Transferring from USNA to Civilian College

I don't understand some of the venom toward this kiddo.... I am fairly certainly he is not the only plebe who questions his decision. He came here looking for wisdom and probably support. I have heard this winter stretch is one of the toughest ones for plebes. I have no wisdom to offer this situation, but I would offer my support. Good luck, best wishes, and please talk to people who know you best for strong guidance. Those who care about you may be of more insight than an anonymous forum (although I do think there was some good stuff written in the thread, too). Godspeed.
 
I don't know if I have any right to speak on the matter, but I will give me opinion.
First off, I am a high school student. So you can say that I have no experience regarding life at the USNA or the education there.

Probably just should have stopped there, man.


@bk2015 : If the thing you value the most is intellectual fulfillment and you're interested in very specific academic pursuits you are likely not in the right spot. You are correct: the academics at USNA, while pretty great, are not designed with depth that may exist at a premium civilian institution. They're not supposed to, they're supposed to give you a solid, well-rounded academic background to set you up for success when you show up to whatever follow-on training you're headed to with a dash of whatever specific thing you're interested in. I'm a humanities kind of gal, and thinking back on it I think I spent most of my time before 1/C and part of 2/C year taking STEM classes I had next to zero interest in. There were some things I wish I could have pursued at a different school, but I was cool with losing those opportunities since I really wanted to be a Marine and that was more important to me than taking a few more classes.
Sure, there's UK Scholar (I have a few friends who took this route), IGEP, VGEP, etc. but if you go to grad school as a JO (via whatever means) you will be behind your classmates when you show up at TBS/your first ship/flight school/nuke school. Once you hit your follow on school or the fleet, you are essentially putting your academic development on hold. I'm speaking more from the aviation perspective, but there's some truth here for most of the other communities: I don't have time for academic pursuits outside of work. Your stuff for work will not be challenging conceptually. but it's there in such volume that you will likely not have time to do other stuff. Your time in initial training and the fleet is going to be a "wasted" five years. Your ability to specialize will, even on the fastest tracks in the military, take several years as well.
If you're cool with that because you want to go be a Navy or USMC Officer, then stay. If you would rather focus on your academics and feel like you aren't getting the intellectual fulfillment you want, then go. If I were in your shoes with your options I would go.
 
Have you talked to some of the high validating upperclassmen about what they do with the free space? There's some insane double majors walking around. There was a guy that managed to get off-campus research set up; he physically left USNA once a week and was able to receive credit.

That said, if the root of the problem is that you want to pursue something in life that is just not present here and not something the Navy offers, don't hold yourself back. If you'd rather be elsewhere, be elsewhere.

You're definitely not alone. Many midshipmen will question their commitment here. Not all are so moto that they will sign 2-for-7 with their eyes closed. Some realize that they don't belong here too late, and it is unfortunate to see them struggle with the consequences. You are right to give it some real thought.
 
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Thank you for the responses again. It's giving me a lot to think about and that's exactly what I need right now, I think! My advisor mentioned that there was a Midshipmen a few years back that realized he wanted to study a very high level of math and wanted to be a math prof. He DOR'd and ended up transferring to MIT. I was wondering if anyone else knew of him or someone who took a similar route.

Have you talked to some of the high validating upperclassmen about what they do with the free space? There's some insane double majors walking around. There was a guy that managed to get off-campus research set up; he physically left USNA once a week and was able to receive credit.

That said, if the root of the problem is that you want to pursue something in life that is just not present here and not something the Navy offers, don't hold yourself back. If you'd rather be elsewhere, be elsewhere.

You're definitely not alone. Many midshipmen will question their commitment here. Not all are so moto that they will sign 2-for-7 with their eyes closed. Some realize that they don't belong here too late, and it is unfortunate to see them struggle with the consequences. You are right to give it some real thought.

I haven't talked to anyone outside of advisor, professors, family, and civilian friends because I was advised to not tell my chain of command that I am applying to other colleges. I am meeting with an upperclass that I knew personally from high school who was a high validator and did extremely well here sometime soon. I guess I prefaced it wrong - it's more that what I want to study is not available here and less about the rigor.
 
Thank you for the responses again. It's giving me a lot to think about and that's exactly what I need right now, I think! My advisor mentioned that there was a Midshipmen a few years back that realized he wanted to study a very high level of math and wanted to be a math prof. He DOR'd and ended up transferring to MIT. I was wondering if anyone else knew of him or someone who took a similar route.



I haven't talked to anyone outside of advisor, professors, family, and civilian friends because I was advised to not tell my chain of command that I am applying to other colleges. I am meeting with an upperclass that I knew personally from high school who was a high validator and did extremely well here sometime soon. I guess I prefaced it wrong - it's more that what I want to study is not available here and less about the rigor.

What made you want to apply to USNA in the first place? What made you accept the offer of appointment?

I ask because USNA doesn't have a rep as a school that is strong in life sciences. Did you think you were going to do computational biology there? Or did you figure that there was some kind of trade off that was acceptable? Again I'm not trying to be snarky. Most BGO interviews spend at least some time discussing career goals and limited majors available at USNA. It sounds like you had options. What made you choose USNA in the first place.

If you had unrealistic expectations or were more interested in things like no tuition or prestige or career placement then you have to decide if you want what is on offer from the Navy and USNA. You have a clearer view now. You will know still more after youngster summer.

If you were my kid I might suggest returning for youngster year. Not only is life very different for youngsters than plebes, but unless you have transfer apps in by this week you are unlikely to be able to start in the fall anyway.

I wouldn't necessarily discuss dropping out with your chain of command. I would consider having discussions about academic goals and how you might meet them at USNA.

The post up thread about not using your degree much as a JO is worth considering. On the other hand, there are plenty of grads of civilian schools who are not working in their degree field either. No one is going to force you to stay at USNA against your will, but you should be realistic about what your alternate choices are. As much as possible try to compare reality to reality, not USNA reality to civilian school ideal (or USNA worst case depiction to civilian school ideal).

It's possible that you might not be accepted as a transfer student by your dream school. It's also possible that you would have much less financial aid than you were offered when you applied to schools as a high school student.

Again, I would try to have some detailed conversations with officers in the Yard. They can give you perspective that is based on some distance from freshman year and time in the fleet.
 
I would also commend to you the Shipmate article "Life as a Retired Youngster" by Craig Corbett. It was in the May 1986 and the June 2003 issues. I suspect there is somewher on the Yard where you can find back issues.
 
Spud, this thread is a real good example of a Seagull that just showed up to start 'eating everything' that is offered to it.

This type of bird won't leave until the folks stop feeding it fries.

These birds never get full.
 
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I used to call them "Rats with wings". Hated the kids on the beach feeding them snacks. They flew in from miles away and always left a present on our blanket.
 
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