Posting on behalf of a family member attending Fort Schuyler. Getting a deck license, undecided as to a major - what would be the advantages and disadvantages of Marine Transportation vs. Naval Architecture?
I was a marine surveyor for 40 years. I am a little biased that way. Naval architects have to usually go in house to an established company and work for a salary until (if they are lucky) establish their own reputation on the outside and work for themselves. it’s a steep climb.
Marine transportation is my preferred option.
You can gain vast experience in the military and or work for a shipping company one that has vessels and or one that provides services from many carriers. You could also go into the field of custom broker, ships agencies (boarding agent). The money is better the opportunities are numerous and you can go out on your own after establishing yourself with not much more than a computer as your capital investment
There are clear overlaps between NA and engineering, not so much with MT. If you’ve decided on Deck, seems like MT is the obvious choice.
They both get the same license. The prime consideration should be long term, how long do they plan to sail on their license and what do they think they might want to do when/if they stop sailing. An MT degree may provide limited employment options ashore, and possibly nothing more than what the license and sailing experience provides.
Naval Arch with the Deck license is (at least was) the hardest program to go through, because of all the engineering classes for naval arch and then all the deck classes for the deck license.
Cannot go wrong with NAVARCH. My god, the base of knowledge makes an officer invaluable on or off the ship and on a sailing vessel or in the shipyard, salvage or vessel design world. But a heavy lift for a deck officer cadet.
Yea that’s putting it mildly.