Any other military here pursuing a physics degree?

[SuperSaiyanKim]

Online classes... changing duty stations, maybe even deployments.
Trying to pursue any degree is difficult while active duty military, but especially when you're pursuing a degree that requires many labs that are difficult or even impossible to complete fully online or with a lab kit.

I'm a Marine stationed in Morocco working towards a Physics/Astrophysics major so I can transfer some online classes here and there to a UC school once I am out.

Anyone else in a similar situation?

 

[jedishrfu]

Welcome to PF!

Are you taking undergrad courses for these subjects?

I can't comment on the difficulties you're going to face but I can point out some online resources that might be helpful:

1) www.mathispower4u.com has a range of math courses from pre-algebra to 1st year college ie Calculus 1,2,3 Linear Algebra, Differential Equations and Statistics. Each course is broken up into small 10 minute videos that focus on a certain topic within the course. Its a good reference for something you may have forgotten.

2) www.openstax.org has a collection of STEM books covering many subjects including Math subjects, 1st year college physics and Introductory Astronomy.

3) www.compadre.org has a collection of Java software for implementing computer simulations of physical systems. I used this in a graduate level course on computational physics. It could be useful to explore as an alternative to real lab experiments to at least get you comfortable with the topic. There's an accompanying book that works you through the physics and then shows how to code it in Java. (ie you kind of learn java by doing physics or in my case learn physics by doing java)

4) The Freemat clone of MATLAB. MATLAB is a popular tool among engineers and physicists for doing computational work and analysis of physics data.

http://freemat.sourceforge.net/

I know this is kind of fuzzy but hope it helps you with your studies. Hopefully another mentor or advisor familiar with the military will be able to provide better resources and advice.

Take care and thanks for serving our country,
Jedi

 

[Drakkith]

I'm a Marine stationed in Morocco working towards a Physics/Astrophysics major so I can transfer some online classes here and there to a UC school once I am out.

Anyone else in a similar situation?

I'm ex-Air Force, but I was never in quite the same situation, so I'm not sure how much help I can be. The first thing I would do is find the school(s) you're thinking about applying to and contact them. Talk to an advisor and see what their recommendations are and what they take as transfer credit. You can also see if they have a veteran's center on campus and contact them as well.

Also, I don't know if the Marines have something similar, but in the Air Force I was able to get an associate's degree from the Community College of the Air Force after taking only 5 classes (math, english, speech, history, and an elective). The rest of the credits came from the training I'd received in the Air Force. I'd recommend pursuing that if you can just so you can have an associate's degree. You can probably transfer some of those credits over to your college once you're out (key word, "probably". Check with your school).

 

[jedishrfu]

Taking Drak's idea I searched and found this reference for the Marines which you may already be familiar with but here goes:

http://www.military.com/education/money-for-school/marine-corps-education-programs.html

 

[DS2C]

I am prior Navy and at got out in February. Now going to a university full time. Take advantage of your TA opportunity and knock out all the generals you can. If you decide to get out and go to school full time, that will be less money out of your GI Bill.
As far as completing the degree while active, I don't have enough experience in the major yet. Have you conaidered putting in a package to go to the Academy? Youll still be active but your job will be to study and that's it.

 

[Drakkith]

Take advantage of your TA opportunity and knock out all the generals you can. If you decide to get out and go to school full time, that will be less money out of your GI Bill.

Just make sure your school will actually take those as transfer credits.You don't want to take a bunch of classes only to be told later that they won't be accepted.

As far as completing the degree while active, I don't have enough experience in the major yet. Have you conaidered putting in a package to go to the Academy? Youll still be active but your job will be to study and that's it.

Indeed. Another option is to go guard/reserve and use the tuition assistance they offer. The advantage is that you won't have to work full time while trying to go to school. The down side is that you're not working full time, so you'll be a bit tight for money for a while. Check with a guard/reserve recruiter for more info.

 

[berkeman]

@SuperSaiyanKim and @DS2C -- Thank you for your service. (Army brat here)

 

[DS2C]

@SuperSaiyanKim and @DS2C -- Thank you for your service. (Army brat here)

Cheers!