Expert: MARK A. HOWELL - 7/31/2009

Question
Hello Dr. Howell,
 I am currently an undergrad at a University doing research in infrasonic sound and cognition. I will be completing my degree in Music and Culture soon and would like to pursue my research thesis (involving emotionality) in the military. I was wondering how likely it would be and what I could do now to increase my chances of receiving my Masters (after completing OTS) and continue to work on my thesis in the service? If it is possible, I would like to pursue my PhD in the service however I am primarily concerned if I will get sufficient funding for my research. I have looked into the AFOSR, would this be a good destination to shoot for? I'd like to talk to a recruiter about this but thought I should do some homework online first. Thank you in advance.

Answer
Colin,
Congratulations on soon completing your degree.

You'll have plenty of free time to work on your thesis after OTS.  Likewise for pursuing a Ph.D.  However, if you want the military to pay for your degrees, it must be related to your specific career field.  For example, I chose to complete a Ph.D. in military history after I had been in the A.F. for a few years.  However, my career field was communications-electronics, so I had to pay for it myself.  Even though it was obviously military-related, the A.F. would only pay for a degree in Communications, Electrical Engineering or Computer Science.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is primarily interested in you if you have a scientific degree that can aid research & development in weapons or war-related disciplines.  Unless your work in music involving emotionality involves creating a weapon that uses musical sound waves to cause uncontrollable weeping, I doubt you would have much luck with them.

The majority of recruiters are working on an Associate's degree and have no idea what's involved in a Ph.D. so they won't be of much help to you.