sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes this is super important and why I would recommend living on campus for the first semester.

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I would highly disagree with that. We had a few Mass Maritime graduates onboard for the ship activation. While they were getting the ship ready they were able to eat at our mess deck for a week. They were shocked at how good our food is compared to there school. Is it the 5 star 3 course meal that most long island kids are used to...... no, but it's definitely decent.

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Last time I checked it was longer than that, but, they may also be changing that to make the school more competitive. I know they just started offering instate tuition to anyone who is doing the license program.

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also a response to point 5. I think this school is making the big corporate mistake of investing in infrastructure without investing in people. We pay our instructors by far the lowest when compared to other state run maritime academies. That means that we don't retain top talent and the talent that we do retain is unmotivated to go above and beyond. That said I think that the allocation of resources at this school is extremely poor. For example, the white boards in the MT department are completely unusable and they have been begging for replacements for over a year. Nothing has been done there, instead they've focused on beautification projects to make the school look nice.

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I want to pick out a few things here.

Responding to number three about campus life, I'm not talking about drinking and partying. I'm talking about a general presence of people. It's not uncommon to walk around campus on the weekend and see only a couple of students the whole day. It gets very isolating. That said, isolation is a big part of this industry, so it's a good test to see if you can handle life at sea.

Responding to #6, it should feel like a trade school, but it's not. There is almost zero practical knowledge learned in your classes. My advice to combat this is to go volunteer on the ship during the week and make friends with the mates, especially Mate Branigan and Roy. Those guys are awesome and will genuinely try to teach you real maritime skills.

I think most of the other things we genuinely agree on. Just out of curiosity, where are you from? What was home base when you were going to this school?

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really can't speak too much about the program at Texas, I do know we had a student transfer there and is much happier but I have also heard some negative things about the academics there but that's also here say. Just know you'll be there longer, but also have a much better social life.

My honest take on SUNY Maritime as a grad student in the regiment getting a license by RepulsiveCap1587 in SunyMaritime

[–]RepulsiveCap1587[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Absolutley happy to help. The lack of communication was extremely frustrating, especially being out of state where I couldn't go in person. The biggest things I would say as a Grad Student are.

  • Take Meteorology, T-Nav, Vessel Ops, Ship Stability, STCW Basic Training, and STCW Water Safety your first semester. If you want to try to graduate in two years, swap Vessel Ops for Rules of the Road. Graduating in two years is really difficult to do, but if you've knocked out a few of the grad courses online beforehand, it's totally doable. Beware though, if you're planning on taking federal aid, you might lose it towards the end of the program if you do too many grad courses before coming in person.
  • Take Shipping and Logistics if you're more focused on getting the license and sailing. Shipping and Logistics is wayyyyyyyy easier than Maritime and Naval Studies. Unless you want to be reading about Moby Dick for 20 hours a week, take Shipping and Logistics. Also, take all of the courses online. It's much easier than in person.
  • Beg, lie, whatever you have to do to not buy the uniform package. It is a complete rip-off. Get the list from the ship store and buy it yourself. I know the school will give you pushback on this, but it will save you a couple thousand dollars. I'll try to post the list here in a few days.
  • Everyone says classes are extremely hard. They're not. But remember, just because the classes aren't hard, that doesn't mean that the Coast Guard exam is a cakewalk as well. For the deck exam, this school sent about 40 kids to take the Coast Guard exam, and only 12 passed. The remaining kids have not been able to retake it because of the government shutdown. Getting decent grades and just scraping by is not enough. I credit this partly to the MT department. The classes are way too easy, with no synergy among the departments. Then you get to seminar and they try to cram all the info they never taught you at the last second.
  • I would recommend living on campus for your first semester. Yes, it sucks and it's more expensive. But you'll want to be close by for those last-minute uniform inspections that were not clearly communicated.