There are old threads with recommendations but currently, where is the best place to take the classes? MAMA, San Jac, MPT, STAR, MITAGS, etc etc.
Anyone with recent experience and some input would be greatly appreciated. Some offer online courses too which I’m debating.
It’s been a few years but I did:
MAMA:
Adv met
Adv stab
-pretty knowledgeable teachers, competitive pricing, easy sign up process. Not far from airport/hotel/etc
San Jac:
-Adv ship handling
-cheapest at the time. Small class which allowed for more practice and fun in simulator, which is top notch. Excellent instructors. Not far from airport.
-signing up wasn’t most straight forward. School admin wasn’t the best at communications
Quality Marine Jacksonville:
-mgmt med care
-mgmt frc (or whatever that one is called)
Cheap, quick, easy classes. Most boring of all of them. Not the best instructors, not the worst I’ve ever had either.
I avoided star center completely, I didn’t want to compete with union guys…who get priority sign up. At the time, I don’t think they would confirm your seat in class until a week or so before in case union guys filled it up.
Can’t remember if MPT was more expensive than MAMA or just didn’t work for my scheduling or both. MITAGS was way more expensive than all others, so didn’t consider that either.
Since then, they were involved in certification fraud, and after that were sold and are under new management.
They can bump you day of, even after class starts, if a union guy shows up wanting to take it.