Suggestions for Masters degree

[evanmonast]

Long story short, between my last post and now I have been informed my unit will be deploying for the duration of about a year right between what would have been my 1L and 3L year of law school. This is unfortunate because I already couldn't start until fall 2023 so of course I am giving up on the idea of law school. I am not however giving up on a graduate degree and would like to use the time I have before this deployment to get a masters degree done. 

It does not matter what the degree is in as long as it is under $25,000 all in and doesn't take more than 18 months. I feel most masters degrees will fall under those constraints. Additionally, while I don't mind writing essays I don't want to do a program which requires me to write a 20-25 page paper per credit. 20-25 pages per course is completely acceptable. 

Of course a program without a thesis/practicum/capstone/applied project/internship/extensive research is ideal but I am open to writing a lengthy paper if the degree is interesting enough. A thesis would be preferable over any of the other options. 

I am chasing a career in federal law enforcement so a degree related to that outcome would be nice but my resume is otherwise well qualifying and I have already set wheels in motion for that career so it is not at all a must. 

So far I have been eyeing Angelo State University's M.S. in Applied Psychology as it has a non-thesis option and an incredible amount of flexibility as far as choosing electives go. Any information on this program/school would be great!

https://www.angelo.edu/academics/program...gree-plan/ 

I am also looking at Waynesburg University's MA in Criminal Investigations as you can pick 10 of their 19 course offerings and customize your own degree. It also appears there is no culminating project. 


https://www.waynesburg.edu/catalog/gradu...ter-arts-0 

The reason I am asking for input is because I could not find any information in regards to the intensity of these programs. I would rather follow in someone's footsteps than to be a guinea pig and walk into a program with an unreasonable work expectancy.

Also worth noting, University of New Haven offers an M.S. in Investigations with a Criminal Investigations concentration but there is less flexibilty and it is considerably more pricey than Waynesburg U. Interestingly, it is advertised to be possible to complete the degree in 10 months. 

One last program I was considering was Grand Canyon University's M.S. in Forensic Psychology. This program does have a "Professional Capstone" but it looks interesting as you interview someone in the career you are looking to enter and reflecting on it. I have heard bad things about GCU so I am placing it low on my list.

[ss20ts]

First thing you need to do is contact any school you're interested in and see how they work with deployments. Some schools are more flexible than others.

[evanmonast]

I have enough time to start and finish a masters degree before my deployment so that is not a concern.

[freeloader]

Have you talked to folks in federal law enforcement? I was interested in becoming an agent but didn’t end up pursuing it for a number of reasons. What I was told (by folks in different agencies) was basically to avoid criminal justice/criminology/closely related disciplines. A former supervisory special agent with the FBI said that was basically the one degree that would mean you wouldn’t get an agent job. You will get trained at Quantico/FLETC to conduct investigations. They want other skills that you can bring to the table.

If you look up FBI special agent on Usajobs.gov, there are different backgrounds/knowledge bases: military/law enforcement, education/teaching, accounting/finance, STEM, foreign language, legal, psychology/counseling, cyber/tech, and healthcare. These line up with valuable skill sets for a federal agent. Law enforcement calls specifically for experience, not just education.

A lot of federal agents spend a lot of time dealing with financial issues, including contractors defrauding their agencies. A background in accounting or finance would be useful for a lot of this work.

If you are interested in something like CBP or Border Patrol, advanced language skills (beyond Spanish) and foreign affairs education might be useful.

If I were you, I would talk to a bunch of federal agents, particularly supervisory agents if you can, to see what skill sets/degrees they see being useful to get hired. I would also read about (and maybe post) on the federalsoup.com forums for the agency/-ies that interest you. There are a lot of people from different agencies that are active over there. I got some very good advice that definitely helped me get my job (as an accountant, not an 1811…)

If you are wanting a federal police (as opposed to agent) job, a criminal justice/law enforcement job is probably as useful as anything. Best of luck!

[evanmonast]

I'm well aware. I work with a bunch of former fbi guys. I have heard back from every agency I applied to with just my bachelors and military so I'm not worried about getting hired. My masters would purely be out of self-interest and if it relates to my career it's a bonus. I will check that site out tho!