College Degrees for Special Operators

A few nights ago a fellow GB asked a question about the fastest way to get his Bachelors. I gave a short response and my inbox started filling up. So I thought it best to do a big post to cover the basics.

College in the Army is a little weird as it’s almost universally recognized as good, it helps you get promoted, it’s pretty well-funded, but there is no real plan. What usually happens is that you show up to your duty station, Big Sarge (TM) tells you that you need some college, so you go down to the base Ed Center and sign up for classes. Rinse and repeat for every assignment and what you end up with is a bunch of credits that don’t transfer and you get frustrated and just stop…with your 169 useless JST credits and no degree. Nobody has a plan.

A little over a decade ago, the SWCS CG declared that in a decade he wanted the most educated force out there. He recognized that the data showed that a GB was half as likely as his conventional counterpart at each rank to have his college degree. Ten years of relentless deployments creates some competition for your time. So he tasked me with coming up with a plan. I was a pure operations guy, I barely graduated college, but I can solve problems. So I hired a smart guy (Doctor of Education, prior service, gave a shit) and started my own doctoral program in Education Leadership just so I could navigate the process. I learned a metric shitload so I’ll try to distill this into general education system truths followed by a specific plan of action.

General Truths Higher Ed is confusing. It entirely benefits (financially) schools to have a confused customer base. The military complicates this by throwing money at the problem, thus incentivizing the confusion. Until recently, the Army Regulations (625 series) that regulates voluntary education were written by someone who hates NCOs and wanted to fuck them over as hard as he could, probably. Army Ed Centers are overworked. For example, I think there are ~8 GS-1740 Education Counselors at the BTEC on Bragg for ~50,000 soldiers. Even if they were the best GS employees on the planet they couldn’t make a dent in the problem. There are some predatory schools out there, but mostly schools just don’t have a (real) desire to serve veterans because we’re a pain in the ass. We have an onerous funding stream, we demand ‘customer service’, we stick up for ourselves, and we challenge ideology in the classroom. We make awesome students, but horrible customers. So most schools have a veteran outreach mission that they trot out to show their support, but in execution it’s just just branding.

So I use three criteria when I examine any plan. Cost, convenience, and credit. The cost should never exceed your tuition assistance funding. If a school wants you to take out loans or tap into your GI Bill then they are just looking for your money. For convenience I look at a few factors…online (nobody really has time to go to a brick and mortar classroom), rolling enrollments/withdrawals, digital books, enduring counselors, and personalized written pathways to graduation. And credit…I want max transfer credit and I want it to apply to a degree, not just elective credit.

A note about transfer credit: in higher education, regional accreditation is the gold standard. All six regional accrediting bodies in the US only allow for 75% transferred credits. In other words, you must earn 25% of your credits from the degree granting institution. So do the math…an Associates is 60 credits so you can transfer in 45. A Bachelors is 120 so you can transfer in 90. You may have more credits on your JST, but you can only transfer in 75%, so your goal is to transfer in the correct credits that apply to your specific degree program. More on this later…

Understanding all of these competing policies and priorities, in 2010 SWCS starting working on a plan. Instead of just a bunch of CLEP tests and Phys Ed elective credits, we sat down with Fayetteville Technical Community College and dissected the Q course…18, 37, and 38…and did the hard work of translating SWCS POIs, good for TRADOC but nearly indecipherable to higher Ed, into college syllabus language. 60,000 pages of documentation and a shit ton of glad-handing, site visits, and classroom/field observations and we had our results. So instead of just a bunch of elective credits you earn specific credits for specific classes. The key word being earn, not given. For example, Geography 101. If you compare the learning outcomes for an average college student who does his ‘wake and bake’ and trots off to his GEO 101 class and compare that to what a SOF guy learns in his “land nav training” in most cases the SOF guy far exceeds the credit requirements. But because we had never done the hard work of translating those POIs or demonstrating that learning you never got credit for it except maybe in Phys Ed or if you were lucky some ‘Outdoor Living’ elective. In the end, we were able to demonstrate conclusively a ton of creditable learning that was translated to specific courses at FTCC. What this means is that instead of 50 Phys Ed credits your transcript actually shows real courses like GEO 101. We did this for a whole mess of classes. So your FTCC transcript looks like you actually sat in all of these classes, not just earned constructive credit or transfer credit. You look like a regular student on paper.

A quick note- don’t turn up your nose at FTCC or any community college. They serve a real purpose, provide excellent education, are a great value, and have special relationships within their states that you can leverage. If you were so fucking smart that you could waltz into Harvard then you wouldn’t be here.

So, using this newfound education model we were able to negotiate 45 credit hours (remember that 75%\25% transfer credit rule?) for Q course attendance. Meaning all you must complete is 15 more credits. The classes that must you complete are the ones that we simply couldn’t demonstrate any real learning on in the Q, stuff like math, English, and writing. If you take these 5 classes (I think they make it 6 to adequately satisfy the Gen Ed requirements) you are awarded the additional 45 credits and you earn your associates degree.

Here is why this associates degree is important. First, it’s 60 unified credits, meaning that they can’t be broken apart and parsed out ineffectually…no more wasted credits. Second, if you decide college just isn’t for you (it’s not a panacea and not every soldier needs a degree) then at least you have completed a degree at some level, not just 60 random credits. Lastly, because FTCC is a member of the NC Community College system they are signatories to two specially negotiated agreements with the UNC system and the NC Independent Colleges and Universities system to articulate degrees, meaning if you earn an Associates at any NC Community College all of those credits transfer to 4 year colleges. So you are guaranteed at least 60 credits applied to a degree (not elective credits…but towards the degree) at any UNC college…Chapel Hill, ECU, NC State, etc. This is commonly called the 2+2 program. The Independent agreement is similarly advantageous. No more wasted credits. There are of course some exceptions. If you want a STEM Bachelor you might need some addition STEM classes, but by in large you are in a much better position. Pro tip- for Q course grads, if you take no classes at FTCC you get no credits. If you take just one class at FTCC you earn 48 credits…the 3 credits for the class you take and the 45 awarded from the Q. You can then use those credits as you see fit. If you’re already enrolled elsewhere you might be able to fill in some gaps. This is true for any post-2000 Q course grad. Active or retired. 18, 37, or 38. Those credits and that degree are just sitting there. Waiting.

This FTCC development was pretty revolutionary and it ushered in a new era of select colleges recognizing the unique nature of SOF and SOF learning. Lots of schools started offering their own programs to articulate the 2+2 process. But I recommend 2 in particular. Of course the UNC system is excellent and offers just about any degree that you want. But their not optimized for online (at least not as much as others…perhaps COVID forces some change).

Norwich University has an excellent BSSSDA (BS in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis) that is tailor made for SOF and the University of Charleston (WV) has an excellent BSOL (BS in Organizational Leadership). Both programs follow my three criteria of cost, convenience, and credit. They are covered by TA (in many cases even books), they are convenient (fully online, rolling enrollment, written graduation pathways), and they accept max transfer credit. In some cases they’ll accept the 60 credit FTCC AA and up to 30 additional credits from your JST, it just depends on what you have, leaving you with just 30 credits (10 classes) to complete for your Bachelors.

The best way to get started is to make sure your JSTs are completed. Any Ed Center can do that. Then call directly to one of the three schools…FTCC, Norwich, or UCWV. Tell them you’re a SOF guy and they’ll get you set up. Most Ed Center counselors won’t know about the Q course Associates deal so it’s best to go directly to the schools. JSOU actually has 2 Ed Counselors that are really good and might be able to eek out a few more credits through CEP, but they also have excellent working relationships with all three schools and some others. Regardless, have a plan…either the FTCC plan or another…just stop taking random credits and hoping for the best.

You could definitely find some other schools that will do it ‘quicker’ or ‘cheaper’ or give you a laptop or other incentives, but they don’t offer the same quality education. For some guys this is totally acceptable or even preferable, but just know what you’re getting.

Both Norwich and UCWV also have excellent Masters programs, but I strongly recommend NPS or NDU. Both programs are open to NCOs, but the NDU program at Bragg, called JSOMA (Joint Special Operations Master of Arts) is ideal. It’s a 10-month, full-time, fully funded MA in Strategic Security Studies that rivals that of any top tier University. It’s ideal because it’s hyper-focused so you only incur a 30 month ADSO(vs 54 at NPS), you can stay on Bragg (37, 38, and some 18s) reducing PCS pains, and it’s less than a year out of your normal career timeline (easy for officers as it’s built into our timelines with ILE, but NCOs don’t have that flexibility built in so 10 months is more palatable). 40 students per year, half of which are historically NCOs. About 10% of graduates go on to doctoral programs.

So, in review. Look for the cost, convenience, and credit criteria I outlined. Take advantage of our excellent Community College system including the 2+2 programs.

Come up with a plan.