USMMA prep program

[QUOTE=Mate_Zac;159605]I want to work on ships so going to KP is the equivalent for me in the maritime industry.[/QUOTE]

you poor naive deluded fool…there is no Ivy League if you want to sail. If you plan to go to sea then KP offers nothing for you. That school trains military officers and the occasional admiralty lawyer or powerplant operator. It DOES NOT produce merchant mariners

and look at you for example; you’re still bitter about the tuba!

[QUOTE=z-drive;159636]and look at you for example; you’re still bitter about the tuba![/QUOTE]

oh BOSH! If KP is to continue they should have dignity and cease being the clown college they have become

of course, being what they are, their graduates are imminently qualified to go work for Shell…

further note to Admiral Helis

this pure piece of propaganda and puffery needs to be poleaxed.

//youtu.be/xEhHvwiGoxk

RESPECT for KP and its graduates will come only after you turn that place into a genuine MARITIME training program.

It isn’t the sea that demands anything…that is just water. It’s the men of the US merchant marine and maritime industry that KP needs to EARN the RESPECT of. Right now it and you are FAILING that test.

There may be good arguments against KP using as much taxpayer funding as it does. Or the admissions policy or whatever but what is the point of criticizing the band? other big schools have marching bands and band members wear traditional uniforms. it’s not by any means unique to KP.

[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;159658]There may be good arguments against KP using as much taxpayer funding as it does. Or the admissions policy or whatever but what is the point of criticizing the band? Most big schools have marching bands and band members wear traditional uniforms. it’s not by any means unique to KP.[/QUOTE]

My last post doesn’t just criticize the band but the whole program. The band is just a posterchild for the loonacy of the place. WTF is all the nonsense of these Beat Retreats? Singing, dancing and formation marching does not make a mariner. End this idiocy of creating little marionette toy soldiers in a little mini-me Annapolis.

[QUOTE=c.captain;159660]My last post doesn’t just criticize the band but the whole program. The band is just a posterchild for the loonacy of the place. WTF is all the nonsense of these Beat Retreats? Singing, dancing and formation marching does not make a mariner.[/QUOTE]

Just looked it up after posting. Military style bands are no longer common. II was thinking of school bands in general, different animal.

I suppose the argument is that it more then just a trade school, leadership, respect for tradition and military values.

[QUOTE=Mate_Zac;159391]Hey, I got into the USMMA prep program at marion military institute, wondered if there was any other prep student out there for USMMA or even marion military prep students. Any advice and personal thoughts on experience is greatly appreciated[/QUOTE]

You’d be better off not wasting the year at Marion and go to a State School. Why waste a year of sea time and pay just to attend Kings Point.

Because it is also part of my scholarship to USMMA. They are funding the year of prep school 60% so it won’t cost much at all

[QUOTE=Mate_Zac;159700]Because it is also part of my scholarship to USMMA. They are funding the year of prep school 60% so it won’t cost much at all[/QUOTE]

Zac, for the classes your will be taking at the prep school will any of them transfer to KP? I know a huge regret for many students that I have talked to is that we all didn’t take our humanities and math classes at a community college before attending Mass, Maine, A&M, or SUNY.

While I was going to attend KP I don’t know how transfer credits work. But I highly recommend you knock off your basic English and math classes before going. It makes a world of difference.

Yeah that’s exactly what prep school is for. I will be taking my basic classes there at prep school so that way when I take them at KP I already got to do the class once and get put into higher level courses. So basically I will be able to take the classes that I would be taking at KP but I will get more tutoring and at a slower pace than at the academy.

[QUOTE=Mate_Zac;159700]Because it is also part of my scholarship to USMMA. They are funding the year of prep school 60% so it won’t cost much at all[/QUOTE]

Again you’d be better off going straight to a State School. You most likely can get instate or regional tuition. Combine that with the Student Incentive Program you’d make out pretty good.
Plus by going to the Prep School you are missing out on a year of pay, a year of investing in your 401k, a year of work towards retirement and a year of saving. By delaying yourself a year, you run the risk of a stagnant job market.
Such a waste to go to Marion, not only for yourself but for the tax payer. It’s a great deal for Marion, they’ll make hand over fist having you attend, but everyone else loses out.

SUNY offers
In-Region Tuition Rates available for students from: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C.

Like I said…prekindergarten

learn how to play well with the other kids

[QUOTE=c.captain;159704]Like I said…prekindergarten

learn how to play well with the other kids[/QUOTE]

Honestly I think he is making a smart move. I don’t know how bad KP is with math and humanities, but a lot of other students complain about the other schools when it comes to those classes. However, if they have crappy teachers at this prep school it wont mean a world of difference. If I could go back I would do my first year of college at a community college in a heart beat.

[QUOTE=Whiplasher;159793]Honestly I think he is making a smart move.[/QUOTE]

personally, I believe the kid to be a fool to attend the USMMA if what he wants is to be a seafarer. If all he wants is to go to sea, then he would do much better in a limited license program at one of the state schools or one such as PMI where one obtains a valuable credential much sooner without all the regimental BS. Most all the seafaring jobs in the US are limited tonnage so the need to put in four full years to obtain a license above that is generally required seems wasteful. The degree obtained is also of questionable value (unless going engine, where the degree is golden).

If he wants to sail, he should just get his ass out there and sail in the shortest span of time possible and not waste it on silly prep schools or marching too and fro to the showtoons bleated out by Captain Kenneth R. Force, USMS and his band of Renowns. Of course, maybe he wants to march to and fro and wear uniforms and be a regimental commander of the band but then I put him into the category of a silly stoopid naive kid who has no clue as to the industry or what it takes to be successful in it. For all its propaganda, KP fails in everyway to prepare its graduates to enter the “real” industry. It is a FARCICAL clown circus there.

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[QUOTE=c.captain;159796]personally, I believe the kid to be a fool to attend the USMMA if what he wants is to be a seafarer. If all he wants is to go to sea, then he would do much better in a limited license program at one of the state schools or one such as PMI where one obtains a valuable credential much sooner without all the regimental BS. Most all the seafaring jobs in the US are limited tonnage so the need to put in four full years to obtain a license above that is generally required seems wasteful. The degree obtained is also of questionable value (unless going engine, where the degree is golden).

If he wants to sail, he should just get his ass out there and sail in the shortest span of time possible and not waste it on silly prep schools or marching too and fro to the showtoons bleated out by Captain Kenneth R. Force, USMS and his band of Renowns. Of course, maybe he wants to march to and fro and wear uniforms and be a regimental commander of the band but then I put him into the category of a silly stoopid naive kid who has no clue as to the industry or what it takes to be successful in it. For all its propaganda, KP fails in everyway to prepare its graduates to enter the “real” industry. It is a FARCICAL clown circus there.

.[/QUOTE]

Does it fail at producing seafarers? I would say not. I’m a graduate of that institution and I’d say I’ve had a pretty successful career at sea, and I’m hardly the only one–I’ve worked with plenty of KP graduates at sea who did just fine. Of course KP has its fair share of jackasses, but that’s true of any of the academies–I think KP gets put under the microscope more because much more of the cost of attending is taxpayer funded. I’d also hesitate to say that the degree is of questionable value–yes, it’s probably not worth a great deal if you plan to go to sea for 40 years then retire, but it becomes much more useful if looking to move shoreside.

Are there aspects of the school that could be improved? For sure–they could really stand to catch up with the times, keep up with industry trends, tone down the regimental nonsense (I treated it as really nothing more than some bullshit to be dealt with, which itself is decent training for a life at sea, but that’s about it), and treat the band as nothing more than another extracurricular activity much like the sports teams and other clubs rather than a special aspect of the regiment.

As far as whether KP needs to continue existing in its current form, particularly its taxpayer funding, that’s another debate for another day.

never said it produces zero but by and large it produces fewer than its mission states it should…too many avoid going to sea at all and the vast majority do not stay at sea.

As far as whether KP needs to continue existing in its current form, particularly its taxpayer funding, that’s another debate for another day.

why not start it all up again here? We are for the most part all US taxpayers so being a taxpayer funded program get to SHIT on it at will to our heart’s delight!

I also feel the need to point out that you completely fail to say how going to KP to be a better option than a state school or a non matriculated program like PMI Workboat Academy? What is the point of going to the USMMA except for the (almost) free ride and the class ring so many graduates love to prominently wear?

[QUOTE=c.captain;159803]never said it produces zero but by and large it produces fewer than its mission states it should…too many avoid going to sea at all and the vast majority do not stay at sea.

why not start it all up again here? We are for the most part all US taxpayers so being a taxpayer funded program get to SHIT on it at will to our heart’s delight!

I also feel the need to point out that you completely fail to say how going to KP to be a better option than a state school or a non matriculated program like PMI Workboat Academy? What is the point of going to the USMMA except for the (almost) free ride and the class ring so many graduates love to prominently wear?[/QUOTE]

Ah, the class ring. I haven’t seen mine in almost a decade.

Anyway, I’m not necessarily saying KP is or isn’t a better option than the state schools, I was saying that it worked out well for me. I don’t have any statistics so I can’t really speculate on how many graduates from each school actually go to sea at all or how many are still shipping after five/ten/twenty years. My impression, though, is KP seems to be geared more toward someone who might want to go to sea for a short time then move ashore. Hell, the recruiting pitch when I was preparing to matriculate at that fine institution basically amounted to, “Hey, you don’t even really have to go to sea if you don’t want to!” Even though the obligation clearly states that graduates are supposed to seek seagoing jobs FIRST and only if there are no jobs available is shoreside work to be permitted during the obligation period. My senior year shipping suddenly blew wide open and KP and MARAD announced that they were going to actually hold us to that obligation we signed rather than rubber-stamping waivers; you should have seen the outcry from a large number of my classmates.

Back on track–one thing I would say is an advantage KP has over the other schools is the sea year aspect. The average KP grad will have sailed on roughly four different commercial ships during the sea year portion, whereas a state school grad may do one–a fair few state school students graduate without having ever been on anything other than the school ship. For me, it was invaluable seeing how shipping ACTUALLY worked, not some version of shipping cooked up by a training program. Being on multiple ships also allowed me to see a broader cross-section of the industry.

I would say KP or a state school would be better options than a workboat academy simply because the level of license gained allows for more options. Nothing wrong with workboat academies, if that was what one wanted to do and stick with it, fine, but it’s difficult to upgrade if something bigger is desired.

As far as whether the school needs to be taxpayer funded–I’m not particularly convinced it needs to be at this point. At least not unless KP provides something in graduates that nobody else does AND it’s of some value to the nation as a whole, and right now KP doesn’t seem to have it on both counts.

Well obviously I havnt gone yet, but I have worked on a couple ships in some compacity and during my experience every ship I was on always had a KP alumn on her. And most of them had good things to say and they ALL seemed like they were successful. As for sailing, I want to sail for my commitment and then choose to do something maybe like pilot boats or tugs. So I may want to go shoreside and USMMA seems to be the best way to do that. I really do appreciate the helpful commits thank you, and I think it will all work out just fine

And as for whiplasher, I do not know how the education is at the prep school but I’m ow that I’ll be there with USNA and USMA kids. So I would think it will be pretty okay. At least I hope

[QUOTE=Mate_Zac;159816]Well obviously I havnt gone yet, but I have worked on a couple ships in some compacity and during my experience every ship I was on always had a KP alumn on her. And most of them had good things to say and they ALL seemed like they were successful. As for sailing, I want to sail for my commitment and then choose to do something maybe like pilot boats or tugs. So I may want to go shoreside and USMMA seems to be the best way to do that. I really do appreciate the helpful commits thank you, and I think it will all work out just fine

And as for whiplasher, I do not know how the education is at the prep school but I’m ow that I’ll be there with USNA and USMA kids. So I would think it will be pretty okay. At least I hope[/QUOTE]

enjoy sonny