As someone who is considering how to finance grad school, I found this very informative. Though I’m curious about more of the difference between active duty and national guard.
Do you have any specific questions about the differences?
It’s worth noting that there’s active duty, and then there are two part-time options: national guard (where you belong to the state but can be mobilized for federal work), or the reserves (where you belong to the federal military). The army reserves doesn’t have line jobs—infantry, special forces, etc. are only options for active duty or national guard.
You can only earn a G.I. Bill if you spend some time on active duty. You can do that either by joining the guard or reserves and then taking mobilizations, or by going active duty. There are also various tuition assistance programs for guard, reserve, and active duty, but using them tends to incur additional service obligations.
The Guard has been activated stateside more in the last couple of years than in a long time. COVID, extreme weather events, January 6, BLM, and probably a couple of other things I am sure I am forgetting. Deployment cycles abroad for the Guard are generally once every 5 years, though sometimes units will get skipped over. So you’ll have a trainup for 4-5 years and then deploy somewhere (in addition to the random as-needed activations). Generally the Reserves will only deploy abroad somewhere, but their deployment cycles will be more consistent (vs. skipping years) and they may be shorter. Unless you are in a super intense Guard/Reserve unit though or you have a terrible relationship with your leadership, you can generally choose not to go because (at least currently) there are fewer slots for deployments than slots in the units matched to those deployments, so not everyone gets to go.
You can find a Guard unit or a Reserve unit nearby to where you live.
The answer below is correct about tuition—you need to be activated outside of your initial training time to get the main GI Bill that covers a lot of tuition, and you need to be activated for 3 years collectively to get the Yellow Ribbon Program which covers full tuition at an expensive private program.
Insurance is the same—Tricare Reserve Select—Humana Military / Concordia Dental. Unless you are activated, then it is Active/free insurance (Tricare Prime I believe?).
Career capital depends on what you are trying to do after/in the military. Generally though, I would say the flexibility of the Reserve probably outweighs any marginal benefits the Guard may have. But it also depends a lot on your specific unit in the Guard or Reserve and your specific commander/your commander’s commander.
I asked someone else who has more experience in the national guard than I do to jump in and answer this. I will say that I’m not sure that joining the guard will be much added protection against going out-of-state. My husband was guard, and got mobilized to Iraq in 2004-2005, and ended up resigning his commission when it looked like that was going to happen again in 2007-ish. Also guard often helps other states when they need disaster relief.
Pros- you get cheaper health insurance and you will generally stay in your state guard unless you really want to leave.
Cons—some jobs are harder to advance in, and you may have limited positions available, and unit culture could be really good or really bad
For tuition assistance, in most states, you can go to the state college for free. Connecticut for instance has a program that will let you go to any state school for free if you have deployed or been active for 90 days. At the top of your career? You might make $12-15k annually for your 48 days.
Tricare for single people is like $50 a month. Families are $200. Dental is extra and like $30. I know several Veterinarians who have stayed in the reserves for health insurance alone. Also, you get life insurance for the time you’re in ($400k, ~$30 per month) opt out possible.
If you have more questions… this is literally part of what I do for the reserves but the guard is similar.
Currently an undergraduate junior in economics. I plan on doing a master’s and Ph.D. in economics and focusing my career on research into global priorities, global health, and poverty. Policy and governance domestically and internationally are also intriguing to me too. Seeing as how tuition gave my family and me a near heart attack and my sister who is 30 has her student loans be a hindrance to her still, it would be wise to finance my tuition effectively.
I haven’t looked too into it in a year because the last time I checked the criteria were for only undergraduates and graduates attending elite and Ivy League universities. Also, most of them seem to not have occurred in the last two years.
I’ll be attending Rutgers University for the remainder of my undergraduate but have my fingers crossed of getting into Columbia or NYU Some links and resources you are aware of would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
I will confirm this and also say that if your PhD does not provide funding, you should not go. This also applies to PhDs that don’t provide enough funding to live (though this may eliminate a few good schools—I’m not sure either Isabel’s alma mater (UCLA) or mine (UCSD) provide stipends that make sense relative to housing costs.)
Re. military service AND a PhD: we had a handful of active-duty people go through my PhD. They had three years to write their PhD—which is very short, and meant they did not write an academic-quality dissertation. (They all stayed in the military and went on to their next post; I do not think they regret not being academics.). That might be fine for you! But it’s worth bearing in mind that if you are interested in an academic job, using military service for funding probably won’t get you one.
I was Active Duty Army and completed my PhD through a fully funded program (at the University of Tennessee) that was part of becoming faculty at the US Military Academy (aka West Point). My PhD program was 3 years, the same as everyone else in my program, and my academic credentials were on par with those in my field. After 3 years as an academic at the US Military Academy I returned to a non-academic position in the operational Army. Many of my colleagues (Active Duty Army officers with PhDs) remained at the US Military Academy for several years and pursed academic careers, as well as a range of other policy related endeavors. It is a fairly narrow route to join the US Army as an officer and pursue an academic faculty position at the US Military Academy, but it can be done. Anyone interested in more information on this route, please let me know.
while I’d agree with the advice of “don’t go if they don’t provide any funding”, not providing quite enough funding to actually cover expenses seems more ambiguous?
For a while I considered a career path of being a Civil Affairs officer in the Army National Guard alongside graduate economics school and a career in developmental economics. It seemed like it would have fairly good synergy, so you might look into doing that. However, for a junior to try to join the military in the hopes of getting funding for grad school… that is an unusual path. As a junior you may be too late for ROTC or maybe not. You might want to talk directly and immediately to an ROTC department and an Officer Strength Manager.
Hey, thanks for the reply and information. I’m not looking to od ROTC or reserves right now. Possibly after I graduate. Thanks for the information of doing National Guard along graduate economics program and a career in developmental economics, that is definitely something to consider.
You should know that economics PhDs do not require masters in general, and definitely not for people who did their undergrad in the US (which I’m assuming you did if you are considering the US military!) They are also (usually) fully funded and pay a liveable amount.
Moreover, it is most common for people to do a two-year predoctoral research position before applying to PhDs. Those jobs pay $50-60k a year so they also enable you to save a bit or pay down a bit of debt, before you start grad school. So an economics PhD should not cost you anything.
If you want to talk more about this I’m happy to chat if you DM me.
As someone who is considering how to finance grad school, I found this very informative. Though I’m curious about more of the difference between active duty and national guard.
Do you have any specific questions about the differences?
It’s worth noting that there’s active duty, and then there are two part-time options: national guard (where you belong to the state but can be mobilized for federal work), or the reserves (where you belong to the federal military). The army reserves doesn’t have line jobs—infantry, special forces, etc. are only options for active duty or national guard.
You can only earn a G.I. Bill if you spend some time on active duty. You can do that either by joining the guard or reserves and then taking mobilizations, or by going active duty. There are also various tuition assistance programs for guard, reserve, and active duty, but using them tends to incur additional service obligations.
First off, thank you for your service.
I’ve thought about the Guard bc I’m a family-oriented person so I wouldn’t want to be deployed out of state too long.
What are the difference pros and cons of the national guard? Especially tuition, career capital, and insurance.
The Guard has been activated stateside more in the last couple of years than in a long time. COVID, extreme weather events, January 6, BLM, and probably a couple of other things I am sure I am forgetting. Deployment cycles abroad for the Guard are generally once every 5 years, though sometimes units will get skipped over. So you’ll have a trainup for 4-5 years and then deploy somewhere (in addition to the random as-needed activations). Generally the Reserves will only deploy abroad somewhere, but their deployment cycles will be more consistent (vs. skipping years) and they may be shorter. Unless you are in a super intense Guard/Reserve unit though or you have a terrible relationship with your leadership, you can generally choose not to go because (at least currently) there are fewer slots for deployments than slots in the units matched to those deployments, so not everyone gets to go.
You can find a Guard unit or a Reserve unit nearby to where you live.
The answer below is correct about tuition—you need to be activated outside of your initial training time to get the main GI Bill that covers a lot of tuition, and you need to be activated for 3 years collectively to get the Yellow Ribbon Program which covers full tuition at an expensive private program.
Insurance is the same—Tricare Reserve Select—Humana Military / Concordia Dental. Unless you are activated, then it is Active/free insurance (Tricare Prime I believe?).
Career capital depends on what you are trying to do after/in the military. Generally though, I would say the flexibility of the Reserve probably outweighs any marginal benefits the Guard may have. But it also depends a lot on your specific unit in the Guard or Reserve and your specific commander/your commander’s commander.
I asked someone else who has more experience in the national guard than I do to jump in and answer this. I will say that I’m not sure that joining the guard will be much added protection against going out-of-state. My husband was guard, and got mobilized to Iraq in 2004-2005, and ended up resigning his commission when it looked like that was going to happen again in 2007-ish. Also guard often helps other states when they need disaster relief.
Pros- you get cheaper health insurance and you will generally stay in your state guard unless you really want to leave.
Cons—some jobs are harder to advance in, and you may have limited positions available, and unit culture could be really good or really bad
For tuition assistance, in most states, you can go to the state college for free. Connecticut for instance has a program that will let you go to any state school for free if you have deployed or been active for 90 days. At the top of your career? You might make $12-15k annually for your 48 days.
Tricare for single people is like $50 a month. Families are $200. Dental is extra and like $30. I know several Veterinarians who have stayed in the reserves for health insurance alone. Also, you get life insurance for the time you’re in ($400k, ~$30 per month) opt out possible.
If you have more questions… this is literally part of what I do for the reserves but the guard is similar.
What are you thinking of doing grad school in and why?
Currently an undergraduate junior in economics. I plan on doing a master’s and Ph.D. in economics and focusing my career on research into global priorities, global health, and poverty. Policy and governance domestically and internationally are also intriguing to me too. Seeing as how tuition gave my family and me a near heart attack and my sister who is 30 has her student loans be a hindrance to her still, it would be wise to finance my tuition effectively.
Thanks for the concern :)
Have you thought about applying for EA funding to help with tuition fees?
I haven’t looked too into it in a year because the last time I checked the criteria were for only undergraduates and graduates attending elite and Ivy League universities. Also, most of them seem to not have occurred in the last two years.
I’ll be attending Rutgers University for the remainder of my undergraduate but have my fingers crossed of getting into Columbia or NYU Some links and resources you are aware of would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
if you’re able to apply directly into PhD program, that might be worthwhile as they usually provide funding
I will confirm this and also say that if your PhD does not provide funding, you should not go. This also applies to PhDs that don’t provide enough funding to live (though this may eliminate a few good schools—I’m not sure either Isabel’s alma mater (UCLA) or mine (UCSD) provide stipends that make sense relative to housing costs.)
Re. military service AND a PhD: we had a handful of active-duty people go through my PhD. They had three years to write their PhD—which is very short, and meant they did not write an academic-quality dissertation. (They all stayed in the military and went on to their next post; I do not think they regret not being academics.). That might be fine for you! But it’s worth bearing in mind that if you are interested in an academic job, using military service for funding probably won’t get you one.
I was Active Duty Army and completed my PhD through a fully funded program (at the University of Tennessee) that was part of becoming faculty at the US Military Academy (aka West Point). My PhD program was 3 years, the same as everyone else in my program, and my academic credentials were on par with those in my field. After 3 years as an academic at the US Military Academy I returned to a non-academic position in the operational Army. Many of my colleagues (Active Duty Army officers with PhDs) remained at the US Military Academy for several years and pursed academic careers, as well as a range of other policy related endeavors. It is a fairly narrow route to join the US Army as an officer and pursue an academic faculty position at the US Military Academy, but it can be done. Anyone interested in more information on this route, please let me know.
while I’d agree with the advice of “don’t go if they don’t provide any funding”, not providing quite enough funding to actually cover expenses seems more ambiguous?
For a while I considered a career path of being a Civil Affairs officer in the Army National Guard alongside graduate economics school and a career in developmental economics. It seemed like it would have fairly good synergy, so you might look into doing that. However, for a junior to try to join the military in the hopes of getting funding for grad school… that is an unusual path. As a junior you may be too late for ROTC or maybe not. You might want to talk directly and immediately to an ROTC department and an Officer Strength Manager.
Hey, thanks for the reply and information. I’m not looking to od ROTC or reserves right now. Possibly after I graduate. Thanks for the information of doing National Guard along graduate economics program and a career in developmental economics, that is definitely something to consider.
You should know that economics PhDs do not require masters in general, and definitely not for people who did their undergrad in the US (which I’m assuming you did if you are considering the US military!) They are also (usually) fully funded and pay a liveable amount.
Moreover, it is most common for people to do a two-year predoctoral research position before applying to PhDs. Those jobs pay $50-60k a year so they also enable you to save a bit or pay down a bit of debt, before you start grad school. So an economics PhD should not cost you anything.
If you want to talk more about this I’m happy to chat if you DM me.