Grad school tuition help

[Shoreboy]

Does the Navy offer to help pay for grad school for their graduates who have served at least 5 years in the military?

 

[Capt MJ]

Does the Navy offer to help pay for grad school for their graduates who have served at least 5 years in the military?

The military offers Tuition Aid programs to obtain advanced degrees after-hours or remotely while on active duty. There are also highly-coveted assignments as full-time students at places such as the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. There are several programs to gain advanced degrees as part of a career path.

Once a service academy graduate leaves the Navy, they will likely be eligible for a range of veterans benefits, including educational. Each state also offers its own veterans program, with benefits unique to that state.

Of note, a USNA grad must do at least 36 months active duty after the first service obligation commitment is complete, to earn 100% of veterans benefits.

And, some warfare specialties have longer service obligation periods or they do not start immediately after graduation.

See:

https://cms5.revize.com/revize/clintoncountyvsc/Post-911%20GI%20Bill.pdf

Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) | Veterans Affairs

The Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) helps you pay for school or job training. If you’ve served on active duty after September 10, 2001, you may qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33). Find out if you can get this education benefit.

www.va.gov

 

[USNA_STEM_Prof]

Does the Navy offer to help pay for grad school for their graduates who have served at least 5 years in the military?

As always, @Capt MJ nails it. Many of my peers have had their grad school paid for. An MS is a strong differentiator for O-4 selection and nearly a requirement for O-5 selection. In some instances, be it personal choice, aptitude, or the needs of the Navy, officers are not offered funded full-time graduate opportunities such as NPS or the NWC. Those individuals pursue a master's degree extracurricularly, either with assistance (GI bill or TA) or out of pocket.

Remember, opportunities such as NPS or heavily discounted tuition at a university while serving as NROTC staff frequently require an additional service commitment beyond the education. In other words, the Navy will take care of you but then you'll need to take care of the Navy.

To some extent, I'm the poster-child for government funded education: my BS, MS, and PhD are all Navy funded. Keep any questions coming.

 

[usna1985]

In my day (things may well have changed over the years), AD folks approached graduate degrees in one of three ways.

First were those wanted the quickest, easiest, cheapest degree they could get to "check the box." They often went at night (in those days there were no on-line classes) during shore duty to some local school and got a masters in personnel administration or something similar. For the most part, they didn't learn anything . . . and didn't care. They checked the box for a graduate degree.

Second were those who planned to get out and used their shore duty to start on a degree they were going to use once they left AD. I watched at guy start his law degree at Georgetown (which has a great night program) -- did the first 2 years while on AD nd then got out to finish it. Knew a guy in USNA Admissions who worked on his masters while there and then got out after that tour. You obviously have to have the "right" job for this to happen and it takes a LOT of dedication to do a FT military job during the day and then go to school and study at night and on WEs.

Third were those who got a meaningful degree from a meaningful school, which pretty much means attending FT. I know a submariner who got his masters in nuclear engineering from MIT. NPS is obviously another great option. Folks who want to be astronauts definitely go this route. I have to think it helps in your USN career, if done at the right time.

It all depends on your ultimate goals and objectives . . . as well as where you are in life, your ability to do night school, whether you want to take time away from your "career" to advance it via FT school, the benefit a "real" graduate degree will have on your particular career field, etc.

 

[nuensis]

If staying in, depends on a whole lot of factors, the greatest being your specific designator and your specific career timing.

If you go to NPS/NWC, know that you may not have a choice of what you study. Needs of the Navy applies to all things, even grad school. Some designators don't have spots for certain programs at NPS. Some designators don't have spots (or only have one spot) for the commonly advertised grad programs, like FSEP or GEV.

Very important points made above (and all are still very much valid today) to reiterate:

Performance in the first couple of tours is key. In most cases in-residence education will have some negative career impact that needs to be absorbed. You will go to school for two years while some of your peers do a waterfront tour, operational tour, or a production tour. You will be putting yourself behind compared to those folks. Performance reports during duty under instruction are blank, so that "period of performance" goes into a black hole. Folks going to NPS or NWC have strong enough records to take the hit; if you don't, you don't get to go.

If you are looking to do it to check the box, do the online option. Similar to the bachelor's degrees, in most communities, especially in URL, the Navy doesn't really care if you got a graduate degree from 8 months of CBTs or 2 years at MIT--if they're accredited, they all check the box.

New officers: Submit a request for an APC right after graduation. It comes up for more than just applying to NPS, and it does take a while to receive. You don't want to find out two weeks before a lat transfer package deadline that you need an APC calculated as part of the package.

 

[mike1979]

As always, @Capt MJ nails it. Many of my peers have had their grad school paid for. An MS is a strong differentiator for O-4 selection and nearly a requirement for O-5 selection. In some instances, be it personal choice, aptitude, or the needs of the Navy, officers are not offered funded full-time graduate opportunities such as NPS or the NWC. Those individuals pursue a master's degree extracurricularly, either with assistance (GI bill or TA) or out of pocket.

Remember, opportunities such as NPS or heavily discounted tuition at a university while serving as NROTC staff frequently require an additional service commitment beyond the education. In other words, the Navy will take care of you but then you'll need to take care of the Navy.

To some extent, I'm the poster-child for government funded education: my BS, MS, and PhD are all Navy funded. Keep any questions coming.

And if you were to repeat it all again would you have it done the same way?

 

[USNA_STEM_Prof]

And if you were to repeat it all again would you have it done the same way?

Great question and yes. Sure, put what I know now in my 18 year old body and perhaps I'm doing some things differently but I'm thrilled with where my life is at and have far exceeded any expectations I ever set for myself as the first in my family to go to college.

 

[A1Janitor]

Keep any questions coming.

My son is an ensign - aero engineering major at USNA assigned to CEC.

He knows he will likely attend a good university for ocean engineering for his path.

He saw that NPS will be offering an online aero engineering masters, and he is interested in doing that on his down time (in addition to the ocean engineering).

Is that possible, and how would that work?

 

[justdoit19]

As always, @Capt MJ nails it. Many of my peers have had their grad school paid for. An MS is a strong differentiator for O-4 selection and nearly a requirement for O-5 selection. In some instances, be it personal choice, aptitude, or the needs of the Navy, officers are not offered funded full-time graduate opportunities such as NPS or the NWC. Those individuals pursue a master's degree extracurricularly, either with assistance (GI bill or TA) or out of pocket.

Remember, opportunities such as NPS or heavily discounted tuition at a university while serving as NROTC staff frequently require an additional service commitment beyond the education. In other words, the Navy will take care of you but then you'll need to take care of the Navy.

To some extent, I'm the poster-child for government funded education: my BS, MS, and PhD are all Navy funded. Keep any questions coming.

‘Payback’ increases are mentioned in prior posts. What is the final ‘payback’ outcome for all you have received educationally (not sure I asked that correctly…..).

 

[Capt MJ]

My son is an ensign - aero engineering major at USNA assigned to CEC.

He knows he will likely attend a good university for ocean engineering for his path.

He saw that NPS will be offering an online aero engineering masters, and he is interested in doing that on his down time (in addition to the ocean engineering).

Is that possible, and how would that work?

He would have to ask his detailer. It all depends on capacity at NPS for online courses. If there are limited slots, they will go to those for whom aero relates to their career field. It also depends if there are internal costs allotted to those online slots that will be assigned to the officer’s community.

Typically a Master’s on the Navy’s dime or time will be in an area approved for the warfare community of the officer. That would be the ocean engineering or something else from the CEC-approved list.

Officers are always free to do online/remote on their own dime.

 

[USNA_STEM_Prof]

Is that possible, and how would that work?

Possible - yes. I do know the CEC community frequently has very specific MS education requirements so the online option / aerospace will depend on the community and as @Capt MJ mentioned - the detailer.

Advantage to doing the degree online and your own time is that it frees up shore duty opportunities for other career enriching positions. Plus, there can be risk with receiving NOB FITREPs while attending grad school like NPS if up for promotion soon (mainly O4). It's a little silly that is the case but I've seen it happen.

 

[USNA_STEM_Prof]

What is the final ‘payback’ outcome for all you have received educationally (not sure I asked that correctly…..).

Pretty straightforward answer:

My undergrad: 5 year service committment (completed in 2010)
My MS: a single payback tour after that (they knew I was in for the long haul though as I was at 12 years service when they sent me to grad school)
My PhD: PMP is unique but in short, I'm required to serve until 28 years commissioned service if I don't make O-6, 30 years if I do. So in the case of my timing, I'll owe a minimum of 7 years after I finish this summer. But that's 7 years teaching at USNA....so, you know, oh darn.

 

[justdoit19]

Congrats on seeing the END in sight, Dr. @USNA_STEM_Prof !!

That’s a lot of school

 

[nuensis]

My son is an ensign - aero engineering major at USNA assigned to CEC.

He knows he will likely attend a good university for ocean engineering for his path.

He saw that NPS will be offering an online aero engineering masters, and he is interested in doing that on his down time (in addition to the ocean engineering).

Is that possible, and how would that work?

Third the recommendation to talk to the detailer. Online programs often are coded differently than in-residence because they don't meet the same ESRs as the in-residence NPS programs (i.e. G vs. P-coded). That may or may not be a problem in terms of billet alignment.

CEC also might have specific requirements for the type of engineering degree that is required (M.S. Engineering vs. M.S. Engineering Science vs. M.Eng. vs. Engineer, all different degree types for engineering disciplines offered by NPS).

Both are questions only a detailer will be able to answer.

Also, the NPS programs aren't free. Even though it's on your own time, it's the Navy's dime, so the DL programs and even the small certificate programs will incur service obligation.

 

[Capt MJ]

Said much more clearly than I did.