Seeking Doctorate in National Security or Public Policy

[Charles Fout]

Your Location: central Illinois 
Your Age: 40
What kind of degree do you want?: RA doctorate in Homeland Security (not CJ based) Public Policy, or National Security 
Current Regional Accredited Credits: RA Masters in Public Safety 
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: none at the doctoral level
Any certifications or military experience?: yes, none that apply at the doctoral level.
Budget: $25,000 or less. Will be paying cash, No loans.
Commitments: Currently work 72 hours a week as a paramedic, firefighter, and EMS adjunct instructor 
Dedicated time to study: 2 twelve hour blocks each week
Timeline: hope to begin spring 2025 
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: none provided by employer. Honestly I am already very overqualified in my current role, even my boss only has a trade school certificate.
End goal: Get the hell out of being a first responder with a bad back and either enter academia full time, or move into a government role in the area of national defense, public policy, or homeland security.

Just an opinion:

Begin by researching opportunities that are in-line with your career goals. It takes some effort but, sometimes further post-graduate education could be part and parcel of the job. As always, my constant refrain is - Network, network, network. Who you know will have a far more profound effect on career development than any credential.

[wildebeest]

Kansas State has an online PhD in security studies. It is 90 credits, but 30 credits can be transferred in depending on your master's degree. That leaves, 60, 30 of which are dissertation research. If you were to transfer in 30, it would still cost $34,470 out of pocket, but that looks to be cheaper than the Missouri State option.

https://online.k-state.edu/programs/secu...doctorate/

Excluding DPAs and criminal justice PhDs really cuts out inexpensive doctorates. For instance, University of Illinois Springfield has a DPA with a policy analysis and program evaluation concentration that's incredibly affordable and University of North Georgia has a PhD in criminal justice with an intelligence concentration (with classes like Terrorism, Intelligence, and Homeland Security and Global Crime and Justice) that could be attained for about $303 per credit, or $16,362, assuming none of your master's credits transferred.

https://www.uis.edu/spmp/doctor-public-administration
https://ung.edu/degrees/graduate/crimina...on-phd.php

Not trying to change your mind, but suggesting that DPAs and criminal justice doctorates might be flexible enough to meet your needs if you find the right ones.

Good luck finding a program that works for you.

[bjcheung77]

Hmm... Since you've got a Masters in Public Safety, what you might want to do is get a "general plain jane" DBA. Your main focus is to indicate you've got the 'senior-level executive class leadership, management skill set', your strategy is to let future employers know your doctorate is in Business Administration and that extends your knowledge of your Masters in Public Safety.

Decide for yourself, I don't think there really is a need for specific doctorates when you've got a Masters in something, you use the doctorate as leverage in another aspect of the previous degrees, sometimes people have doctorate degrees not really related to their Masters or undergrad even, just like people going into completely different professions than their previous studies...

[Jonathan Whatley]

A bit of context on the Missouri State University Doctor of Defense and Strategic Studies: A 2011 blog post from the "Militarist Monitor" describes the department as a stronghold of right-wing hawks.

Salve Regina University offers an online PhD in International Relations.

Royal Military College of Canada offers a PhD in War Studies that can be completed online. Students might be required to travel to Kingston, Ontario for written comprehensive exams. International students are welcome to apply.

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Hmm... Since you've got a Masters in Public Safety, what you might want to do is get a "general plain jane" DBA.  Your main focus is to indicate you've got the 'senior-level executive class leadership, management skill set', your strategy is to let future employers know your doctorate is in Business Administration and that extends your knowledge of your Masters in Public Safety.  

Decide for yourself, I don't think there really is a need for specific doctorates when you've got a Masters in something, you use the doctorate as leverage in another aspect of the previous degrees, sometimes people have doctorate degrees not really related to their Masters or undergrad even, just like people going into completely different professions than their previous studies...

Note that the OP says

My interests have always revolved around history, the military, and national security/public policy. […] My goal is to leverage this degree and my Coast Guard background into a position in consulting or academia, teaching national defense, homeland security et cetera.

My goal is to somehow get a full time job with the federal government in the national security arena, get a job with a think tank like RAND, ISW, or get hired full time by a college or university school of public policy or government.

Becoming a full-time professor or policy analyst are use cases where an in-field or closely enough adjacent doctorate is usually valuable and sometimes essential.

[bjcheung77]

Here's the thing, OP's got a RA BS double majored in Emergency/Disaster Management and Healthcare Administration and RA M.S. in Public Safety Administration, a logical approach still is possible with a DBA as it is in "administration". You're basically again putting a focus on it, but in a slightly different arena of "administration", you're still building upon the previous studies but to a greater extent on Business, Management, Leadership, Strategy, etc. If I was in their shoes, I would do a Level 8 Diploma from the UK and then ladder that to a DBA/DProf, then use the remaining cash to get a post-doctoral cert with a concentration if any are offered and if they want to have an additional post-doctoral cert...

[Jonathan Whatley]

Jacksonville State University offers an online DSc in Emergency Management that might potentially bridge where the OP is coming from and aiming towards. There is a one-week on-campus seminar once each academic year for the first three years of the program.

[sanantone]

The main obstacle is that the OP wants a program that is below $25,000 so they can pay out of pocket. There are multiple online options related to international relations and national security, but they're more costly than $25,000. University of Southern Mississippi has an online PhD in International Development, but I'm sure that is also above $25,000.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Could you lobby for tuition assistance at your current job, or shift to a job with tuition assistance?

Could you do a traditional doctorate on campus with a stipend – and teaching assistant and/or research assistant roles, which could include experience and maybe publications helpful to your next career – and hold an additional job off-campus, your current or a different one, scheduled around that?

[bjcheung77]

BTW, would a different Doctorate work for you instead of National Security or Public Policy? The reason is, again, without your details, we don't know what can and can't transfer over. One of the institutions you mentioned, Liberty allows up to 50% transfer, but the subjects taught at the doctoral level is going to be hard to find 'cheap' elsewhere... Hmm, something to think about.

Quoting my earlier post - In regards to Liberty and the 50% transfers, if you get a Level 8 UK Diploma, would that actually drop the class load up to 50%? I would email them and see what they say, the classes in the UK diploma should match, and I don't know what classes would actually transfer properly, it's something worth investigating as it can drop that degree down to under $20K or less.

[spohara]

Another option would be to get the cheapest doctorate that is semi-related to the field you want to teach or to get a generic doctorate. You'll rely on your master's degree to qualify for the subject area, and the doctorate will check the box for the doctorate requirement. 

To your point, my goal of starting the thread is to find that "cheapest" RA doctorate. I will be funding my program out of pocket and am definitely working class in terms of pay at the present time. As to teaching based on my masters, my masters is focused on fire department and EMS administration. However, I am looking to move as far away from my current field as possible, and would not be interested in teaching in those disciples any longer. (I've already been a street level practitioner for 20 years and worked as an adjunct instructor and supervisor for 15). 

My goal is to somehow get a full time job with the federal government in the national security arena, get a job with a think tank like RAND, ISW, or get hired full time by a college or university school of public policy or government. As I said, earlier, I also have 16 years of part time experience with the USCG and have interned previously at the state level in the areas of disaster planning and counter-terrorism.

These goals are very different and have different paths to get there.  I can speak to the federal government since that's what I do. The vast majority of the federal government consists of programs trying to achieve a specific objective - that means it will relate down to the tactical level somehow.  For example, my program is an information system used by first responders, so knowing the world of a first responder is tremendously useful.  People from police, fire service and others have been hired in my org to support my program.  There are folks who have masters in similar fields to what you're describing, but most management or high grade positions from the GS-14 to executive level have a bachelors degree.  A handful have MBAs or MPAs and I know one with two doctorates (but I'm pretty sure he was already a GS 15 before his first). 

That type of program is what the vast majority of the federal government consists of, so there are very few jobs just generically in the "national security arena" that don't relate down to the tactical level or have practical tangible goals.  If your goal is to write about national security rather than practice it, CRS might be your best bet - but that is one small sliver of the federal government, and you could end up waiting a long time for your policy area to have a vacancy.  All that's to say for most of the federal government, you already have more than enough to get your foot in the door.  If you're interested, you could probably find some type of program analyst or similar job series within a DHS (or potentially other departments too) program related to your experience and work your way up from there.