Which Maritime College is Best? This may help answer the Q

This is a question I see here in many forms. Now, there may be an answer. (I say may because King’s Point, Great Lakes and Texas A&M aren’t included in the data.) The Equality of Opportunity Project analyzed data from different colleges and universities to “…construct mobility report cards … for each college in America. Our analysis sheds light on how colleges shape children’s prospects of upward mobility and how we can help more children climb the income ladder through higher education.”

Wait! Don’t let your eyes glaze over yet! The New York Times has an interactive site that lets you enter the name of an institution and see its stats, which you can then use for comparison. For instance, in the category of “Median student income at age 34” compared against other selective public colleges,the rankings are:

  1. SUNY Maritime College $90,500
  2. California Maritime Academy $85,800
  3. Massachusetts Maritime Academy $84,800
  4. Maine Maritime Academy $75,900

This is only one of many things the study compares. If you are interested, you can check it out here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/
The study was originally published in January 2017, but I just saw it.

I’ve worked with Mates from all the above except for Great Lakes. Plenty of good hands from each one, a turkey or so from a few of them as well. At least on lot’s of drillships though, for engineer’s I still think the Maniac Mafia is truly alive and well.

Great Lakes churns out some good officers as well.

Even though I’m a SUNY alum, and I love seeing data like this. In my opinion the best college for a student is one where they will thrive. Go to a public school in your own state. Or for one of the academies, which ever one is closest to you.

There is a lot more to picking a college and a major than transitory, and often unreliable, employment statistics.

$100,000 a year is a lot of money for a kid fresh out of school, but it’s pretty much minimum wage for a fairly basic living for a hardworking adult with skills, certifications, and experience. A $100,000 a year is not a lot of money, especially considering the time put in, and the hardships that most mariners must endure, to earn it.

It does not make any sense to take on a lot of college debt for a degree from a podunk college in a useless major that only leads to unsatisfactory jobs with low pay. The cost of college, and even a lot of student debt, do not matter if you are getting a high value degree from a high value college that leads to opportunities for a high income comfortable living.

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Salary numbers after grad are a false sense of value. For instance, it’s a reasonable hypothesis to think that majority of SUNY students are from the NJ/LI/NY area. Thus, upon graduation, many get jobs in the NYC area, which has higher salaries (along with associated higher cost of living) than national average. Some NY city jobs pay an oiler like $50-60 an hour…an oiler. And many of them are engineer grads.

Just one example.

Mainiacs likely come more from areas of lower cost of living, and lower average salary.

It’s that the price of lobster is low right now,

If you plan to sail as a career it doesn’t make any difference what school you go to. Only the license matters. Starting pay for a licensed officer should not be less than 100k. If it is, your in the wrong union or with the wrong company

hahahaha-hahahahahaha-meme-52101

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Where are you sailing?

I sail on a low tier contract and ours thirds make close to 110k

Like I said if you make less you in the wrong place

Get me a job there, I’ve been working the wrong low tier contracts.

Sail for a tanker company contracted to MEBA

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Low tier MEBA contract is Sulphur Carriers fleet. The number one benefit is getting hammered in Ybor every run.

Yeah I forgot about that new deal. They used to be great contract.

Move to Washington state and get a job at Whole Foods as a shopper for home delivery orders. Get a part time job at a legal weed dispensary to take advantage of employee discount. Every night of the week pack a bowl of the latest high end designer strain of bud. Pass the bong around to your room mates and think about the student loans you don’t have to repay since this is where you may end up anyway. The industry is dying a slow painful death save your money.

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