etc.

If you want a masters get a masters, if you want to fly jets, fly jets. Just realize that you may only get to be in the Navy for 10 years vice 20 if you make those decisions. If you're okay with that chance, there's always the reserves.

There's also a pretty good chance (roughly 50/50) that you won't make O-4 if you forgo grad school and don't select jets as well.
 
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It's way too early for you to be thinking about your O4 board.

In 10 years they can be selecting 80% of in zone aviators and you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity. They could still be promoting 45%, which doesn't include you, and you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity. You might find a nice young lady and want to settle somewhere with kids instead of stay Navy, and you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity. Or you might be one of the myriad of LTs who think he is destined for greatness, and while you're blogging everything that's wrong with the Navy for not recognizing how shit-hot you are you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity.
 
Spekkio said:
It's way too early for you to be thinking about your O4 board.

In 10 years they can be selecting 80% of in zone aviators and you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity. They could still be promoting 45%, which doesn't include you, and you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity. You might find a nice young lady and want to settle somewhere with kids instead of stay Navy, and you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity. Or you might be one of the myriad of LTs who think he is destined for greatness, and while you're blogging everything that's wrong with the Navy for not recognizing how shit-hot you are you'll be kicking yourself for passing up this opportunity.
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Thanks for the unique perspective... that gives me a lot to consider.

Just to play devil's advocate, I could foresee me kicking myself just as hard if I get done with my first tour and then realize that my time away getting a degree took away my competitive edge for a desirable second tour.
 
BigJeffray said:
They're out there and one was there in July/August actually but I agree that they aren't nearly as common as people who went other routes. As for taking time out to get your Masters before flight school, I know more people who got bit in the ass doing that than didn't. Timing is extremely important and hard to control. This is one of the times you can control it.
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yeah, you are absolutely right…..I forgot about that. Not a ton, but they exist (PXO of my old JO squadron is one).
 
There's plenty of opportunity to get a graduate degree on your JO shore tour. That's a more common route in the helo community.
 
My $0.02: Get the degree sooner rather than later and get on the TPS track if that is what you want to do. You'll be set for life if you make it, and you will still be pretty far ahead with an MIT/Oxford/Stanford engineering degree if you don't. Things can change a lot between now and the O-4 board: I am living proof. Also, don't go to school while performing a full time job if you don't have to. I had a wonderful opportunity to go the Army Staff College- even though I had to wear blueberries, learn how to draw arrows and squigglies on a map, and deal with Ft. Leavenworth winter, it was still an awesome year in my career- because going to school is all I had to do.
 
Are there fields that are better than others to have an advanced degree in? For instance, I have my Master's degree in Chemistry. Would I have to get another one in a field more relevant to the Navy?
 
The navy in general is ambivalent about what degree you have. Certain programs within the Navy can be more specific. I think some form of Engineering degree is a requirement for TPS, but I could be wrong. I was a mech e, so I didn't have to look at that part of the instruction too hard when I applied. I also know that coming out of the academy, nukes have separate requirements depending on your degree.
 
We interrupt this thread for a small statistical aside...

If you don't know many TPS grad skippers, it could be because they don't select well for CO, OR it could be (and more likely is) because the pool of TPS grads is significantly smaller than the pool of FRS,WS,NSAWC folks.
 
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