What impact will earning my degree have on my civilian education score?

2018-02-10T10:06:23-05:00

So I have maxed my civilian ed, a full 160 promotion points. But soon I will be graduating with my bachelors degree. My question is will I receive the extra 20 points for completing my degree as a SGT? Like will my civilian ed count as 180 promotion points? Or will I still only receive 160 since the civilian ed block is maxed?

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 10 at 2018 10:15 AM

2018-02-10T10:15:34-05:00

Yes, once your obtain your degree you will get 20 additional points.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 10 at 2018 10:22 AM

2018-02-10T10:22:47-05:00

I gotta ask, have you studied your PPW?
https://www.hrcapps.army.mil/ppw/

PROMOTION POINT WORKSHEET

NOTHING IN THIS USER AGREEMENT SHALL BE INTERPRETED TO LIMIT THE USER'S CONSENT TO, OR IN ANY OTHER WAY RESTRICT OR AFFECT, ANY U.S. GOVERNMENT ACTIONS FOR PURPOSES OF NETWORK ADMINISTRATION, OPERATION, PROTECTION, OR DEFENSE, OR FOR COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY. THIS INCLUDES ALL COMMUNICATIONS AND DATA ON AN INFORMATION SYSTEM, REGARDLESS OF ANY APPLICABLE PRIVILEGE OR CONFIDENTIALITY.

Response by SPC Erich Guenther made Feb 10 at 2018 10:44 AM

2018-02-10T10:44:12-05:00

Hey Congrats on the Bachelors Degree that is pretty awesome you did that on Active Duty!!!!

Response by SSG Kasius McCall made Feb 10 at 2018 11:13 PM

2018-02-10T23:13:20-05:00

No, civilian education is maxed out at 160 no matter what. So you won’t get the extra points nor will technical certs be counted as extra points either.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 8 at 2018 9:36 PM

2018-11-08T21:36:15-05:00

No, you would not receive an additional 20 points for degree completion. Degree Completion is a sub-category to Civilian Education. Civilian education is capped at 160 points.

I understand you are trying to figure out why they designed it this way. The best way I can see it is based around the associate degree. It appears the Army desires for us to complete an associate degree by the time we are looking to make SGT, and if we haven't by then, they slightly increase the incentive to complete the associate degree when going from SGT to SSG, by raising the cap on civilian education.

At two promotion points per Semester Hour (SH), that would give a SPC pursuing SGT 120-128 points out of 135, if their associate requires 60-64 SH. The 20 point Degree Completion would maximize this category, jumping them from 120 to 135, where it would take an additional 6-months of classes to fill that gap (if taking one 3-SH class every 8-weeks).

For a SGT pursuing SSG, degree completion of an associate's puts them within 20 points of maximizing civilian education. They can either start working toward their bachelor's or get technical certs. Unfortunately, with the large gap of SHs between an associate's and a bachelor's, its not a great incentive to get them started, because after three additional classes, they will reach their civilian education cap, and the rest of the way toward a bachelor's is unrewarded (in a promotion point sense).

Completing your bachelor's degree as a SGT means you are WAY ahead of the Army's civilian education "expectations" of its junior NCOs; you have far exceeded what the promotion point system was designed to incentivize, in regards to civilian education emphasis. This sets you up nicely to be looked at for SFC, Warrant Officer, or even Officer Candidate School. Just don't get stuck in an MOS that doesn't promote well to SSG, otherwise you may lose your competitive civilian education advantage (in the long run); as current SSGs in your field are pursuing their bachelor's degrees, and being reflected on their NCOERs and SRBs, which will be looked at for their early looks at the SFC Boards. You want to be looked at as being one of a few SSGs in your field that have a bachelors degree, not as one of many.

https://www.hrc.army.mil/Site/Assets/Directorate/tagd/STEP_Promotion_Point_Distribution.pdf

STEP_Promotion_Point_Distribution.pdf

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