CAP Talk

General Discussion => Membership => Topic started by: RickFranz on June 10, 2011, 02:11:31 PM

Title: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: RickFranz on June 10, 2011, 02:11:31 PM
Has anyone else heard this?

My wife is trying to enroll in the USAF Squadron Officer School, she is being told she has to provide a copy of her college degree before she can enroll.

(I know one week at a Region Leadership school would be much easier, however funds do not allow for this.)

Thanks
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: Al Sayre on June 10, 2011, 02:18:02 PM
I heard that this had come up recently.  AU is/was reviewing their training accreditation and found that a lot of the CAP people didn't meet the entrance requirements for the courses, so giving them credit would screw with the course accreditation.  I'm told that NHQ is working on it.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: ascorbate on June 10, 2011, 02:43:58 PM
Quote from: Al Sayre on June 10, 2011, 02:18:02 PM
I heard that this had come up recently.  AU is/was reviewing their training accreditation and found that a lot of the CAP people didn't meet the entrance requirements for the courses, so giving them credit would screw with the course accreditation.  I'm told that NHQ is working on it.

Ditto on this... prospective students need the equivalent of a baccalaureate degree as of July 2010 before enrolling in SOS... NHQ is looking into this... and there is no waiver for this education requirement at this time.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: RiverAux on June 10, 2011, 06:07:50 PM
Seems like an appropriate requirement to me even if it might hold back some CAP members.  I see no reason that we should be made an exception. 
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: MSG Mac on June 10, 2011, 06:18:07 PM
The fact is that SOS is an alternative to RSC. CAP actually has a high dropout rate in all the AU courses, so I can see the AF requiring some means of proving you are educationally equivelent to the military officers that it is designed for. Unlike HS and some college courses this is not dumbed down for the lowest common denominator.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: Майор Хаткевич on June 10, 2011, 08:07:44 PM
Quote from: MSG Mac on June 10, 2011, 06:18:07 PM
The fact is that SOS is an alternative to RSC. CAP actually has a high dropout rate in all the AU courses, so I can see the AF requiring some means of proving you are educationally equivelent to the military officers that it is designed for. Unlike HS and some college courses this is not dumbed down for the lowest common denominator.

Have you been to  a college recently? Death by powerpoint is not an education.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: MSG Mac on June 10, 2011, 08:10:01 PM
Yes I have BA 2005, MA 2009. If your school is trying to pass PP slides as education on a regular basis, change schools.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: Майор Хаткевич on June 10, 2011, 09:47:06 PM
Quote from: MSG Mac on June 10, 2011, 08:10:01 PM
Yes I have BA 2005, MA 2009. If your school is trying to pass PP slides as education on a regular basis, change schools.

Not all classes. Just those to do with Business-anything.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: Slim on June 11, 2011, 04:01:31 AM
Quote from: RickFranz on June 10, 2011, 02:11:31 PM
Has anyone else heard this?

My wife is trying to enroll in the USAF Squadron Officer School, she is being told she has to provide a copy of her college degree before she can enroll.

(I know one week at a Region Leadership school would be much easier, however funds do not allow for this.)

Thanks

Yeah, sorry.  I think I'm probably the one to blame for this.  I tried to enroll about two months ago, and ran into the same roadblock with AU.  NHQ and I got the SOS POC listed on the NHQ page involved, who was willing to grant a waiver, and told the AU registrar to sign me up.  The registrar at AU got her supervisor (both of whom are civilians) involved, and the waiver disappeared.  We went round and round (politely) about it for a week before it came out that this wasn't going to happen.  Strangely enough, right after all of this went down, the requirement for a bachelor's degree was added to the course requirements on the CAP University page.

So, those of us who work for a living, and don't get enough vacation time and/or don't have the coin to blow on RSC, are pretty much screwed.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: SARDOC on June 11, 2011, 03:42:04 PM
It's funny how they haven't added it yet to the ACSC and AWC requirements yet
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: BillB on June 11, 2011, 04:54:59 PM
Probably haven't listed it since to get a Commission you have to have a degree. So anyone going to SOS would be an officer that already had a degree. There was talk in the AU newsletter several years ago that a Masters degree was being considered to enroll in Air War College
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: AirDX on June 11, 2011, 11:59:12 PM
Quote from: SARDOC on June 11, 2011, 03:42:04 PM
It's funny how they haven't added it yet to the ACSC and AWC requirements yet

It's already a requirement for everyone but CAP.  Commissioned officers have degrees almost by definition, and AU requires bachelor's degrees for DoD civilians.  Apparently AU has now closed that gap.  Fortunately I got into SOS under the wire, since I'm working on my BS in parallel.  SOS is good for 6 upper division undergraduate credits, saving me probably $2000. 

Once I have the BS complete, I'm hoping to leverage SOS into a spot in the ACSC online Master's program by way of my civilian employment with the Air Force.
Title: Re: Squadron Officer School Enrollment Problem
Post by: RickFranz on June 13, 2011, 04:44:37 AM
Well I guess if our Officers will have to meet the same qualifications as the military, maybe just maybe it's time to take a good hard look at a aniline CAP SOS school that would relate more to CAP.  Much like the SLS that is now on line.