AboutCynthia Bedell Expertise I am the Commander of the Surface Communications and Support Systems, contract management office. I am currently an active duty Colonel.
Experience I have bachelors and masters degrees in Engineering. I also hold a patent for a new way to process composite materials into complex shapes.
Question Dear Cynthia,
I’m 28 year old, I have an Associates Degree in Electronics and sometime between December of 2009 and May 2010 I will be done with a Bachelors in Computer Science, I want to join to Army reserve, but one of my concerns is that as soon as I achieve my degree I want to relocate to Hawaii, do you think I should wait until graduation to join the Army or would I be able to transfer to a base on Hawaii after being in the Army for a few months. Also I’ve been thinking about pursuing a Master program in Computer Science, would the Army reserve allow me to achieve that.
Thank you for your time.
Answer Dear Edwin --
You should join a Reserve Unit where you want to live, if possible. This means you should be in Hawaii and find a reserve unit in Hawaii that needs your skills and enlist for that unit.
With a bachelors degree, you can try for officer candidate school (OCS). If you are interested in being a commissioned officer, you should request an OCS rider in your enlistment contract.
A masters degree in computer science is a valuable degree. In some military occupations it will be a benefit to have such a degree. However, if you will have a full time job, and serve in the Reserves, you may not have time to get your degree because of the amount of time you must give your Reserve unit each month.
On the other hand, if you will be a full time student, and do your Reserve drills part time, you will have enough time for both. My caution with this route is that being in graduate school will not defer you from deployment, if your unit deploys.
Please write back, if you have other questions. Good luck to you.
