How is OSU

[Cfiremanbd]

Hi I am 17 and looking for the best fire scence program. Is OK State Univ. the Best?? Will it Get me a Paid Job easyer? and how will it help me when I get into a Fire Dept.
Thanks for the help.

[MikeWard]

Oklahoma State University is an excellent program.

If your goal is to become a career firefighter after you obtain your undergraduate degree, the value of the degree varies.

Some departments require a minimum number of college credits or use higher education as a preferred qualification.

My first suggestion is to consider where you want to work as a career firefighter. Identify what they require or desire in education for a new employee and work your way backwards.

You may be surprised at what you discover.

For a slightly jaded response, please check out this link:

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/mward/hmtl%20pages/THE%20BRUTALITY%20OF%20THE%20H IRING%20PROCESS.htm

There are a few other colleges and universities that offer bachelor degree programs in fire protection or emergency management. This link describes many of them:

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/mward/hmtl%20pages/Overview%20Fire%20Science%20de grees.htm

The best academic investment for a wanna-be career firefighter is to obtain a National Registry EMT-Paramedic certification. Over 200 community colleges and a dozen hospital/training centers offer this training. A firefighter candidate with a NREMT-P card gets preferential consideration over many others.

Regardless of your decision, my bias is that you complete your undergraduate studies BEFORE starting fire recruit school. The real value of your college experience comes after you complete recruit school, when you start to prepare for the civil service promotional exams to technician, company officer and command officer. An east coast trend is to require command officers to have a four year degree.

Good luck!

Mike

Michael J. Ward
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
The George Washington University
mikeward@gwu.edu

primary author Fire Officer: Principles and Practice published by Jones and Bartlett for NFPA and IAFC
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/mward/hmtl%20pages/Fire%20Officer%20book%20info.h tm

retired Captain II, Fairfax County (VA) Fire and Rescue Department

[Cfiremanbd]

thanks alot for the advice I was wondering were I go for a recruit school??

[JHR1985]

I really dont think the degree location is as important as is where you went to academy if you have to have it before you get hired. For the fire service, A degree is a degree. It shouldnt matter where you get it

[MikeWard]

thanks alot for the advice I was wondering were I go for a recruit school?? Most large fire departments run their own recruit schools. You are hired by the city and spend your first 12-50+ weeks assigned to the training academy. Generally it will be day work.

Some places, like Florida, require you to already have a Florida Firefighter II and EMT-Basic or Paramedic BEFORE you start employment.

I remember that Rhode Island runs a state wide recruit school that you attend on your time and dime. The career firefighting hiring list is based on your performance in the school.

1) Decide where you want to live/work for 20 - 30 years.

2) Identify the department(s) you want to work for

3) Determine their hiring process or pre-employment requirements.

4) Start the process

Good luck!

Mike

[Cfiremanbd]

One last question when I am in OSU is there any Volenteer fire depts. or any where I can get hands on experence before I go on my co-op??

[bobbymurphy]

Fireman BD,

Where are you from? I'm from Illinois, currently attending Eastern Kentucky University. You can look at some of my past posts to see some good info from different people talking about different colleges. OSU/Maryland are hands down the place to be if you're wanting an engineering degree. I plan on working for a fire department after graduation so I chose to go to EKU where I can choose between a degree in arson investigation or fire department administration(I'm admin myself.)

As far as getting some expierence goes we have two main options here at EKU. I have worked as a full time co-op for the city of Richmond for going on two years now. Richmond has four stations each staffed with a four man engine. Station one and station three get 2 co-ops per shift to make the two busiest engines a 5 man engine. The co-ops are no different from the firefighters on scene. If you arn't able to get on as a co-op with the city or don't like the idea of working 24 on 48 off the town of White Hall warmly accepts our students. It's a 100% percent volunteer department that will get you high quality IFSAC certification for exchange of working a few bingo nights, not to mention catching a little fire with them.

If you have any questions about anything give me a holler. I can't really speak for the other colleges, all I really know about OSU is what I got from my visit there and from talking some of their students/grads at FDIC and other conferences. Either way I haven't regretted my decision to further my education after highschool and hope it will aid me in opening some doors later in my career.

Bobby

[bobbymurphy]

Forgot to throw in some links for more info.

http://www.fireandsafety.eku.edu/ -Fire programs main site


http://www.fireandsafety.eku.edu/ORG-PAGE/AFST/default.htm -Website for the association of fire science technicians. Basically our student group on campus for all the fire majors. Lots of social functions, trainings, etc.

[NOVARescueFF]

I also went to EKU for my B.S. degree and highly recommend it. However, I'll be fair and play devil's advocate for a second here and give you all the options so you can make the best educated decision.

First of all, you really have to ask yourself what your goal in a fire service career is. Do you want to drag hose, spray water, drag victims? Or do you want to have a progressive career moving through an officer career track, investigations track etc? Both are outstanding options and every firefighter looks at the options differently, but it's important for you to make that choice prior to spending money on a college education.

If getting a badge and getting dirty is your choice, college will never hurt you and in most cases will help you obtain the required 30 to 60 credit hours most large departments require to sit for an exam. Look over two year programs across the country and aim for ones that focus on getting a Paramedic cert, etc. There are a few good programs in CT, NH, NY, and PA at the community and private school level for just these degrees.

Further more, most departments of any scale are requiring officer candidates to have a minimum of a B.S. degree to even sit for promotion exams, so this can give you the leg up down the road if you so decide to travel that route. Otherwise, if you are looking at investigations, etc as a career option down the road these B.S. programs at school's like EKU, OSU, University of Maryland, and the University of New Haven are becoming very important. Education will not always promise you the "dream job" first time out, but you have to remember that a B.S. is a building block. It's what you do in school, internships, volunteer experience, etc that will help you down the road resume wise.

However, the bottom line is this:

1.) Medical certifications are great resume points and help a lot with most any department you test with today.

2.) Certifications and pervious experience is nice, but not always highly viewed upon by larger departments. (Remember they want you to learn the business there way, its not a bad things, its just nature of the beast.) These are learning experiences to help foster your career, treat them as such and your oral interviews will go well.

3.) Obtain education any way you can. Either a AS or a BS from most any school with a fire science program will give you a well rounded background in the field and stack your resume for potential promotions.

4.) Know what you want out of your career, big department, small department, mid department and where. All of these things will impact what you MUST have to be competitive, however the first three points will always benefit you.

5.) Be dedicated.

Hope this helps, if anyone has any questions about Fire Science programs I'd be more then happy to chat. I spent one year at University of New Haven, graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and have spent time researching OSU and U. of Maryland. Also, have many friends that attended NH Tech-Laconia (Great Two year program), so feel free to get in touch if you want some inside info on any of these great programs.

Stay safe,

-CGP

[jmitchell]

One last question when I am in OSU is there any Volenteer fire depts. or any where I can get hands on experence before I go on my co-op??

Have you tried to research this subject? You will most likely get a more straight forward answer if you go straight to the source.