Should the military grant a 4 year "General Studies" degree to soldiers whom have served in the Armed Forces?

I don't think this would be a positive step. The importance of a 4-year degree has already been drastically minimized, and to simply award them to soldiers without the requisite study, time, and effort would further minimize it.

A General Studies degree suggests general coursework: English, Math, History, Social Studies. I never received instruction or credit in any of those subjects in the AF technical schools I attended. My ability to put 5.56mm NATO ball ammunition on a human-sized target 300m downrange, while impressive, didn’t translate well to either a resume or college credits.

Speaking of the Air Force…

The gist of the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) is that, in addition to general classes in English, Math, etc., enlisted personnel receive CCAF credit for the professional schools they attend. But airmen still must attend, or CLEP, those other requirements. The best AF leaders I know incentivize their people relentlessly on achieving secondary education, and the AF system itself encourages post-secondary education to achieve promotion beyond Master Sergeant. But, in the end, the success of a college degree relies on the person pursuing it, not the system that grants it.

And what impact would the guarantee of a General Studies degree have on enlistment? To enlist, potential recruits must be able to meet certain physical and mental criteria. To ensure success in the program you suggest, we must now add scholastic aptitude. And to rate that aptitude, recruiters would be tasked with reviewing scholastic achievement (ACT and SAT test scores). How, then, can recruiters expect to meet their goals if merely enlisting is preparation for a college degree?

<p>Absolutely not, the online education system as it is is a joke.&nbsp; It wouldn't even make sense for 20 yr retirees to receive something like that, since they will more than likely get a job in their CMF or based on experience alone. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We get TA of 4,500 dollars a year, multiply that by 19 years (TA is not availible for year 1) and it's 85,500 dollars for education.&nbsp; Nevermind the GI Bill when you get out, there are far too many options availible for service members who want to learn.&nbsp; Handing out degrees would just further water down Associate degrees to be about as good as a GED.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>There are some service members who constantly complain that they do not have time to do online college.&nbsp; I say bullocks, it takes at most 2-3 hours a week for an undergraduate course.&nbsp; </p>

<span style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-size: 12px;">We need to stop overvaluing the Army's Training….. No degree should be awarded for any amount of service.</span>

Perhaps not to the extent im tracking sir. Perhaps having a series of colleges that will collabrate to supply the chance to go to college. As Captain Moss said. It would almost deface the value of the degree from those who did spend the time to earn it. I myself haven't gone to college sir, and I feel it would. Just my 2 cents sir.

I could see it bringing a person up to just shy of an Associates Degree, however the requirments of knowing how to write a paper, etc I believe would still need to be attained.  Wheter it be while serving or give sufficent credit to make only required classes to graduate with an Associates. but I do not believe that just serving constitutes a Bachelors degree.  Pehaps with completion of ALL NCOES and required classes, maybe.  I still lean towards no however.

I believe they should fulfill there initial enlistment, and maybe one re-up to qualify.

No way. Everyone coming out of the military with a 4 year degree would dilute what a 4 year degree means. Better to find a way to give specific college credit to specific training. For example, an Electronics technician could get credit for electronics and math that aligned with particular courses at a university. This would lessen the burden of getting that degree, but would still require the other pre-reqs needed that you wouldn't get from the military.

What the government tends to forget is that inflation is caused by its actions in the market. Huge government subsidies can be found as one of the driving factors (not always the only one, but often a major one) behind the rising prices of certain goods and services from university education to healthcare. Academic inflation is a real thing that many veterans are experiencing now due in part to the government. Giving everyone a bachelor's degree in general studies would make government GS positions easier to attain for some veterans, but will wind up happening is the pool of applicants will continue to grow until the hiring managers have to set additional restrictions for the position, such as a master's degree or five more years of relevant experience in that field. Then where will the veterans be? Then we will have people demanding MSGs and SGMs get master's degrees for their training and experience and the cycle starts again.

There's definitely merit in granting credit for more technical MOSs towards an associate's degree. 25B comes to mind, though I heard that their AIT is starting to get watered down... Otherwise, I think this is going a little too far.

If this is really something that the Army wanted to do (and I'm not saying it is,) then it couldn't be done in four years. It would probably need to be done over six or eight, and somehow be integrated into NCOES - meaning the scope of NCOES would need to change drastically.

We already have the SSD platform for doing something like this, but SSD needs some serious, serious work before it would nearly be in shape to provide college credit. I think I saw a hack last week that let Soldiers skip entire modules.