Military cyber branch vs focusing on civilian education

[BackPropagandist]

Hello all, I just posted a topic about graduate school admissions but since this is a big enough question on its own I figured I would make a separate thread.

I went to a military junior college where I commissioned into the military, and I'm currently in the military reserves. I'm now a senior majoring in economics at a private university and I want to transition into CS to get a PhD. I can choose to stay or leave the National Guard. I've decided that the only reason I would enjoy staying would be if I could enter our cyber program. This would entail a 37 week training program after I finished my undergrad, which would essentially last for one academic year. I would get proficient with Linux systems, proficient at scripting, CISSP certified, CCNA certified, and trained on military cyber doctrine and operations. Currently I know almost nothing about these things.

This would delay my grad school admissions by a year. It would fill in some of the gaps in my computer science knowledge (I have very little experience with programming and networking) and it would be a unique thing to have on a CV. My research interests include AI verification and reliability, and there is a lot of crossover with cybersecurity in that research domain, but on the other hand I want to do research - spending most of a year on IT type things seems like an inefficient way of learning the relevant aspects of cybersecurity when I want to be doing theoretical work.

Furthermore, being in the National Guard would require additional training and possibly even deployments during my PhD. Overall it seems like I can expect this to delay the completion my PhD for 2 years or so.

So my questions are: Would having this certification significantly increase my prospects for getting into a good PhD program, or would the possibility of future training and deployments make me an unattractive PhD student? And is there anyone here with experience in AI robustness/verification research who can tell me how relevant applied cybersecurity is to this research domain? Thanks.

Edited September 3, 2016 by BackPropagandist

[TakeruK]

I am not in your field, but I can give some thoughts on the logistics side of things.

1. Are you able to apply to PhD programs to start in Fall 2017, and then choose to begin the 37 week cyber program with the National Guard only if you do not get into PhD programs (you'd find out about PhD programs between Feb and May 2017). That is, if you don't get into a PhD program this year, maybe do your military program in the 2017-2018 academic year (not sure if when you say it's one academic year long that you were referring to only the length or also the time).

2. I don't know whether the specific experience of the military program provide useful skills to a research PhD program (not in your field) but do you have any other research experience in CS thus far? If not, then maybe even something like this can give you a unique skillset! But if you already have done other work, it might not add very much. Hopefully someone in your field will see this and answer!

3. Your military commitments should not affect your admission. I don't think you even need to disclose that? But I think all schools are required to provide leave for military training and deployments and they shouldn't discriminate against you for it. Realistically, even if you are able to get all the leave approved, depending on the length of time you need for military leave, it could affect your academic/research development. I know a lot of grad students who are in the reserves and have military commitments about one night per week, a weekend per month and then the occasional multi-week thing usually in the summer. This is usually very manageable for a grad student. But if you need to leave for a whole semester, that could impact classes (many classes only offered once every 2 years at some places), and make you miss things like important conferences. And of course, taking a semester off from your research will slow your progress a lot. Just some thoughts!

[BackPropagandist]

6 hours ago, TakeruK said:

I am not in your field, but I can give some thoughts on the logistics side of things.

1. Are you able to apply to PhD programs to start in Fall 2017, and then choose to begin the 37 week cyber program with the National Guard only if you do not get into PhD programs (you'd find out about PhD programs between Feb and May 2017). That is, if you don't get into a PhD program this year, maybe do your military program in the 2017-2018 academic year (not sure if when you say it's one academic year long that you were referring to only the length or also the time).

2. I don't know whether the specific experience of the military program provide useful skills to a research PhD program (not in your field) but do you have any other research experience in CS thus far? If not, then maybe even something like this can give you a unique skillset! But if you already have done other work, it might not add very much. Hopefully someone in your field will see this and answer!

3. Your military commitments should not affect your admission. I don't think you even need to disclose that? But I think all schools are required to provide leave for military training and deployments and they shouldn't discriminate against you for it. Realistically, even if you are able to get all the leave approved, depending on the length of time you need for military leave, it could affect your academic/research development. I know a lot of grad students who are in the reserves and have military commitments about one night per week, a weekend per month and then the occasional multi-week thing usually in the summer. This is usually very manageable for a grad student. But if you need to leave for a whole semester, that could impact classes (many classes only offered once every 2 years at some places), and make you miss things like important conferences. And of course, taking a semester off from your research will slow your progress a lot. Just some thoughts!

Thanks for your comments.

1. I do have time to delay the decision. The course starts in the fall and runs till May with a break in between, I believe.

2. I do have some, it's not very technical but it's unique.

3. Okay, I would also have the weekend per month and summer trip, but I was pretty sure I could manage that. I don't know how training would work (I might have online certifications to practice or even full time courses sufficient to derail a semester) but deployment would cut across two semesters, sometimes even three. I would be able to communicate and research in my spare time at a distance, but it would be tough.

Some courses offered only once every 2 years... that would be a big problem. Is it possible that having to leave for, say, 1 year, would delay the completion of my PhD by a year and a half or more?

[TakeruK]

17 hours ago, BackPropagandist said:

3. Okay, I would also have the weekend per month and summer trip, but I was pretty sure I could manage that. I don't know how training would work (I might have online certifications to practice or even full time courses sufficient to derail a semester) but deployment would cut across two semesters, sometimes even three. I would be able to communicate and research in my spare time at a distance, but it would be tough.

Some courses offered only once every 2 years... that would be a big problem. Is it possible that having to leave for, say, 1 year, would delay the completion of my PhD by a year and a half or more?

Quick question: I had thought that for reservists, deployment is only on a voluntary basis unless a national emergency happens? (I know this is true in the Canadian armed forces, but I am not as familiar with US military). So, while you are a student, could you choose to not volunteer for deployment?

If you do go on military leave for several semesters, the school is required to grant this leave and restore you to full student status when you return, but depending on each school's policy, your advsior/supervisor doesn't have to put their whole project on hold for an entire year. When you return, you may have to switch to a different project if your advisor/supervisor wants someone else to make progress on that work. So, depending on when you take the deployment leave, it could seriously disrupt your thesis project and reduce your ability to get the most out of your PhD time and your research (i.e. publishing papers etc.). However, depending on what your goals are post-PhD and what you value in your life, this could be a good trade for you. i.e. the short answer is that it is likely possible to take a year off but in reality, this has the potential of affecting your chances in academia post-PhD. 

[BackPropagandist]

On 9/4/2016 at 6:22 PM, TakeruK said:

Quick question: I had thought that for reservists, deployment is only on a voluntary basis unless a national emergency happens? (I know this is true in the Canadian armed forces, but I am not as familiar with US military). So, while you are a student, could you choose to not volunteer for deployment?

If you do go on military leave for several semesters, the school is required to grant this leave and restore you to full student status when you return, but depending on each school's policy, your advsior/supervisor doesn't have to put their whole project on hold for an entire year. When you return, you may have to switch to a different project if your advisor/supervisor wants someone else to make progress on that work. So, depending on when you take the deployment leave, it could seriously disrupt your thesis project and reduce your ability to get the most out of your PhD time and your research (i.e. publishing papers etc.). However, depending on what your goals are post-PhD and what you value in your life, this could be a good trade for you. i.e. the short answer is that it is likely possible to take a year off but in reality, this has the potential of affecting your chances in academia post-PhD. 

Some people volunteer for deployment, but usually there's also mandatory deployments whenever the unit gets called up. In theory it's usually every 5 years or so, sometimes longer, but in times like the early phase of Iraq we had units deploying more frequently, like once every three years or so I believe.

Thanks for the info. I'm interested in academia but also interested in working for federal research agencies as well as federal technology policy advising.