This perhaps is in the wrong thread, but after reading the CA’s sage wisdom, I believe there are folks in here that will shoot me straight.
I am at the VERY, VERY beginning. I have no MMD. I am CONTEMPLATING a career as a mariner, to begin as an OS. I have read up on the SIU program at Piney Point as a way into the business. What are the general thoughts on that program? Is it also possible to get my MMD and begin applying to companies with a reasonable expectation to be hired as an OS, or does it just not work that way? I would like to crew an ocean-going tanker or bulker as an OS. What is the path to that goal? 
Yes, these are poignantly newb-ish questions. I forsee many years of hard work and due-paying before getting into the “potato patch” of good wages and benefits, if I choose a sailor’s life (all things being equal). I have zero problem with that. I just don’t want to waste my time and money on poorly-concieved training and employment decisions that will bear less fruit had I chosen differently.
I thank you for the time it took to read this, and for the time it takes to respond.