Confused about Civil Prep

demosthenes
Sat, 31 Dec 2005 21:51:42 +0000

ahaha, parental discontent over NMMI leadership.

I can only assume this stems from the cadets…

Ehh, the leadership here isn’t exactly loved by the cadets. The commandant frequently makes unpopular decisions, and doesnt have the best relationship with us. One day in the mess hall, he got up on the microphone and started rambling about behavioral problems in the Corps, and then said, ‘you want to see what I can do? challenge me.’ Which was not so well received, as you can imagine.

Buuut, if you can look beyond petty dealings within the corps of cadets, I’d say that NMMI is a good place to prep. I am learning a lot of good things here: chemistry, calculus, study skills, work ethic… shoe shining, uniforms, military courtesies etc, and NMMI preps almost without exception do very well at their academies. Along with that, we are doing some form of PT 5 days a week, and across the board our CFA scores were much higher than most candidates (much higher than the ones I’ve seen on this forum), so the physical training has helped.

The downside: first semester. Your son will have to experience the RAT system the entire first semester. It is essentially being a plebe: always eating at attention, walking on the far right side of every sidewalk, squaring every corner, not walking on old cadet bricks, not talking while outside…and a litany of other distractions and annoyances. If you let it get to you, it can make life suck. But, second semester he will be an old cadet, and it will be more like going to a regular college.

Your midshipman will be better off for coming to NMMI.