College & Active Duty

[NateTheGreat]

Hello Everyone,

Sitrep:
I joined the Army Reserves late May of this year, with a 63B contract. I had the intention of serving for 4 years in the Reserves and earning my bachleor's degree. After doing so I would have earned my citizenship, and I would have re-contracted into the Active Army w/ 11B, Airborne and 4187 for RIP. My goal was to have high scores in all areas so my packet for re-contract would hopefully go smoother.

I graduated Basic, Sept. 7 with 75PU, 77SU, 12:38 2MI, 34/40 BRM and Solider Leader of the Cycle.

Well, I got a little taste of basic training and loved it. My Drill Sergent also enlightened me about earning a college degree while on Active Duty.

I'd really like to explore this option... but would an 11B Active Duty solider have time to attend college courses, either online or on base while still training with there unit?

Thank you,
Pvt. Matare
*Edited

[Kilted Heathen]

Who the fuck are you talking to?

[Charlie 51]

No

[Jim]

Well, I got a little taste of basic training and loved it. My Drill Sergent also enlightened me about earning a college degree while on Active Duty.

I'd really like to explore this option... but would an 11B Active Duty solider have time to attend college courses, either online or on base while still training with there unit?

Well, Nate, it all depends...

Actually, there are too many variables to adequatly address here. As an example, if you are in AIT, you will have about as much free time as you did in basic -- not much. If you are in a CONUS unit, you may or not, depending upon what the unit mission is. Or, you may be in a unit that is very structured (shift work) and due to the high priority, you may be kept too busy. Having said all that, during my second tour in Viet-Nam, I was able to complete something like 24 semester hours by taking CLEP and end of course tests (no classroom work, just took the test). For you, the bottom line is: Yes, you may be able to get some college credit while you are on active duty. Eventually, you may have the opportunity to attend college full time while you are on active duty, but that is very competative.

[Rico]

Did you ask your DS what degrees he holds?

I'm not blasting anybody, and certainly not another NCO, but I've been in the Army for ten years, re-enlisted somthing like 4 times, and I even work at a college, and have found it very difficult to get any kind of college knocked out. I'm fairly certain most on active duty will attest to the same sort of dilema.

However, having said that, there are avenues for continuing education through the military. That's why each post has an education center. Perhaps I was not as astute as I should have been when managing my time, but as a young private, I had plenty to do without adding to the worry by trying to pass a class I neither had time for, nor was I sure I would be able to make it to all the exams. My major focus while a private was trying not to get smoked for being in the hallway and finding a way to get to Ranger School.

The only class I cared to attend was in Ft. Benning.

While overseas during my last tour, I saw that they were trying to make education resources more available to the men and women in uniform. That's great, but again, my focus was always elsewhere.

The only time I've seen someone be able to go to college full time was for purposes of re-enlistment. They'd offer a semester of college for two years of elistment, two semesters for four. But I've never seen that actually happen. But put that in to perspective, by the time you re-enlist, you're generally in the range of having 3-4 years of service under your belt. At that point you're probably a Sergeant (or should be if you're not), and you show me any Sergeant in the Army, in a combat arms unit, that has the time to actually leave his team/squad/platoon for 3-4-5 months on end... I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but in my case it was always, "we'll look at next quarter..." or, "after platoon exevals....." or, "after this next deployment...". There just wasn't ever a good time to go.

Ok, I've ranted for long enough.

Put simply, the meat of this post should read: Yes, there are ways to get an education while on active duty, but it's really not all that easy.

[CloakAndDagger]

You might be able to do it, if you pick a degree that's neither research work nor lab work heavy. (So that leaves out most Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, etc.)

Even if you find yourself in a fully-garrison unit, you are likely to be stuck with at least one training exercise per quarter that is one week long or better.

Even on the Reserve side, I had this same problem about once a year, and it really screwed my GPA (whoever scheduled that damn things in my reserve unit forgot about college students. I'm sure there are Reserve units out there they are better about that).

[NateTheGreat]

Tracking Rangers and Veterans *Edited

Did you ask your DS what degrees he holds?

You might be able to do it, if you pick a degree that's neither research work nor lab work heavy.

No I didn't have an opportunity to ask him Ranger j.rico.
I'm trying to pursue an undergrad degree in the humanities field: Political Science, History or Pre-Law

On a Reserve path I was going to knock out my undergrad degree, go active for 4 years, then return back to grad school.
My thinking was if I could go active duty and college simultaneously I could knock out 2 birds with one stone.

Has anyone taken the online college route?

Thank you