Hello. I would like do a second bachelor’s in a STEM or healthcare field and join the Navy,however I am not sure what degree to study. Any suggestions?
Why do you need a second BS degree? And why don’t you contact your Navy recruiter to see what fields they deem valuable?
I have contacted the recruiters they have told me STEM is high desired. My degree is in Communications Arts.
They may not be heavily recruiting for the position, but I know the Navy has Public Affairs Officers, and I presume your existing degree would qualify you just fine for that.
One option, if you determine you need to pursue the second degree, is Western Governors University. They have self-paced online bachelors in a variety of IT subjects, and in Nursing and Health Informatics. However, you might find it better career-wise to pursue one of their masters degrees instead. Consult with the recruiter and see which of those degrees, if any, would serve your goals.
People have managed to complete some of those degrees in 6 months or less, with concerted full-time study.
If you are already in contact with a recruiter, the best person to ask about what STEM majors are desired is probably that recruiter. In my experience, recruiters are always able to tell you which jobs are easier to get than others in the current environment, and which jobs are historically oversubscribed.
The Navy always hires nurses, and if you already have a BA then you can get an accelerated BSN in about 1.5 years. Healthcare positions usually enjoy direct commissioning, which means you don’t have to go through OCS.
Guessing based on their priority tiers for the Navy ROTC scholarship, I’m guessing that the highest demand majors are going to be engineering. The top demand engineering majors are aerospace/aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and nuclear. The second tier includes majors like materials science & engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, geology, earth and ocean sciences (including atmospheric science and meteorology), computer science, astronomy, biochemstry, math, nursing, statistics, physics, biology, chemistry and digital arts. (http://nrotc.ufl.edu/files/pdfforms/NavyTierSystemExplained.pdf).
If you want to complement the Communications degree then something like computer science, digital arts, or even electrical engineering might be best. Healthcare is different, you just need to pick something you like - nursing, allied medical (such as my wife, an ultrasound tech), etc.