Does maritime academy matter?

Hi. I’m going to be a senior in High School and I’m looking at the state maritime academies for Marine Transportation. Sadly I don’t qualify for In-State Tuition for any of the academies. So I came to the conclusion that they were all going to have a yearly cost of about $45,000. After visiting several campuses while checking out their programs I’ve decided to attend Maine Maritime Academy. After talking to their financial office they gave me a yearly estimate of $50,000. After seeing this I started looking at other options and found that regimented students at Texas Maritime Academy get In-State Tuition. My parents say that Maine is worth it because of career placement, summer internships and say that I would be able to pay back my loans in a couple of years. I think otherwise. Is it really worth paying $50,000 a year to go to Maine? Would Texas also give me good training and internships? How good is job placement for deck officers at Texas Maritime Academy?

Thank You :cool:

Absolutely, positively, just say NO to higher student loans. Seriously, NO. Just go to Texas Maritime if you have to. Do not pay that much (~50,000/per) to go to maritime academy, under any circumstances. Maine Maritime certainly is not so much better as to justify a quantum leap in cost.

What state are you from? Even at Mass without being from New England or an East coast state, the highest cost they advertise is around $35k without sea term, or just under $40k with. I’d agree with the comment of avoiding excessive debt, and I’d also caution against the current job placement #s. Historically, yes, you’d get a good paying job and have no problem paying that off, and perhaps in five years when you graduate the market will be hot again, but I feel bad for the guys graduating this year. Its going to be tough. I haven’t worked with many Texas guys, but plenty of good Mass and Maine ones. Either way, you all graduate with the same piece of paper, and your success is directly proportional to what you put into it.

It’s all about what you put into it, and your attitude and skill once you’re working, not what school you went to.

Maybe you could get a Navy scholarship to one of these institutions. I admit
to knowing nothing about this subject today. In the 1970s I got a Navy ROTC
scholarship and even was seduced by a seminar on the US Merchant Marine Academy.
Well this was interrupted by a thyroid disorder that put me in an Army hospital
all summer. Later in life I had a chance to be in the Merchant Marines again
when my neighbor in California asked me to join his unlicensed union. I have
subsequently learned that a lot of licensed personnel on my ships went to Academies
in their late 20s and 30s after trying other careers. I think you have received
good advice to stay out of debt. You can make enough money unlicensed to plug away
at Academy credits or licensed courses elsewhere. I wish you success and you have
plenty of time to do so.

Unless you want to sail on the Great Lakes, which school you go to doesn’t matter. Everyone passes the same USCG test, and everyone sails with a company of their choosing (for the most part) when they do their summer cruises. As said above, say NO, HELL NO, to higher student loans. It’s not worth it.

50k a year? Damn my whole 4 years cost about that. I know cost has gone up but damn if I would go 200k in debt for a maritime academy. Like others have said, it make absolutely no difference where you go to school in order to sail. Once you have a license companies don’t care as much. Every trip I have been out to sea there have been people from just about every academy. Go to the cheapest and get out. If you have to, move to the state you want and enroll in a community college for a year. I know CMA you have to be a state res for a year to get in state tuition.

Who the hell wants to take up 200k$ in loans to work at sea? For that kind of money you could start up your own business.
Work in the maritime industry is far too uncertain to gamble that kind of money.

Edit: corrected sentence structure.
Too few grammar nazis on this forum.

[QUOTE=Ardenent;185200]Hi. I’m going to be a senior in High School and I’m looking at the state maritime academies for Marine Transportation. Sadly I don’t qualify for In-State Tuition for any of the academies. So I came to the conclusion that they were all going to have a yearly cost of about $45,000. After visiting several campuses while checking out their programs I’ve decided to attend Maine Maritime Academy. After talking to their financial office they gave me a yearly estimate of $50,000. After seeing this I started looking at other options and found that regimented students at Texas Maritime Academy get In-State Tuition. My parents say that Maine is worth it because of career placement, summer internships and say that I would be able to pay back my loans in a couple of years. I think otherwise. Is it really worth paying $50,000 a year to go to Maine? Would Texas also give me good training and internships? How good is job placement for deck officers at Texas Maritime Academy?

Thank You :cool:[/QUOTE]

That is an absurd amount of money for what is essentially vocational training with a BS pinned to it. If you are dead set on doing this, then go cheap as possible. If Texas is still advertising no out of state tuition for maritime program enrollees… no brainer. Having said that, if you’ve got the grades and can pass DOD physicals, it would be narrow minded to not apply to KP. If you can endure 4 yrs of quasi-military BS on Long Island followed by 8 yrs in the USNR doing 2 weeks a year of AT for a fraction of what everybody costs…

My only bias here is against irrational levels of debt. Those rising tuition rates are already outpacing pay raises on US flag ships.

If you really want to pay those student loans off quickly, get an engineering degree. There are plenty of marine and shore side jobs for engineers. My four years at CMA in 1983 cost $12k total. Tuition has gotten too expensive for your typical college grad to pay off quickly. No wonder they have to live with their parents for years.

[QUOTE=Ardenent;185200]Hi. I’m going to be a senior in High School and I’m looking at the state maritime academies for Marine Transportation. Sadly I don’t qualify for In-State Tuition for any of the academies. So I came to the conclusion that they were all going to have a yearly cost of about $45,000. After visiting several campuses while checking out their programs I’ve decided to attend Maine Maritime Academy. After talking to their financial office they gave me a yearly estimate of $50,000. After seeing this I started looking at other options and found that regimented students at Texas Maritime Academy get In-State Tuition. My parents say that Maine is worth it because of career placement, summer internships and say that I would be able to pay back my loans in a couple of years. I think otherwise. Is it really worth paying $50,000 a year to go to Maine? Would Texas also give me good training and internships? How good is job placement for deck officers at Texas Maritime Academy?

Thank You :cool:[/QUOTE]

Why no consideration of KP? Reputation aside, you graduate with no student loan debt and a pretty good job placement program, too. As I have said in other posts, I believe that all of the academies will give you adequate training for the job and being successful is less dependent on the school than it is on the student. Relevant training or not, you DO graduate KP with a license and for a much lower financial cost than the other schools. Is it a pain? You bet. I could NOT wait to get out of there. We had the expression that it was a $40K education (hey, it was the late 70s) shoved up our ass a nickel at a time. . . That said, Maine is also a good school. . I guess it depends on how much debt you want to incur. Both of my kids are now college grads, although not in the maritime world. For some reason, they didn’t see any romance in the career. . . . They each funded their school their own way. My son joined the Navy Reserve and got a $30K bonus payment for school. My daughter was more traditional, going to the University of Houston and getting loans while living at the house. Her total debt was only around $30K and she has been working since graduation and was able to purchase a house last year. Since you have about a year for the process, it would not hurt to check out KP, just on the money savings alone. Everything else there is BS, but that, too is a great life lesson.

50K a yr?! Jeez…might as well shoot for Harvard at that rate. Don’t get that deep in debt…hell, with the small debt I have, it is quite overwhelming. Plus with the industry in a lull right now, it doesn’t help this feeling. Cheers and happy hunting!

I give up as well i have a Oupv Master 100 ton ton master 200 ton mate and mate pilot of towing towing western rivers and inland radar unlimited fcc radio lic and tankerman and i have gotten screwed by every company i have worked for im still on the dexk tanking barges my old company signed me off the i left there to come here on these folks empty promises nobody wants to help anyone anymore. Wish i could find a company to train me and let me push one barge for a while. Im about to give up and i have license.

A good man struggles these days in almost any situation.

Adding to an dead thread. This is why the GI Bill is so attractive. 4 years tuition at a state university and you get instate tuition no matter where you’re from, book money, ~Monthly Housing Allowance equal time E5 with dependents For SUNY that’s $3,500. And at a minimum 60% of the time you are assigned to a ship counts as sea time for licensing.