What advice do you have on pursuing a degree in National Security, Homeland Security or Military Leadership?

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 17:20:49 -0400

I am currently enrolled at Excelsior College majoring Bus Admin logistics management concentration. Seems like a safe bet with good text book knowledge about business and what not, but I was thinking about some others; National Security, Homeland Security and Military Leadership. What do you guys think about these, I do want to get into logistics and supply chain but those other three seems more interesting. Theres so much information out there that states that if you don't get a STEM degree then your major doesn't really matter. Any advice on how to approach this?

Response by CPT Enrique M. made Oct 1 at 2017 5:26 PM

CPT Enrique M. — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 17:26:43 -0400

the real question SGT Porter, is what do you want to do .. are you just looking for a degree to become an officer? , or do you want a degree for bettering yourself? .. My advice is get a degree in something that you know will help you on the field you want to be. Civilian or military.

Response by SGT Jim Arnold made Oct 1 at 2017 5:27 PM

SGT Jim Arnold — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 17:27:46 -0400

SGT what ever grabs your attention and you excel at. It's better to know only 1 trade than be a jack of many things

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 1 at 2017 5:49 PM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 17:49:21 -0400

SSG Private RallyPoint Member I have a degree in Business Management because that is what I was interested in. The decision is yours to make.

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Oct 1 at 2017 6:06 PM

LTC Jason Mackay — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 18:06:10 -0400

If you are interested in supply chain management , then hold what you got. There is actually an engineering field that covers supply chain under industrial engineering and you can earn a professional engineer license if you have an ABET approved degree and the number of documented years of experience by you licensing state. I hold an engineering degree and an MBA with a Supply Chain concentration.

National security (which I also have a masters in) , Homeland Security and leadership are fun to think about but employability is lower. Getting a teaching gig, at a legit place, you need to a doctoral degree to do anything with it. Trying to market yourself as a HLS expert is really contingent on you selling yourself and striking out on your own. There is a Physical Security Professsional (PSP) certification I am looking at now. I went and heard one, but there is nothing he said that I didn't learn in the Army participating in physical security as a Joe.

I think the only STEM need apply mentality is not true. If you have a liberal arts degree in general, it is harder to work your way in. Having a science, business, or engineering degree are certainly easier to find work, but it's not a slam dunk. In engineering, they really want someone who is a PE, which in my state is a two massive exams, 8 years of documented experience, and a license journey. It ain't a slam dunk and you can't do it on the fly.

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Oct 1 at 2017 6:59 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 18:59:52 -0400

All of what was said here was of course quite valid, I only mention a couple of things I've explained about on here before, though not for some time. There's a program called Univ of the People, http://www.uopeople.edu, which is not regionally accredited by one of the regional accrediting bodies. However, they did recently get approved by the Distance Educ and Training Council (DETC), which was, formerly, the Natl Home Study Council (NHSC). There's been a good deal about them on the web, they have assoc and bach in health sci, comp sci (not IT), and bus admin, as well as an MBA. Now, what is of interest, though they do charge admin and exam fees, and just, I'd read, started taking transfer credits to some sort of extent, is that there's nomruition, per we, they make a point of that on their website. Their main offices are in Calif, I don't know how much of a bargain it is with the admin and exam fees, they pro rate those costs based on standards of each country they handle. However, I have read good thins, that they have affiliation with sevl larger conventional schools, as well. I did a second bach in math under Excelsior back when it was USNY (not SUNY) Regents College/External Degrees (RCD/RED), I know it quite well, that its very real, very well thought of, I'd heard some stuff about their nursing in a couple of states, like FL, though that was a pong time ago, I gather it's been long fixed now. I know Excelsior also has a masters in liberal arts, I'd seen material on it, USNY RCD/RED privatized and split off from the NYS Educ Dept some yes ago. I did my second bach in math mainly using GRE subject tests, I'm not speaking of the general test, the subject tests, they were allowing 30 pass/fail credits for a minimum raw score (not percentile). However, overall, they're very accepted, I've long knownn, by the services, a good friend got a bach in math from them using credits from three other schools, and went to an OCS usingnit, that I know for certain, I actually saw him there yes ago. My second bach was under what they had then, they might still have it, I don't know, called a second degree rule, that if one got 15 credits beyond an assoc, I think they'd consider issuing a second assoc, the same for a second bach with a first bach, using 30 new credits. For a second assoc, the credits could be lower or upper level, exams that were acceptable, or grad credits. For a second bach, 15 new credits could be lower lovel I think, at least 15 had to be upper level or grad level. I also knew Navy nuc enlisted school had some sort of special arrangement with them set up, as so many of that school grads were seeking credit for the naval nuc enlisted program, I did read about that some time ago also. The advice about industrial engineering (IE) is also quite valid, I was orig elec engrg, then went physics and math before going clinical for an allied health doctorate (not medicine), though I got sick, my wife and I had to have me shut my clinical license yrs ago, unfortunately. Now, one little known field few tend to think of that is pure science, yet managerial as well, is operations research. That deals with such aspects as linear and nonlinear programming, techniques such as critical path method (look up PERT/CPM), and has very real applications in a service context, as well as being able to go grad level, up to and incl Ph.D. I actually think, though this is just a personal viewpoint, of course, that if you want logistics, mixed with economics, yet want something STEM, that operations research could actually be a very good, real, and quite serious littlehused or sought option for you. I'll try to give you other links about it, however look up the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), as well as the Military Operations Research Society (MORS). Ops research has profound implications for mathematical economics, look up what is termed the minimax theorem, there ate nu!erous Wikipedia pages about the entire field. Mathematical economics has been around a very long time, ops research goes back as far as WW1, not just WW2, as I've frequently read history regarding. If you want to seriously understand logistic engineering at its very highest level, I cannot commend ops research to you strongly enough, I assure you. I hope that was at least of so!e use and/or interest. About UoPeople, please realize, I have zero clue whether the services and/or VA accept them, I've needed to make that quite clear in the past, though I've read many good things about them, however, I am not trying to paint a panacea, by any means, please just realized that, that's all I'd ask. Many thanks, I'd be most eager to know your thoughts, whenever might possibly be convenient, I hope the info was at least of some use, of course, by all means.

UoPeople - The world's first tuition-freeAccredited Online University

Welcome to the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited, online, American university. Follow your dreams. Your career starts here.

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Oct 1 at 2017 7:01 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 19:01:33 -0400

http://www.mors.org

Hopefully, that should be the MORS group I'd mentioned before, I'll try to send the ORSA one also, hope the link works.

Military Operations Research Society

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Oct 1 at 2017 7:09 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 19:09:51 -0400

http://www.orsa.org

I think this is the one for ORSA; also, I don't know if ops research is allowed for a PE license. Possibly with sufficient work OJT, maybe; I did also get a PE, the lower level is an engr in training (EIT), then the PE, in electrical, mechanical, chemical, though I don't know about industrial engrg. We've also had that license shut off for years, look up NSPE, they're the main body governing PEs in the US, Tue exam, however, falls under the NCER, I believe, that's the examining body. Many schools with engrg programs have reviews for the EIT and PE exams, though there are numerous standard texts for such review, as well as YouTuve videos, when I did it, it was actually open book, in point of fact. The GRE subject tests I found doable, though the physics one was actually considerably rougher than the math and engrgmones, immeededmthree tries to get a minimum score on it, I'm not sure which subjects are given now, I think the engrgmandmmath ones maynnemgone, I knew there was one for comp sci, I'd also seen there was one in bio, and another in biochem and molecular bio, those I die see material on, hope thiw link also works.

www.orsa.org

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Oct 1 at 2017 7:11 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 19:11:29 -0400

http://www.informs.org

The name changed, its not ops research and quantitative mgmt theory, hopefully, this one is right.

INFORMS

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made Oct 1 at 2017 7:49 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 19:49:20 -0400

Some reserves, NG are dedicated to FEMA.