career choice and other

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swagger

5-Year Member
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Oct 3, 2012
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I am thinking about applying to USMMA this up and coming year because it offers some interesting choices when it comes to career. I've already done some research on what I can become after graduation, but my question is do many midshipmen change their mind on what they want to be? Such as, do many come in thinking I want to be a merchant marine and instead go into a military branch or vice versa? I just wanted some insight from people that actually went to, or have family or friends that went to USMMA.

Also, how are the home football games at Kings Point? If I attended I would certainly be playing in them.
 
swagger said:
I am thinking about applying to USMMA this up and coming year because it offers some interesting choices when it comes to career. I've already done some research on what I can become after graduation, but my question is do many midshipmen change their mind on what they want to be? Such as, do many come in thinking I want to be a merchant marine and instead go into a military branch or vice versa? I just wanted some insight from people that actually went to, or have family or friends that went to USMMA.

Also, how are the home football games at Kings Point? If I attended I would certainly be playing in them.
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Many people change their mind on career choices while attending. They find out what they like and what they don't by going to see, internships, sailing on Navy and Coast Guard ships and participating in the different military options. My best suggestion is keep an open mind and take advantage of all opportunities and training, but in the end always remember you are going to Kings Point to become a merchant marine officer.
 
swagger said:
... but my question is do many midshipmen change their mind on what they want to be? Such as, do many come in thinking I want to be a merchant marine and instead go into a military branch or vice versa? ...

Also, how are the home football games at Kings Point? If I attended I would certainly be playing in them.
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Short answer to question one is absolutely. I would only suggest that like any of the SA's getting through USMMA is not an easy road so it definitely helps if you have a desire to go to sea and/or into a sea service as you will be immersed into a culture that is involved with the whole "sea going thing". If that's not where at least part of your heart and desires lie, it will likely be a long four years between reporting aboard and graduation day.

Athletics are a big part of life at KP and any SA, that said USMMA is Division III and like most SAs the team is relatively small (players physical size relative to their competition vs. those playing opposite positions on other teams. The school has only ~900 students on campus at any time and it's not a football school like say going to even a DII or III "power house" let alone going someplace like a Big 10 or SEC school on game day. However, the friendships you'll make on any of the varsity teams at USMMA are likely to be as lasting, deep and valuable to you as any that you or others will make during their lifetimes.

Hope that helps - good luck, we can always use a few more good athletes to help us in our contests against our traditional rivals USCGA and/or SUNY-MC...
 
kp2001 said:
Yes. Count me as one among many. Started with the idea of sailing and ended up in medicine.
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I was one of those that got into KP after trying for another service academy. To tell the truth, as I was going through the process, KP and a maritime career started looking better and better to me than the military option by the time I was accepted. I liked the idea of going to sea, and the sea year training convinced me that it was a lifestyle that I identified with. I think that if shipping hadn't made such a radical downturn in the 80s, I may well still be at sea. One will never know. I can say that I sailed as long as I could. It just got harder to keep getting the good jobs; and by that time I had started a family, and didn't have a high enough paying job to make sailing worthwhile, to me, anyway. I am still in the business. 10 years with a Class society and now in the energy/marine insurance side of things (for the last 15 years). I have no complaints. I still tend to look at things through a salt water haze.

To be honest, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I have also embarked on some side "hobbies", if you will, that make some money back and keep me busy, pretty much anytime that I am not working on the "day job".
 
My wife and I just got back from visiting our DS. Every tri at KP is tough, but coming back from sea to class + regimental duities + football season = some very busy midshipmen. It's amazing how much they all have grown in the last 3+ years - they are a very tight group. The recruiters are starting to hold interviews with them. Very exciting to hear of all the opportunities he and his classmates have before them - Military, MSC, NOAA, blue water, brown water, on and on. It will be interesting to see how they all land.

All that to say, Polaris, if you make KP your choice, the options this school offers after graduation are many - and afford a wide variety of opportunities to change your mind.

Told to me by one of my son's classmates -

The boy told his mommy, "When I grow up, I want to be a sailor"
His mother looked at him and said "You can't do both".........
 
h20costable said:
Told to me by one of my son's classmates -

The boy told his mommy, "When I grow up, I want to be a sailor"
His mother looked at him and said "You can't do both".........
Click to expand...

Yep, that pretty much sums it up..

Seaman are generally "childlike, improvident, poor and friendless and apt to acquire habits of gross indulgence and carelessness" :wink:
 
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