Completing a bachelors degree in active duty

[sm_news]

Hello world:

I'm a marine Cpl with about 2 and a half years in service in a 5 year contract. I've decided I want to be a Marine officer and have thought about different ways to acheive this. At first, I considered MECEP. It would allow me to go to college full time and earn my degree. I also considered getting my degree while on active duty and stay on it until I finished it. My intention is to reenlist in counterintelligence but given the operational tempo CI guys have, I don't know how that will affect me getting a degree. I believe that the latter would be more beneficial since I'd stay in the fleet and gain valuable experience as a Cpl/Sgt as time goes on vice doing MECEP, where I'd be taken out of the fleet and only be exposed to NROTC cadets. Comparing MECEP and going to college while on active duty, I'd finish my degree faster through MECEP, but if I start now, I'd have about 6 1/2 years to finish a degree. What advice can you offer me? Is staying on active duty the best route?

 

[Harrier Dude]

Apply for MECEP, BOOST, and whatever else you are eligible for and keep working on your degree at the same time. Everybody deploys, granted some more than others, but there are many options available to you through the education office that can get you where you want to go. Keep your options open.

Getting your degree while active duty can be done. Don't let anybody tell you different. It will mean that you sacrifice nearly all of your free time, but that's a choice you'll have to make. Try to take at least 24 hours per year. That will get you done in about 5 years, depending on what you've done already and what equivelancy credits you get. If you try to nickel and dime yourself through the program (3-6 hours per semester) you'll take forever to get done. I know it's a pain in the butt, but that's part of college. It's a challenge to get from point A to point B without all of the nessecary time and resources readily available. Good luck.

 

[robav8r]

Apply for MECEP, BOOST, and whatever else you are eligible for and keep working on your degree at the same time.

I started and finished my degree (Aviation Management) while on active duty. While I am proud of the accomplishment, I can tell you it wasn't the easiest (or best) way to get a degree. I spent LOTS of nights and weekends studying and chasing my degree until I finally finished. If I had to do it over again, I would have tried to pursue one of the many Navy degree programs available today. If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to graduate - but there are better ways to achieve your goal.

 

[Crowbar]

I believe that the latter would be more beneficial since I'd stay in the fleet and gain valuable experience as a Cpl/Sgt as time goes on vice doing MECEP, where I'd be taken out of the fleet and only be exposed to NROTC cadets.

You get out of it what you put into it. For me, I learned more during MECEP than anywhere else. I'm not talking about the obvious going to college bit, some of the most important leadership and personal lessons I ever learned were during MECEP. Just because you aren't in the fleet won't mean that you won't be surrounded by that same cross section of people. Instead of having PFC Assclown who can't show up to work on time, you'll have freshman MIDN Assclown who skips scheduled events and starts fights with all the frat boys. Instead of having GySgt or Capt Stud who everybody looks up to, you'll have senior MIDN Stud, an exact replica. Just by virtue of being on active duty, a lot of Mids will come to you with questions. What are you going to tell them, "Duh, I'm just here surrounded by ROTC cadets and I don't know, duh"? Sure, school dependent you may not have to have anything to do with the Mids, but that doesn't mean you can't learn from each other.

Now, if you're talking about losing MOS credibility, yes, that can happen. But think about it, there are very few MOSs where officers and enlisted Marines perform the same function. Even if you, say, worked in aircraft maintenance before you got commissioned, after you get commissioned your job as an AMO will be vastly different from the enlisted Marines. Being out of the field for a couple of years wouldn't hurt you because it's not like when you got back you would be turning wrenches or changing tires. Having previous experience in your field is good, but not required as you'll go through training again. The only exception I've heard to that is for prior air traffic controllers who get that MOS coming out of TBS.

Along with what everybody else has said, I had a guy who used to work for me, busted his ass getting a management degree while he was on active duty, now he's an engineer, working on the Shocker (yes, Brett, that's what he calls it). I took about 45 hours of night school before I got into MECEP. It sucks but sometimes it's necessary. I'm sure my high community college GPA helped me get into the program, but I hate to think how long it would have taken me to finish doing it like that.

 

[etnuclearsailor]

BTW, MECEP is an active duty program. By the way you use the term "active duty", it's not 100% clear whether you're aware of that.