In reference to the original post.
Manhattan is roughly an hour and a half from Maritime, if you catch the bus right on time. Car will be slower because the Cross Bronx is torture.
Not to mention the liberty hours.
Except for senior year, you won’t be able to get out that much. Though the weekends is a different story. If you dont mind waiting an hour for the bus after a late night, then you’re good. Late night usually takes at least two and a half hours from downtown Manhattan, sometimes four. However, NYC is the ONLY city I know with 24/7 mass transit operation!
However, Maritime is as far southeast in the Bronx as possible, and people basically tend to hang out at the Irish bars in the area when they do. Very few go to Manhattan, at least when I was there. Maybe a few Non-Reg, but then you’re askin for trouble there.
Also, I think the school you get accepted to is irrelevant, because you have 4 years to set up contacts and do internships/cadet observers.
Good luck!
Keep a log of the handjobs, those can be used as qualifying underway time for merchant semen.
I got passed up for 2nd mate by a guy I thought was less qualified and the captain, who I still respect, gave me these words and sent me to the sign maker; “<strong>Bosses always promote the person who will make their life the easiest.</strong>” He said this is true in all cases including;
Worst Canidate: Say you are the best 2nd Mate in the world, you’re still going to slip up the first few months as C/M and your replacement won’t be as good as you. It’s sometimes better to transfer in a bad canidate than have 2 newbies aboard.
Nepotism: They don’t want to hear their wife/mother/etc complain every day about you not giving cousin bill a chance
Pushovers: Imagine all the hard work a captain would have to do if a new mate stood up demanded fixes to all the problems he finds? Better to promote someone who won’t ?make a stink"
Lazy: Imagine all the hard work a captain would have to do if a new mate spent his time finding problems to fix. Much easier to hire someone who will stay in the chartroom.
Yes Men: Sometimes it’s easier to bark orders and just watch the work get done than discussing better options.
New Guys; The captain knows your deficiencies but the next guy is a clean slate. Ignorance is sometimes bliss.
Be that as it may most captains promote:
Best Canidate: They usually get the job since their life is going to be very easy if you do everything right.
Plus, any newbie who hasn’t read the Peter Principle should turn off the computer and go to the bookstore right now.
Jeff,
Great book but no need to turn off gCaptain! Here’s the link to Amazon:
The Peter Principle[img]http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=gcaptaincom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568491611" width=“1” height=“1” border=“0” alt="" style=“border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />
Forget all this going to school crap, go grab your z-card, apply for your TWIC, and head for the gulf and work your way up!
Surprised that hadn’t been said yet.
In all seriousness. All the mooring masters I worked with at LOOP were from all the different schools from the east coast and knew their stuff. Granted they had been sailing for 20-30 years before coming to LOOP, but they had to learn the basics somewhere.
I meet a guy a few crew changes ago that was going to CMA and during his time off instead of sailing with the school had it worked out with Chouest were he would come and work as an AB on the workboats. Gaining experience and a pay check, not a bad way to go about it. He also talked about how the school was encouraging them to get their 100 ton, coming to the gulf during their time off and getting on crew boats to learn some boat handling outside of ships. I was impressed with his attitude and look forward to sailing with him if I ever get the chance.
Surprisingly I haven’t met anybody from A&M yet. But if I were to choose that’s were I would go. Along with being close to the shipping industry out of Houston, you’re as close to the oil patch as you’re going to get while in school. While you might have your heart set on blue water right now, after 4 years you never know. Plus Austin and 6th street are only 4 hours away, home to the University of Texas and some 60 thousand college kids, over half of them femal. So you can upgrade from hand jobs in the parking lot to sex at her place in a few months would be good. I’m biased though I live in Austin.
Since you said you like mountain biking Ill assume that you like the outdoors, that’s were TX excels. Plenty to do year round outside. The same is true for California, that’s the only thing I like about that area is the weather. My girlfriend lives in Palo Alto the people are rude, everything is expensive, but I love the weather. I wouldn’t go any were on the east coast just because it snows, but the chance to live and go to school in New York might be worth it.
All the Maritime Academies are good Academies…I personally like USMMA (Kings Point '04)…as far as the 3rd mate or 3rd Engineer licenses that you get are the same. At each one you get a little different experience. Which one is the best just depends on what you put into it. You don’t put any effort in it you are not going to get much out of it. In my short career out here so far I have ran into some great, and some bad people from all the academies and even hawspipers. I do know for a fact that when you get out of Kings Point you not only get a license, a degree, god job opertunities, but you also get commisioned in the US Naval Reserve which is pretty cool. Hope this helps.
Jemplayer,
I’m an Austin expat (& UT grad) living in College Station. We have 54000 students, over half female (one of which is my wife). We will probably be moving back to Austin once she is done!
I would have to agree with you. A&M may not be the most prestigous but I know the kids have A LOT of fun. I have sailed with several of them and they have impressed me for the most part. Bottom line, I don’t think that the school they graduated from had any bearing on the impression they made.
Well I suppose I’ll put my two cents in for cal. I’m currently a junior MT there. Pretty good program. Partying? We don’t do any of that there. Actually that’s not true, we drink a bit. Well, a lot. The parties here are more about getting drunk with your buddies than picking up girls, pros and cons to that. If you still want to score handjobs in the parking lot Berkely is 20 min. drive south, Sonoma State (75% female) is half an hour away, and USF/SF State are about an hour- hour and half away. I don’t really know of anyone that hung out at any of those schools a lot that didn’t end up with a girl (apparently being a sailor is a good pick up line).
Academic are pretty decent here. Most of the teachers base your grade off a couple tests and a final which means you don’t really have to do anything until a night or two before the tests. We have a pretty cool training ship parked right in front of the school. The training cruises rotate every year between S. America, Asia, and S. Pacific. This means that you’ll be going to more exotic ports while you’re at school than the E. Coast schools. If that isn’t enough, Cal Poly does a semester at sea program onboard our TS. Ya know what that means? Cal Poly girls for two months. Enough said. Overall, CMA is a pretty cool, relaxed school. Everyones got the get it done, get out in four years, and have some fun attitude.
What about international schools? Are there any english-speaking schools, say in the UK, comparable in quality to those in the States? Although I’m sure that would complicate the licensing issue…
Well I went to Mass and the mass holes were fine to go to school with. They only such on the road.
Jemplayer what boat you worked at LOOP?
You are right the Mooring Masters come from all over, two of them are hawsepipers. Some of great to work with & some…
[quote=kjk10704;4634]I go to the Texas Maritime Academy and while the other schools are okay Texas is one that you should definatly keep as a possibility. Why should you do this? Well:
1, The cost of living and the tuition in Texas and at the school is by far the least expensive of all the Maritime Academys. At Texas A&M which is the main school for which the Texas Maritime Academy is attached to, if you are in the corps of cadets at galveston (in the maritime academy) you pay in state tuition. This is one of the major perks of attending if you live out of state.
2. The Maritime Academy is located in Galveston. Now I’m not saying this is the greatest city but you are just a short drive away from the Houston (which isnt much farther then San Francisco is to Vellajo where Cal is) which has tons of things to see and do. You can even find things to do in Galveston though, Every year we have a big Mardi gras celabration on the strand, there are plently of bars and clubs to hang out in on the weekends and there is always the beach. Fortunatly in galveston the water stays warmer for longer then most of the other Maritime academys. The weather isnt to bad either. We dont have snow so it doesnt get that cold and the winters while a little wet are pretty mild. If you come from a state that doesnt get much snow this is nice. I am from houston so maybe my opinion is biased but i hate freezing my ass off in the winter and at the colleges that you have mentioned you are going to do that except California that is.
3. You are next to the gulf. probably 50 % of our students who graduate from the Texas Maritme Academy work in the gulf it isnt bad there are plenty of tankers that come right out of houston and all along the gulf coast. And, Im not trying to say you can not find good ships else where but its a good place to network and find jobs if you are right there.
4. You get a degree from Texas A&M this is a very well known school, Texas A&M Galveston(apart of Texas A&M different Campus location) that is the campus where our school is located, they offer 12 degrees which include Marine Biology, Marine Studies, Marine Science, Marine Transportation, Marine Engineering, Maritime Administration…etc I mentioned some of the degrees but there are more. I can not think of them off the top of my head but with 8 of the degress you can get a duel degrees. At Texas A&M you can get a a license plus one of 8 degrees offered at A&M. I think its pretty cool because if you decide that you dont want to go to sea anymore your options for a shore side job would be increased with another degree.
5. Number 5. is really just a statement that has to be made you are in Texas best state in the nation and yes my opinion is biased because I was born and raised here I love this state and my school and I hope I may have changed your mind a little even with the biased pride for my state that Im trying to show now(even if slightly arrogant. but not meaning to offend).
Well good luck in your school search and I hope this helps[/quote]
Go Aggies…er…Sea Aggies
I started out on the LOOP Loader and then went over to the LOOP Line when I was promoted to Relief Capt. right after they cleaned house over there. Now Im over running crew boats, still getting back in the habit of dealing with real oil patch.