Then Satan said, "Let there be math."

I feel the same way, I'm going to attempt to make a career out of the army , 20 years and then full retirement. I'll be done at 44 years old with a large pension and time to pursue other goals.

I wouldn't count in the military pension. They have a habit of changing the rules mid stream on you. Also, remember, in a time of war, your life is forfeit if they order you to your death. If you still want to serve, then I salute you and thank you for your service.

That depends on what you want to do with yourself. I found that in my field a lot of Human Resource departments won't even look at you without a BS in something. So even though I have years of experience and a graduate has none, I go to the bottom of the pile.

Trust me it is easier to jump right in than to draw it out and go back. I could have been done with my BS at least a few years ago.

I should have joined the military, if only to get G-status. Could easily go back get an IR degree while having access to a slew of gov't jobs.

I do believe that Sgt Putin would have been a wonderful asset to the country, and that we are all a little bit worse off for having missed out on his contribution.

But we are eternally and bountifully blessed to have him here with us instead.

I got a degree in secondary education with a concentration in social studies, which allows me to teach history. Unfortunately the poor economy and high number of graduates in my field has made it extremely competitive. I have not found a job in 5

oops* anyway to continue my post
I have not found a full time teaching position in 5 years. This may also be due to lack of effort and health issues. In response I went for an additional online program in special education and elementary education. This did not work out for me largely because of a lack of interest and health issues.

I would say that my experience for my first degree was good but not what I needed. I loved the atmosphere. I didn't join a frat, but I had a lot of fun with the group of friends I found. The sports and clubs were also great. There was very little that I learned in the first three years that I could put towards teaching since I essentially had two majors. The final year was great, but I didn't take advantage of the contacts and networking that were available to me at the time.

My second experience online was more beneficial because it was concentrated, but I needed to motivate myself more to do it.

So I would suggest that you make sure you are passionate about your major or that your university/college provides a lot of opportunities to change your interests. Also make sure that your future job market will not be too competitive. Considering the rise of student debt, make sure that you're not spending too much.

Again thank you all. And to respond to Draugnar - I am fully aware of the risk, It has always just seemed right to me. I didn't know about the benefits until recently with my research, I wanted this since before I was out of my Jammies

Glad hoi are entering with own eyes. I served in the Corps so I'm not against serving. I just hate hearing about some of these reservists who get called up and then whine about it. Whining about stop loss is valid. But whining about getting called up from the reserves to begin with is bull.

Glad *you* are entering with *open* eyes...

good luck to you Commader, it will eat into your Dip time though....:))

My story, w/apologies to those who may have heard it before. I graduated in '75, just after the end of the Vietnam War, having been brought up in the '60s and early '70s when everything about our society was being reexamined by many of us. This influenced my decision to take only classes that I was truly interested in while attending college because I thought "I don't need no stinkin' piece of paper to tell me that I'm smart." I took French, Spanish, German, Portuguese for credit and got Humanities special studies credit for taking introductory Modern Greek and Swedish classes. I took History of Russia with a great professor, Intercultural Communication, Cultures of Europe, Cultures of South America, a Translation and Interpretation class or two, and PE classes, and I worked part-and full-time in fairly low-paying jobs except when I traveled and lived in Europe for 7 months... and that was pretty much it until I met my wife-to-be and realized that if I was going to support a family, I would need that piece of paper after all, and buckled down to get my degree. I was closest to graduating in Spanish or French, but my Spanish was better, so I figured a degree in French would bring my fluency up. I was wrong about that--most college programs won't bring you up to near-native fluency. It took me a total of 9 years to graduate with my BA lol. During this time I had taken advantage of a program to earn credits for being a facilitator, a native-speaker resource, in ESL conversation classes at a language institute associated with my university, and realized that I wanted to teach ESL classes. So I went to a neighboring state and got an MA in (teaching) English as a Second Language and that's been most of my career ever since. Education was definitely worth it for me. Also, for the record, I think you will get a much better education in a small liberal arts college than I did at a state university. ROTC is a good way to get paid to go to college too imho, as long as you can handle the military culture.