“U.S. academies currently graduate fewer than 1,500 licensed officers annually—well below the estimated need of over 2,200 per year.”
WHO SAID THERES AN ESTIMATED NEED OF 2,200 OFFICERS A YEAR THEY MUST BE TALKING ABOUT THE CHINESE MERCHANT FLEET NOT THE AMERICAN ONE !!!
THE US NEEDS MORE SHIPS NOT MORE FRIGGIN MARITIME ACADEMIES !!! THERE IS NO SHORTAGE-ACTUALLY TOO MANY GRADUATES AS IS.
The article basically says SC residents can’t afford the tuitions at schools like Texas or SUNY, but a quick search of SUNY’s webpage shows that SC residents are considered “in-region” and pay just slightly more than in-state qualified cadets.
This is just a ploy by the Charleston pilots to now be able to hire straight from the Citadel like they’ve always wanted to do.
Agreed, laughable numbers. BUT what if MSC is factored in? They did just lay up 18 ships. Granted you SHOULDN’T be counting laid up ships as unfilled jobs. I haven’t met an MSC mate/engineer lately who doesn’t believe that a huge factor in that is because of the inability to crew them… which isn’t because the officers aren’t available. It’s a train wreck of MSC’s own making… keep treating your people like that, don’t get them reliefs, keep people from taking CM on their own vacation time for various reasons, etc.
I have a friend, a former co-worker who’s son was accepted & enrolled in Kings Point. Even though the tuition is supposedly free, he complains about travel & other expenses for his son to go to that NY school. I believe it is cheaper, with scholarships & in-state funding for our oldest to attend our in-state university compared to New Yorks, “free” Kings Point or Webb Institute. If the citizens of South Carolina wants to fund a maritime academy, let them. No skin off my back. I’m sure it would be like all the other maritime academies with less than half keeping a career at sea for any amount of time after graduating.
Maritime academy at the Citadel doesn’t make sense. The people in SC used to call the Citadel the “West Point” of the south. The cadets at the Citadel fired the first shots of the Civil War in 1861 when they fired on the ship Star of the West resupplying the soldiers at Fort Sumter. Trying to sink a ship is not a good look for an aspiring maritime school. But then Rep. Nancy Mace graduated from there as the first woman to do so [her dad was commandant of cadets at the time] they have that going for them. 
From each school’s website, the yearly cost for freshman - SUNY Regiment In-state is $34,891 and In-Region $38,431. The Citadel - $35,109. The SUNY numbers don’t include SST, and I would expect some increase at the Citadel for the USCG licensing program.
FREE, NO. There are items you must pay for yourself. Crap like haircuts, uniforms, whatever laptop they have decided on for that year, probably a few other things I can’t remember. I’d say at least 85% of Total Cost to attend is covered. Anybody going to KP or their parents should not be complaining about costs. Need some extra money, get a wknd job. All the shit I used to do for $10/hr cash certainly got me through. From valet parking to yard work to wearing dress whites and serving food/drinks at barmitzvahs / batmizvahs. (Granted, I’m still the same overtime whore)
Knibb High Football Rules!
The south shall rise again! MMP already has signed a CBA to represent CMA (not to be confused with CASUAL MARITIME ACADEMY) Deck cadets AND engine cadets. They can open fire on the CMA CGM PHOENIX when it returns to Wando Terminal.
Actually KP offers free room and board plus free tutition unlike in state schools which provide tuition but little for room and board which can quickly add up to be almost the same or more than tuition. Been there done that recently. So KP is a good deal. As to no skin off your back? If approved as a maritime school they get your tax dollars thru the National Security Multiplier Program which provides money to produce more mariners [who may or may not work on ships]. The thing that galls me is I personally know graduates of Kings Point who never fulfilled their US military 8 year reserve commitment but nothing is ever done to go after those guys. Pisses off this former draftee.
So the school is free… but getting to a from isn’t… sounds like the school is cheaper than any other school where you pay, but traveling cost money…
Except when they want a training ship and federal funding. Then it’s skin off your back, and that of the other academies who are now sharing funds.
If it’s the Citadel, yeah, probably. Most of those kids go there to be cops or in the military.
Thank you for your service, first.
Second, that is very long running problem. MARAD doesn’t care about work commitments, USN/USNR doesn’t care about reserve obligations. They ARE better than they used to be, but still a joke.
Appreciate that but i didn’t have a choice so no need to thank me, everyone who was able bodied, not in college and couldn’t get a draft deferment or had a politically connected relative was expected to serve their country. You could join the Peace Corps and get an exemption for awhile but even that was serving your country. Things were different then. Now there are these people who claim to be patriots without ever doing anything other than paying taxes. Bring back mandatory national service of some kind, military or not and you’d see fewer wars and more national cohesion. Many other nations require a short period of national service from their citizens.
As a veteran with deployed service overseas, I’m wholly in favor of a national service commitment for people - and wouldn’t even make the military the first recommendation. Make Pell grants or something like them, contingent on some sort of service - encourage kids to go work first, then if they want to pursue higher education, they’ll have their shit more figured out and have more skin in the game because it’d be their work that pays for it. You’d get more productive schools all around, and fewer kids going to the academies that are only there because dad said so without intending to really go to sea.
I could never say I didn’t want to go to sea, because I didn’t even know WTF that meant. I knew I didn’t want to go into massive debt for a 4 yr degree. I remember when I was growing up, for many years I told my mom I wanted to be a hippopotamus when I grew up. I’m still holding out on the hippopotamus dream (certainly better than SMS paperwork, internal audits, and constant alleged SASH incidents investigations), but at least I never had college debt.
Yeah, so it’s the Citadel. You can get through the rah-rah fake regimental BS at a state maritime college with patience, a sense of humor, and alcohol, but the Citadel is the kind of place that gives cadets punishment for taking a crap. All the negatives to end up w/ a license from a school with ZERO Old Boy Network cache in the industry? The whole damn point of the place is to overprepare men for military service or at a minimum get the most dissappointing or annoying of your children out of the house for 9 months a year.
Nah, thanks.
1500 Officers a year? That’s not accurate. A December 2024 MARAD Report said that collectively the 7 maritime academies graduated an average of “961 merchant mariners credentialed for international service every year” over the period 2018-2022
See earlier post…. Easy math.
Just means that there are 539ish grads every year that a certain DOT division didn’t know graduated and/or don’t care to track to see if they are working where they are obligated to work.
In all seriousness, though, yes the 539 # is complete sarcasm, but consider the source of this data. They’ve never been remotely good at tracking mariners who have a contractual debt to satisfy let alone compiling numbers on all the rest of the blue water mariners.
As far as I can tell, the only thing they care about right now is EMBARC. I couldn’t even fathom a guess as to what the #2 item is on the priority list.
I really wish I felt differently, but I can’t even go to the head in my own stateroom without being blasted by SASH/RAINN/EMBARC posters on the bulkheads as REQUIRED by SMS/USCG/MARAD…. It’s just plain disgraceful.
Yeah, I’d take those seriously as soon as they require posting of the work/rest rule along side them. Report sex harassment the world investigates. I decided to stop lying about the work/rest when signing once for about a year. Guess what? No one noticed 
it’s between $120-140 (or less if buy in advance) for ticket from Charleston to NYC. How many times a year this guy needs to travel?!