Back to your question about business or marine transportation. One of the most popular majors at SUNY is “Intermodal Transportation & Logistics” which is not engineering and more business-oriented. Take a look at the state school majors and, if possible, call or visit the admissions office. Where are you located?
Fort Lauderdale, FL
I’m currently working on a associates in emergency management and planning degree to help my chances of acceptance to a academy since i have a GED. From the looks of it SUNY & Texas A & M are the two most selective academies so i dont know how my application will hold up against the competition? i was thinking more Great Lakes & Maine…
suny? the most selective?
no offense to the students there, but i seriously doubt it.
You should talk to admissions people at each school you are interested in. I know up here @ maine you can make an appointment to follow around a student for the day, and get an idea what the classes and school are like.
Aside from Kingspoint, I have never heard the other schools called selective… I know Mass Maritime offers Florida residents a deal almost as good as in state tuition (I know because, my nephew is looking to go there)…I think you need to be cautioned though, much of the work you are doing at school in Florida may or may not be accepted by a maritime school. Even if they accept the credits, which many times they can be complete horse shit over, you are still going to have a pretty heavy academic load… I think the maritime schools are pretty easy to get into, but they filter out the complete retards pretty quickly. The rest of what is left over is just half retarded, which is why we fit in at sea so well. Why do you want to go to sea? Being a freshman at most of the maritime schools sucks and being older being treated like a child is really going to piss you off. Before you saddle yourself with lots of debt make sure this is something you really want to do.
Aren;t there any other hawsepipers out there? I did not go to any academy. Would have gone to KP if I could have passed the physical. I worked my way up from AB to just recently chief mate unlimited. It took a long time and recently a hell of a lot of money. At least I could work while I was taking the required STCW classes. If you can afford it, go to school. If you can’t afford going to an academy, try the new 2 year programs. They’re much more affordable and you come out with a ‘limited license’. That will put you far along the way and its only 2 years instead of 4. Unless, of course, you want the college degree for when you don;t want to sail anymore.
the state schools are hardly selective, and suny is just as non-selective as the rest. but, if you live in florida, you can pay in-state tuition to suny - there are a bunch of kids from FL there. With that, it runs just under (or over, they’ve raised the rates) 20k a year, but you can offset that almost completely by school loans. even if your credit isn’t good, student loans are pretty much given out to anybody.
After doing research I’m leaning towards great lakes maritime academy i spoke to Mr Berck on the phone and he was very polite and informative, and great lakes maritime academy cadets spend their sea phases on commercial ships which is a big plus in my opinion.
Only part that sucks is that is located in a small cold town in Michigan, but then again being up there for 4 years i could focus more on school and probably learn a few things about myself being so close to nature and away from all the bs i am exposed to in South Florida.
I have a year and a half until school starts? what should i do? should i get me a z card and go find me a labor job in a ship here in Port Everglades?
This may be a dead thread at this point…
But, I’m strongly leaning towards GLMA because of two things.
- Focuses on non-traditional students
- Focuses on non-traditional students
I’ve been looking at a second career for the last two years as I finished up my first one. I’ve looked at ALL the academies (except Kings Point - not eligible). GLMA is selective in that it restricts each incoming class to 60 students and only starts in the fall (they anticipate filling up Fall 2010 by this Dec 09-Jan 10). GLMA is selective in that they restrict the number of recent high school graduates. This allows for an older student body which means everyone wears a uniform but you play less paramilitary games due to the more mature, focused student body.
For my age, and for my focus on rapidly acquiring the professional skills needed to enter the maritime job market, I’m headed to GLMA. If Traverse City, MI is too rural for you, I’d take a look at TAMUG. I found the other schools, with classes of 200+ 18 year-olds each year, unwilling to signficantly modify their requirements for non-traditional students. At least TAMUG had the common sense to realize that a retired field grade officer from the Marine Corps didn’t need a two week boot camp.
Best of luck…
Oh yeah…standard disclaimer. I haven’t done any of this yet, so I could be entirely screwed up. But I believe everything I wrote and that is what I’m doing!
BULLSHIT… I dont go to KP but my bro does and from what he had to go through with having good grades and high school and playing football. I highly doubt that they would let someone in with just a GED… Im not hating on the idea… I wish they did, that way I would be able to get in too. Theres just no way they would accept someone with a ged but if you want to debate this because you know something I dont know, I would love to hear
I know people that got in with a GED. They had something more in their background though. One was former Navy enlisted and one had spent a few years as a deckhand on fishing boats.