Graduate Degrees

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05-18-2018, 02:54 PM

#21

kbay hombre

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Joined APC: Apr 2017

Position: A shack in Kailua

Posts: 36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Han Solo

I'll give this a different spin. To me it looks like you're trying to square fill, why even bother?

Fair point. For a lot of us who were/are career active duty, a master's degree is either required or highly recommended at a certain rank as I'm sure you know. This is why I got a master's degree. It was free (tuition assistance) and it was from the #1 university in world rankings so I would say it was time and money (as in, not my money) well spent. For anyone who is staring down a promotion board above O-4 or in certain fields, a master's is as important these days as a staff war college and JPME. For anyone else, if you are still active duty and you get free TA, I'll flip your own question on you; when it's free, why not do it? What do you have to lose by getting more education and making yourself more competitive in the civilian world when you get out?

Nothing ventured nothing gained, unless you have to pay for it yourself or you view education as an unnecessary hassle rather than a benefit added to your CV.

05-18-2018, 03:05 PM

#22

kbay hombre

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Joined APC: Apr 2017

Position: A shack in Kailua

Posts: 36

Quote:

Originally Posted by FullFlaps

The GI Bill does not fully cover private grad school, you will still have to come out of pocket for a significant part of tuition.

Technically this is true but if you go to a traditional brick and mortar school in most cases they will have the Yellow Ribbon program. The yellow ribbon program is an agreement between the school/institution and the VA wherein the school will cover the remainder of any tuition that the VA benefits do not cover. The majority of large private and state universities are part of this program, including Stanford and every single ivy and top 20 MBA program. I'd venture to say the top 100 MBA schools are all members, meaning that as long as you have Chapter 33 (Post 9/11 GI Bill) benefits, you don't need to pay anything out of pocket, even if the school tuition exceeds the VA tuition cap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by usmc-sgt

Almost went this way as the Harvard set up seemed very appealing for what I was trying to do and is only 45 miles away. Issue is I have 2 months of mil benefits left so it would be out of pocket. It really tipped the scales for me as it would have been an “accomplishment” as well as a “nice to have” item. Even with a masters from Harvard, I simply don’t have the mentality or fortitude to stick it out in any career that I could network into with that type of education. Whether it be business or finance, it’s simply not in me. Other issue is I’m out of the military (no promotion incentive) and left seat at a major so there is no career incentive as well. I would have enjoyed the challenge had it been free, but the pros/cons doesn’t work out when it’s out of pocket.

Completely understand. It was a LOT of work and it made my one-year staff college and fleet seminar programs that I did at the same time seem like a joke in terms of academics. FYI though in relation to one thing you said, I believe the VA will give you a semester's worth of benefits even if you've only got 2 months left; they do not typically stop benefits mid-semester, so even though you've only got 8ish weeks left of benefits, that's worth a 3-4 month semester in terms of benefits.