Hello there. I am an undergraduate electrical engineering major at the City College of New York.
My question is: how do most colleges handle a student leaving a curriculum midway through? I have 2 years left but my scholarship is ending and I do not want to take out a loan. I see the GI Bill as a great way to pay my remaining years. I was interested in OCC for a long while, and I have an application packet with my local OSO (Officer Selection Officer) for the Marine Corps PLC program, but I realized I can’t go through with this program with the tuition troubles I’m having. I also have the general belief that if and once I finish a 4-year enlistment, I’ll probably have lost my desire to be an officer. I see it one way or the other; I do not want both. I DO want to be a professional engineer once I am finished with this degree, and I have no desire to be in a prolonged military career.
I know this is a drastic move, but please hear me out. I’m a commuter student and I’m honestly a little worn out from my studies. I know a 4-year enlistment is a huge gap between my educative years in college, but I have faith that I’ll be back and fully ready (and better equipped to pay my tuition) once I’m done. So how do most colleges handle students in these situations? Is it scat-free where the student just comes back normally to the school to enroll in the next semester as if they were never gone? Are they put through remedial courses or forced to take courses they’ve already taken before? Or, on the extreme, are they forced to start their degree all over again? Especially for a specialized school and major such as engineering?
I understand that the way this situation is handled is contingent on the school. I’m sure the CUNY system is drastically different from other schools, especially private schools that handle a similar case. And I have full intent to ask the registrar this week. I just want a preliminary answer from this forum. Thank you and I appreciate your responses!
Good thinking, but there are several problems with that. The first problem is, the only branch of ROTC available near me is Army ROTC (on campus), which is not a branch I want to go into. Air Force ROTC is also a commuter deal where I have to travel to Manhattan College. NROTC for Marine Option is all the way out at SUNY Maritime.
Also, even if I wanted to go into Army ROTC on my campus, I have only two years of school left. That means, and ONLY if I’m lucky, they could only resolve this issue by sending me to LTC, which is basically there to let people who missed the first two year to catch up during a summer vacation. LTC slots are competitive. Furthermore, the available scholarships are competitive as well. And they are not available to non-contract cadets, especially at a time like this. Another option I see is SMP (Simultaneous Membership Program) with the National Guard. This one suffers from the same problem; I only have 2 years left and by the time I finished basic and AIT to enroll as a cadet, I’d only have maybe one semester left. I don’t see any of the ROTC options working out for me.
Thanks for the suggestion though; I appreciate it!
Generally there is a time limit to finish the degree, where you can just walk back in and take up where you left off. Often, you must finish within 7 years, but can take a leave of absence of up to a certain number of terms in there somewhere.
Have you investigated an ROTC scholarship or enlisting in the reserves? Another possibility is the 1-1/2 year per year payback programs in STEM fields from the NSA and other agencies. I would thoroughly explore alternatives so that you are choosing your best (as opposed to most-convenient) option.
Continuing your STEM education now is of more value to the military than having you put it in abeyance. You may be able to do 2 years in exchange for a 3-year commission as a USMC officer (it is usually 1-1/2 years of service for every year of college these days), even, and then move into a civilian career after you’ve done your jump school, Australian rappelling, and all that other fun stuff! Maybe take a semester off and work a job a short commute from home for a term, just to get everything in place and catch your breath.
If you want to return to CUNY then you should talk directly to them about their policies. Other schools will vary in their policies, especially regarding transfer of credits. The main thing is that almost all colleges expect you to complete a full two years at their institution in order to earn a degree from them. You almost certainly would not have to start all over.
Personally, I do not think that your plan is bad. I had several veterans in my classes when I was an engineering undergrad, and all of them were near the top of the class. Military experience will make you a better student, apart from the GI Bill benefits. Plus, sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do to get what you want. Personally, I recommend either the Navy or Air Force, since you are more likely to get a specialty which relates somehow to engineering. Yet, if you like the idea of being a Marine or soldier, nothing wrong with that either.
According to my S, who had a 4 year NROTC scholarship and has been in the Navy for almost 6 years, you do not get the full GI Bill college benefits after just one tour of duty (3 or 4 years). You get it in increments for each year you’ve served. You aren’t eligible for the full benefit until you have served in the Navy for 8 years. Maybe since you’ll only have two years of college left when you get out, it might be covered. It’s a question you need to ask to be sure.
You are eligible for the full benefit (100%) of the GI Bill after 36 months of active duty service (see here: http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/docs/pamphlets/ch33_pamphlet.pdf). Most initial contracts are 4 years of active duty, so anyone who has served one full contract of 48 months active duty is eligible for 100% of the benefit. The increments are actually every 6 months - you’re eligible for 40% of the benefit if you served 90 days active duty up to 6 months active duty, and then after that for every additional 6 months of duty you get an extra 10% of benefit. (The exception is if you were discharged with a service-connected disability, for which you need only have served 30 continuous days).
My husband is an AF veteran who only served one tour of duty (4 years/48 months) active duty, and he is currently attending college full-time on the GI Bill (+ Yellow Ribbon) with 100% eligibility.
Now, you aren’t eligible to transfer your benefits (to a spouse or eligible child) until after 8 years of active duty.
OP, you most likely would not have to start all over. My husband left college in 2008 and did 4 years of active duty, then transferred into a different college in 2012 and they accepted 60 of his credits (the max that his school, and most colleges, will accept). He really only had to finish a few general education credits and the requirements for his major. If you want to be readmitted back into the same college, most likely all of your credits and requirements will be counted back in.
Some colleges do make you retake science courses if you have not taken them in some time, but the time frame is usually longer than 5 years, and in many cases is longer than 7 years - so you most likely won’t have to retake them. If CUNY changes their general ed requirements in the next 4 years then you might have to take the GEs under the new rules, but at most that might be 1-2 extra courses. You might be asked to take a placement test in math to be sure that you remember all of the mathematical concepts that you learned well enough to take the next step (or you may find that you, yourself, want to retake some classes to brush up your knowledge - I think my husband chose to retake calculus III instead of proceeding straight to calculus IV).
I don’t think it’s a drastic move given that you were already considering the military; lots of people take time off their studies. For my husband, it grounded him a lot, plus gave him a break from something that exhausted him, too.
At the same time, though…if you are a commuter student and you are only paying tuition, it might be more cost-effective for you to borrow the money. CUNY in-state tuition is about $6K a year, so if you had to borrow tuition for 2 more years that’s $12K. The salary differential between an E-3 (which is probably what you would go in as, with all of your credits) and an engineer with a BS is probably way more than $12K in just the first year. An E-3 with no experience will make about $37,000/year when you factor in base + BAH + BAS (using the CONUS average). The average annual salary for an electrical engineer with < 5 years of experience is $57,000. That’s a $20,000 difference. If it’s loans you are worried about, you could make up the difference in loan money in just one year on the job. That’s not even factoring in the 4 years of engineering experience that will raise your base pay over time.
Now, I am not trying to discourage you - not at all. Military experience is very valuable too, from a practical standpoint; there are a lot of jobs out there that prefer people with a military background, including defense contracting. That would be especially important for an engineer. And if you want a federal job, they give preference to veterans. There are a lot of other benefits, too, like VA home loans. I’m just saying that if you don’t want to take out a loan because you fear the consequences of being in debt, consider that $12K of debt (or let’s say $15K with books and supplies) is pretty much chump change when it comes to student loans. You’ll be paying back less than $200/month on a salary that’s probably over $50K.
As a side note, you will find after your initial basic training and technical schools, that once you are on a base somewhere, you can often pick up college credits from schools that sort of specialize in degrees for military people. Where I was stationed in Japan, the University of Maryland had a number of classes each semester to work on degrees. Chapman College had Graduate degrees you could work on. Often the tuition for these was done in advantageous ways for people. In addition, in my field, you would have graduated technical training school basically with an Associate’s degree from the Community College of the Air Force. You will get college credit in almost all careers you pursue as an enlisted GI. I actually already had a degree and enlisted because my field was one that most all people start out enlisted (I was a Russian Linguist). Do your homework…don’t sign anything for a recruiter until you know exactly what it means and talk to those close to you…military commitments are pretty hard on those that love you as well.