I'm here to answer your unanswered ???s'

DisgruntledAlumn
Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:08:16 +0000

"I can appreciate your posts and have found them interesting. My son very possibly will attend USMMA and while it most likely can be like a dungeon and a whole lot of B.S. I’d like to make sure makes the best of a bad situation. So here are some of my questions that I feel you can help me with. Because you’re not trying to make the whole experience rosey and in fact know what kind of a situation he’s getting into.
1.) No engineering right? Which deck major would you recommend? I figured Logistics and Intermodal transportation.
2.) Which poison should he pick Logistics and Intermodal or the ole original marine transportation?
3.) Which did you take? and being that you are shoreside now are you employed in the maritime industry?
4.) I figure plebe year totally sucks but how was your sea year deployments.
5.) Is marine transportation and or logistics and intermodal transportation hard majors and will the staff help if you ask so you don’t get kicked out for struggling with your academics.

Hope to hear from you."

Thank You.

I’m only trying to help.

1. I am an Marine Transportation and Intermodal Logistics Major. It’s really up to your child. If he really likes engineering and enjoys the sailing/maritime fields, then this could be a great way to go. My fiance did marine systems engineering because it was the hardest major at KP. She worked her butt off and did well, graduating with honors. She now works in a shipyard doing autocad design of luxury yachts and is working on the world’s largest catermeran sailboat. To you and me, this sounds like a great job. She doesn’t make much money and deals with a lot of crap day in and day out and is trying to find another job but is realizing that engineering is not what she really wants and there is not many great (high paying) careers in this limited field. She might go back to school for a master’s in business so she can get out of the field, even if this sets us back financially.


The only difference between marine transportation and the logistics program is a few extra classes for the logistics majors that deal with more shoreside related work. I have a buddy, he was actually a co-worker with sometime ago, and he was a marine transportation major. So, we both got the same job despite our majors. You get a few more electives (classes you actually get to pick) with the straight deck (marine transportation) but it’s not like KP offers that many electives.
I am employed in the maritime industry. I landed a job not typical to most because I was in the right place at the right time. I sailed out of school with a union that ended up not being able to find me a job for over six months. This is when I had to take the shoreside plunge and settle for a job that paid 40k per year. This is slighly less than most sailors make who can make upwards of 90k with 6 months sailing and 6 months vacation. This is a very good condition but quite possible. I sailed with a guy that graduated with me that made close to $110k his first year cause he sailed longer than me. But, this is all if sailing conditions are favorable. How did i feel when I was living out of my car waiting for a job at the union hall and after six months went by I had to give up sailing (something i did not plan on doing) to look shoreside. I currently work as an oil tanker broker and arrange for oil to be freighted from a to b all over the world.
Plebe year is crappy but it’s supposed to build teamwork through spirit missions and build a class unity. Unlike other colleges around the US, you will at least know by face just about everyone in your class. As for sea year…as i said before, I loved sailing. I skipped out on my vacation time to get more sailing experience. I got over 400 days at sea as a cadet. I had a blast and went all over the world, SA, Asia, Africa, Med, Caribs, etc. I sailed a lot of different ships and got the whole experience. I sailed with some great crews and some quite bitter crews. If the quite bitter crew would have been my first sea experience, i may have quit the school, it was that bad.
The academy will do everything it can to keep you there. They are not in the business of throwing kids out. Your allowed one setback for academic reasons. Many kids will take five years to get through KP because they pack in four years of credits in basically three years when you include your time at sea. Most the staff will try and help…some just aren’t the greatest teachers. Don’t get me wrong, some are the smartest in their fields and the credentials speak for themselves but they lack the ability to properly teach students. This is quite frustrating for some classes but usually someone in the class will get a grip on the subject and help the class out…this is part of that unity that they instill in you as a plebe. I had a hard time in calc and physics and was failing out near the end of the first term. I was so stressed, doing plebe duties and then trying to learn what seemed like everyone else already knew. Obviously I passed, not with great marks, but passed nontheless. As with my sailing passion, when the nautical classes came into play, I was able to slowly raise my GPA.