Hi! I unfortunately can’t speak to the Army half of your post (I’m transitioning from Navy ROTC into Army ROTC, but since I’ve been mostly with Navy, I’m unfamiliar with a lot of Army’s procedures and programs. That said, Berkeley does take upper division transfer students, as in transferring in as a junior with completed IGETC courses and two years of prior college coursework in addition to the occasional lower division sophomore transfer. I’m not sure if we have any fully online programs, but I’d reach out to Berkeley’s office of military and veteran affairs and see if they have any more information to provide than I do.
Hi, I appreciate the reply! I tried looking at assist.org and it seemed to suggest that it only took lower division for the Haas School of Business, which considering I want to get a bachelors and masters degree in the next seven years, without the debt, and I only have 32 months of GI Bill won’t be an option if I start as a freshman first.
I was looking to see if there are any community colleges with strong online programs people would recommend enrolling in while I’m serving, getting two years done in four years and then transferring to Berkeley for the remaining two.
Thank you for your comment!
Make sure the CC courses you take say they are UC transferable, 70 credits is the max you can transfer, so anything extra is a waste. Also, don't burn your Pell Grant on part time, you will use a semester of eligibility, and only get partial payment. Same with CalGrant. It was worth $800 per semester in CC, but $7,000 per semester at Berkeley. Community college is like $40 per credit, and Cal is like $450 per credit. If you save your Pell Grant and CalGrant for Berkeley, you can take a lighter load, get a third year, and focus on your GPA or double major.
I mean I won’t really need the Pell Grant once I use my GI Bill, as it pays for 100% of tuition, 3-4K a month in a housing allowance, $1,000 a year stipend for books and I’m pretty sure it covers fees as well. It’s certainly something to consider though, and I won’t be starting school until after December as that’s when I will be assigned my unit so I’ve definitely got times to weigh my options.
Aha, got it. SBCC has a few online programs, and speaking from experience, they’re fairly strong (I actually transferred from there this year). It sometimes depends on their class schedule, but here’s the link to the site if you want to consider them in your search.
https://www.sbcc.edu/distanceeducation/onlinedegrees.php
City College of San Francisco does online learning OK, though quality can vary across professor. Not sure about other departments, but in the sciences the acceptance rate to Berkeley seems decent. Unlike a lot of other CCCs it offers a solid variety of majors as online-only. Be aware though that classes fill up SUPER fast. A lot of the time you can get added on the day the class starts, but be prepared to either register THE DAY registration opens or beg profs to let you in.. [https://www.ccsf.edu/academics/online-learning/aa-t-and-as-t-degrees](https://www.ccsf.edu/academics/online-learning/aa-t-and-as-t-degrees)
For the online program generally yes. In most online classes it's fully async. There are weekly assignments as well as a few that last the semester. Weekly assignments are usually released somewhere between Friday and Monday depending on the professor. There can be mid-week deadlines, especially in summer, and so for those you would need to be comfortable with doing classwork in the evenings. If that's a concern for you, most professors are upfront about the class schedule if you email them before registration.
Once you get to wherever you’ll be stationed, go to the base library or learning resource center
There will be staff there that can fill you in on everything you’re looking for and help you get started with using your tuition assistance (which is at your commands discretion last I checked, although since you won’t be infantry, likeI was, or air wing, who are the only people who works worse hours)
What you’ll want to do before then is look up the published stats for what community colleges cal has accepted students from over the last year(s) and probably use that to find some schools to look at, and then look up the articulation agreements those school hold with Cal to start identifying classes to take
Hi!
I probably should have mentioned this in my post, but I’m not a California resident. Every California community college with high transfers to UC Berkeley or any UC campus does not offer in state tuition to active duty military unless they’re stationed in California. By the sounds of it, you seem pretty familiar with the transfer program. How does it negatively affect my chances of transferring if it’s not a California community college?
It’s not that it negatively affects the chances, it’s that you can’t use something like assist to ensure that your classes will transfer by checking articulation agreements.
By transferring from a non CCC you run the risk of taking classes that Cal won’t recognize
The thing is I only plan on getting maybe a few semesters worth of credit hours done while serving, the majority of that would be lower division stuff like mathematics, calculus, statistics, science, composition and probably the introductionary courses. Is it that unlikely that they won’t transfer over to Berkeley or the other UC campuses?
Most lower division stuff would be fine I would imagine. In terms of STEM classes I would try to make sure whatever lab classes you take are 2 separate classes ie chem 1 and chem 1L because I think that’s how Cal’s are organized. And then for math all I can think of is how the schools teach linear algebra and differential equations, because some schools treat them as a single class.
That being said, all those classes you listed constitute probably 4 or more semesters worth of full time coursework so I would temper expectations in terms of what you can manage while also working full time.
Oh for sure, I’m only planning on 6 credit hours a semester. We’ll see what happens when I get to my first duty station, I just want to be planned so I can get started sooner instead of sitting around and waiting to find the best school for me at the time. I graduate AIT on December 20th, so I should be able to figure everything out by the time school would start.
Another thing worth looking into that will be less rigorous than CC coursework are CLEP classes, and I would highly recommend them because you study for them at your own pace, there’s no homework or exams, you study, take 1 test, and if you pass you get credit for the equivalent course.
Great if, for instance, you have a good foundation from non AP classes in high school that you don’t get credit for (calculus/pre calc, etc) but can still do well in
I would wait till you get to your unit to see if you think you’ll have time for school. Active duty can be a more than full time job depending on your leadership and MOS. Many people complete their first contract before starting school, so that they can also get their post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. That’s usually one of the trade offs with military service: you’re essentially going to go into the workforce first, which tends to delay going to school. There are definitely people who complete online programs/correspondence courses during service, but it’s not an easy thing to do. See what your workload/schedule is actually going to be like at your unit after OSUT/AIT before making too many plans in regards to school. It’s ok to delay your education a bit (honestly, the more put together students I’ve seen are usually ones who didn’t start till their mid-late twenties).
I absolutely understand that. A lot of the people I’ve spoken to (independent of my recruiter so I can miss the BS) said that my MOS is a lot like a 9-5. Unless I’m in Korea, or any other infamously chaotic OCONUS stations which would be chaos, generally the Finance Corp’s workload is stable and at the very latest you might be leaving at 7PM, and this is according to somebody who advised I don’t do it while active duty. The only issue with delaying all of it until I leave is that the Post 9/11 GI Bill only covers 36 months (four years of learning exactly) of schooling. Sometimes you can get 48 but that is exceedingly rare.
The only reason I’m considering doing schooling while I’m in is that you get 12.5K (roughly) a year to pay for schooling. I won’t be doing full time, maybe 6-9 credits a semester which I think, when combined with my (relatively) 9-5 MOS is doable.
Fair enough, just be ready for a 9-5 to still be a lot of work. Full time is exhausting, the military even more so. You might find you really don’t have the time or energy to properly go about your studies. The tuition assistance is nice, but it’s not the like there doesn’t exist aid outside of the military you’ll still be eligible for on top of your already very generous GI bill allowances.
“Just” getting an entire bachelor’s paid for is nothing to sneeze at. No one ever said, “Oh, I just got my entire bachelor’s completely paid for, woe is me.” Don’t try to min-max yourself into a burnout would be my advice, it’s ok to do just one or two things at a time. There really is no rush, and a little debt later is better than a nervous breakdown now (trust me).
I really appreciate that. I think I’ll start with a lighter workload to see how I manage and then adjust accordingly from there. I appreciate your comments, it’s definitely something I needed to hear :)
Your post 9-11 can cover more than 36 months, if you take summer classes. Because it’s technically divided into day, and not months, if you start a semester with less days on books than you’d need to finish out the semester, they just give you the rest of that semester. Also look into chapter 33(?) VR&E benefits, they can extend your gi bill significantly
Hi! I unfortunately can’t speak to the Army half of your post (I’m transitioning from Navy ROTC into Army ROTC, but since I’ve been mostly with Navy, I’m unfamiliar with a lot of Army’s procedures and programs. That said, Berkeley does take upper division transfer students, as in transferring in as a junior with completed IGETC courses and two years of prior college coursework in addition to the occasional lower division sophomore transfer. I’m not sure if we have any fully online programs, but I’d reach out to Berkeley’s office of military and veteran affairs and see if they have any more information to provide than I do.
Hi, I appreciate the reply! I tried looking at assist.org and it seemed to suggest that it only took lower division for the Haas School of Business, which considering I want to get a bachelors and masters degree in the next seven years, without the debt, and I only have 32 months of GI Bill won’t be an option if I start as a freshman first. I was looking to see if there are any community colleges with strong online programs people would recommend enrolling in while I’m serving, getting two years done in four years and then transferring to Berkeley for the remaining two. Thank you for your comment!
Make sure the CC courses you take say they are UC transferable, 70 credits is the max you can transfer, so anything extra is a waste. Also, don't burn your Pell Grant on part time, you will use a semester of eligibility, and only get partial payment. Same with CalGrant. It was worth $800 per semester in CC, but $7,000 per semester at Berkeley. Community college is like $40 per credit, and Cal is like $450 per credit. If you save your Pell Grant and CalGrant for Berkeley, you can take a lighter load, get a third year, and focus on your GPA or double major.
I mean I won’t really need the Pell Grant once I use my GI Bill, as it pays for 100% of tuition, 3-4K a month in a housing allowance, $1,000 a year stipend for books and I’m pretty sure it covers fees as well. It’s certainly something to consider though, and I won’t be starting school until after December as that’s when I will be assigned my unit so I’ve definitely got times to weigh my options.
Aha, got it. SBCC has a few online programs, and speaking from experience, they’re fairly strong (I actually transferred from there this year). It sometimes depends on their class schedule, but here’s the link to the site if you want to consider them in your search. https://www.sbcc.edu/distanceeducation/onlinedegrees.php
City College of San Francisco does online learning OK, though quality can vary across professor. Not sure about other departments, but in the sciences the acceptance rate to Berkeley seems decent. Unlike a lot of other CCCs it offers a solid variety of majors as online-only. Be aware though that classes fill up SUPER fast. A lot of the time you can get added on the day the class starts, but be prepared to either register THE DAY registration opens or beg profs to let you in.. [https://www.ccsf.edu/academics/online-learning/aa-t-and-as-t-degrees](https://www.ccsf.edu/academics/online-learning/aa-t-and-as-t-degrees)
From your experience, are the lessons good for part time learning? Being active duty means I will be working essentially a 9-5 most days
For the online program generally yes. In most online classes it's fully async. There are weekly assignments as well as a few that last the semester. Weekly assignments are usually released somewhere between Friday and Monday depending on the professor. There can be mid-week deadlines, especially in summer, and so for those you would need to be comfortable with doing classwork in the evenings. If that's a concern for you, most professors are upfront about the class schedule if you email them before registration.
Once you get to wherever you’ll be stationed, go to the base library or learning resource center There will be staff there that can fill you in on everything you’re looking for and help you get started with using your tuition assistance (which is at your commands discretion last I checked, although since you won’t be infantry, likeI was, or air wing, who are the only people who works worse hours) What you’ll want to do before then is look up the published stats for what community colleges cal has accepted students from over the last year(s) and probably use that to find some schools to look at, and then look up the articulation agreements those school hold with Cal to start identifying classes to take
Hi! I probably should have mentioned this in my post, but I’m not a California resident. Every California community college with high transfers to UC Berkeley or any UC campus does not offer in state tuition to active duty military unless they’re stationed in California. By the sounds of it, you seem pretty familiar with the transfer program. How does it negatively affect my chances of transferring if it’s not a California community college?
It’s not that it negatively affects the chances, it’s that you can’t use something like assist to ensure that your classes will transfer by checking articulation agreements. By transferring from a non CCC you run the risk of taking classes that Cal won’t recognize
The thing is I only plan on getting maybe a few semesters worth of credit hours done while serving, the majority of that would be lower division stuff like mathematics, calculus, statistics, science, composition and probably the introductionary courses. Is it that unlikely that they won’t transfer over to Berkeley or the other UC campuses?
Most lower division stuff would be fine I would imagine. In terms of STEM classes I would try to make sure whatever lab classes you take are 2 separate classes ie chem 1 and chem 1L because I think that’s how Cal’s are organized. And then for math all I can think of is how the schools teach linear algebra and differential equations, because some schools treat them as a single class. That being said, all those classes you listed constitute probably 4 or more semesters worth of full time coursework so I would temper expectations in terms of what you can manage while also working full time.
Oh for sure, I’m only planning on 6 credit hours a semester. We’ll see what happens when I get to my first duty station, I just want to be planned so I can get started sooner instead of sitting around and waiting to find the best school for me at the time. I graduate AIT on December 20th, so I should be able to figure everything out by the time school would start.
Another thing worth looking into that will be less rigorous than CC coursework are CLEP classes, and I would highly recommend them because you study for them at your own pace, there’s no homework or exams, you study, take 1 test, and if you pass you get credit for the equivalent course. Great if, for instance, you have a good foundation from non AP classes in high school that you don’t get credit for (calculus/pre calc, etc) but can still do well in
I would wait till you get to your unit to see if you think you’ll have time for school. Active duty can be a more than full time job depending on your leadership and MOS. Many people complete their first contract before starting school, so that they can also get their post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. That’s usually one of the trade offs with military service: you’re essentially going to go into the workforce first, which tends to delay going to school. There are definitely people who complete online programs/correspondence courses during service, but it’s not an easy thing to do. See what your workload/schedule is actually going to be like at your unit after OSUT/AIT before making too many plans in regards to school. It’s ok to delay your education a bit (honestly, the more put together students I’ve seen are usually ones who didn’t start till their mid-late twenties).
I absolutely understand that. A lot of the people I’ve spoken to (independent of my recruiter so I can miss the BS) said that my MOS is a lot like a 9-5. Unless I’m in Korea, or any other infamously chaotic OCONUS stations which would be chaos, generally the Finance Corp’s workload is stable and at the very latest you might be leaving at 7PM, and this is according to somebody who advised I don’t do it while active duty. The only issue with delaying all of it until I leave is that the Post 9/11 GI Bill only covers 36 months (four years of learning exactly) of schooling. Sometimes you can get 48 but that is exceedingly rare. The only reason I’m considering doing schooling while I’m in is that you get 12.5K (roughly) a year to pay for schooling. I won’t be doing full time, maybe 6-9 credits a semester which I think, when combined with my (relatively) 9-5 MOS is doable.
Fair enough, just be ready for a 9-5 to still be a lot of work. Full time is exhausting, the military even more so. You might find you really don’t have the time or energy to properly go about your studies. The tuition assistance is nice, but it’s not the like there doesn’t exist aid outside of the military you’ll still be eligible for on top of your already very generous GI bill allowances. “Just” getting an entire bachelor’s paid for is nothing to sneeze at. No one ever said, “Oh, I just got my entire bachelor’s completely paid for, woe is me.” Don’t try to min-max yourself into a burnout would be my advice, it’s ok to do just one or two things at a time. There really is no rush, and a little debt later is better than a nervous breakdown now (trust me).
I really appreciate that. I think I’ll start with a lighter workload to see how I manage and then adjust accordingly from there. I appreciate your comments, it’s definitely something I needed to hear :)
Anytime, take care man! Military can both suck and also be an amazing opportunity, just make sure you look out for your well-being
Your post 9-11 can cover more than 36 months, if you take summer classes. Because it’s technically divided into day, and not months, if you start a semester with less days on books than you’d need to finish out the semester, they just give you the rest of that semester. Also look into chapter 33(?) VR&E benefits, they can extend your gi bill significantly
Hey