Getting a Masters Degree - Air Force Pilot

[Khoody]

Howdy y'all,

I'm in a rather peculiar situation... I'm about to start my last year in AFROTC and I have a pilot slot for the Air Force. The thing is, there could be around a year wait after I commission to when I start training (COVID-19 and other delays).

My cadre recommended I start working on my masters degree and, so far, I agree. I have questions for anyone who knows about rank requirments and life after the military.

Questions:
Does it matter what masters degree I get? (in reference to the Air Force, not necessarily life after the military)
Why do I need a masters degree for ranking up in the Air Force? What rank does this matter for?
Will getting my masters speed up any ranks?
Do you have any tips on how to finance the degree?
Any online school suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Capt MJ]

Howdy y'all,

I'm in a rather peculiar situation... I'm about to start my last year in AFROTC and I have a pilot slot for the Air Force. The thing is, there could be around a year wait after I commission to when I start training (COVID-19 and other delays).

My cadre recommended I start working on my masters degree and, so far, I agree. I have questions for anyone who knows about rank requirments and life after the military.

Questions:
Does it matter what masters degree I get? (in reference to the Air Force, not necessarily life after the military)
Why do I need a masters degree for ranking up in the Air Force? What rank does this matter for?
Will getting my masters speed up any ranks?
Do you have any tips on how to finance the degree?
Any online school suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

These are all excellent self-directed research topics for a soon-to-be junior officer. By now, you should know there will be Air Force policies on your topics, which will be your primary sources to research.
Here’s a link to an unofficial but usually reliable source, which gives a good overview to get you somewhat familiar.

Air Force Tuition Assistance (MilTA)

The Air Force offers several programs to support your education goals including 100% Tuition Assistance for college courses.

www.military.com

If you attend school on the AF dime and time, expect them to have some say in the Master’s field and expect some payback time. All that will be spelled out in AF policies and directives findable online. You will want to ensure you know whether any required obligated service time is concurrent or consecutive to your ROTC OBLISERV. There are other ways to get a Master’s, but I suspect this is the best fit for your situation.
No doubt you’ll get more specific advice from AF experts, especially with regard to career importance. I’m Navy background, but the service have roughly the same programs and the topics came up easily in google.

 

[flieger83]

Hi!

Okay...realizing that this is simply the opinion of one...

Questions:
Does it matter what masters degree I get? (in reference to the Air Force, not necessarily life after the military)
If your career will be in a flying position (pilot) and that's it...no, it does not matter
Why do I need a masters degree for ranking up in the Air Force? What rank does this matter for?
The AF is considered a very technical service, rightly or wrongly, and somewhere in the past it was determined from "on high" that career officers would broaden their skillsets, to include academically, by seeking advanced education. Quite honestly, without a masters degree, as an officer, don't plan on going past major.
Will getting my masters speed up any ranks?
In my experience, absolutely not.
Do you have any tips on how to finance the degree?
See CaptMJ's comments above
Any online school suggestions?
The one that has the program that interests you. Don't just "do a masters to do a masters." Choose a program that appeals to you and that you believe will enhance your knowledge base.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

 

[Capt MJ]

For the OP, I thought this was an interesting blog post.

Choosing a Master’s Program as an Air Force Officer

Background Choosing a master’s program was one of the most difficult decisions I have made in my life. As some of you may have read in my more personal posts, many of the major decisions I h…

airforcejourney.com

And more general info - plenty of official references available online.

Graduate Programs | U.S. Air Force ROTC

After graduating, you’ll be able to work on new technologies from state-of-the-art aircraft to next generation satellites and cyber warfare.

www.afrotc.com

 

[kinnem]

somewhere in the past it was determined from "on high" that career officers would broaden their skillsets, to include academically, by seeking advanced education.

That's been true since Doolittle was an up and coming JO a century ago. He was probably the most educated man in the AF at one time.

 

[Humey]

I am not trying to discourage you from getting your Masters, if anything is a great to get whether in them military or the civilian world. From what I read, the Air Force is creating two types of tracts for their pilots. One is for those who want to fly and keep flying and arent in the AF necessarily be in a command position. The other is tract is the normal whay where as you advance you do less flying and more commanding. For the command route, it is necessary to have the Masters and honestly, if you are doing it on your own time, I dont think they care what it is. I wouldnt get a Masters in pottery, but anything that can be used in the military will be fine. The first tract which is where you start and end as a pilot, not sure if you really need a Masters (someone please correct me if i am wrong) although the farthest you will get is a Lt. Colonel although you may finish as a LT Colonel on the command path also. If you do have a year to kill, then getting a good chunk of your master out of the way now seems like a great thing especially since you still have the student mentality from being in college

 

[Physicsguru]

Way back in the dark ages (early 90s), the Air Force had a back up in the pilot pipeline. I was at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and saw a few 2nd Lts walking around. I asked why they were there, and they said because of the back up the AF was sending them for their Masters programs.

If you can get selected to be sent to a service postgraduate school and then go to flight training, you'll have quite the leg up on your peers. That might be something else to look into.

 

[Pima]

@Khoody
I want to place this into a clarification, since you will be an AFROTC grad that has yet to report, TA will not be available to you, unlike it would be for USAFA grads. The reason is simple...you are commissioned, but not AD yet. USAFA grads are ADAF the minute they commission.
That means you will have to find the $$$$ until you report to your 1st base.

My DS commissioned many moons ago. His RNLTD moved several times. There was a huge backlog, even his UPT start date had @25% of the class with USAFA grads. His start date was April 1. He was sent to Del Rio in Sept. Worked in maintenance (casual status) until the start of his class. His friends that also had UPT slots at other bases found this to be the same for them. They all were sent to their UPT base no later than Sept 30th (end of fiscal yr), but in reality their class didn't start until 9 months after their commissioning.

I state this because as a rising AS400, you will not find out which UPT base until Nov or so. They will drop your report date @ March.
~ DS's 1st report date was 2 days prior to his graduation. HQ was contacted and informed.
~ 2nd date was 2 days after commissioning, but according to PCS regs he needed 3 days travel. HQ was contacted and informed.
~ 3rd date was Aug. Orders typically drop 6 weeks prior. DS contacts det. looking for his orders. Det contacts HQ. They changed it to Sept.
~4th date was Sept. That one stuck.

I am illustrating this so you can see you might have to be flexible on how you will achieve your grad degree. If you think you will do it at home, what will you do if they change the date?
~One of his friends that had an original report date of Sept at a different UPT base than his, she found out her date at commissioning was now Aug, it was later moved up to July at last minute. 1 week later after commissioning, she called and said it was moved to 7/1, just barely squeaking in 6 weeks. In essence, in 1 week she saw it move 3 times. She was casual status for 8 months. Her class started 3/15.