Laptops?

Nav21

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Nov 10, 2016
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Hi! I'll be attending the USNA in the fall of 2017 (super excited) and had a quick question. It has been tradition with my older siblings to get a laptop for college during the Christmas of senior year. I know the Academy issues computers, however can someone give me an idea of what the uses of these computers are. For instance, are they limited to academy use and do you actually own them, or are they lent? Is it worth the cost to have a computer at home to work on during Christmas breaks and summer, or can you take the school-issued computer ect...
 
You own the laptop. Every Mid is issued the same equipment, uniforms, etc. Everything from your laptop and calculator down to your socks and underwear. You will have an ACE loan for everything you are issued, and your pay will have the payment of that loan deducted each month until repaid. You'll use the laptop most of the classes, and yes, you can take the laptop home with you on breaks.
 
There are also challenges in that I think it is still the case personal laptops cannot be connected to USNA/govt networks. A current or recent mid may address wifi, current state of availability. From what I've observed, mids use their issue laptop for everything, occasionally upgrading 2/c or 1/c year, or treating themselves to a powerful state-of-the-art model when getting ready to graduate from USNA.

You won't be able to have a personal laptop during Plebe Summer. You will be very busy on the issue one once the ac year starts, and a personal one, if you can't access wifi, might get a little dusty.

While not as fun, toy-wise, perhaps asking for air travel gift cards, if you will be flying to and from Annapolis, could be a forward-looking option.

There are threads addressing laptops that might be worth searching out.
 
You own the laptop. Every Mid is issued the same equipment, uniforms, etc. Everything from your laptop and calculator down to your socks and underwear. You will have an ACE loan for everything you are issued, and your pay will have the payment of that loan deducted each month until repaid. You'll use the laptop most of the classes, and yes, you can take the laptop home with you on breaks.

Does anyone know what kind of laptop is issued? Details on the brand/specs would be very helpful!
Thanks!
 
I have been wondering about this too.

I definitely know it's not a coreI-7, 256+solid state drive, 1080p HD, apple or Hp. It could be Acer, Lenovo, or Dell, with AMD, HDD, 7020p, one terabyte. The military uses dell a lot.

I mean they will be used solely for academic purposes not gaming or editing so...
 
You will be issued a gov't laptop. Mine (2018) is a dell, I think '20 got a hp. It most likely will be different than the previous classes'. You're not going to get a top of the line computer with all the bells and whistles, but it won't be crappy either.

Personal computers cannot connect to the ethernet internet in the hall, nor can they access the wifi in the academic buildings. Every company has a wardroom with a civilian WiFi set up, so you can go in there (IF you're not a plebe) and hook up a personal computer or an xbox or an ipad or whatever. The Supe promised that WiFi would be installed throughout the entirety of Bancroft in the near future, but I'm not sure if it'll be the military USNA wifi (and therefore restricted) or civilian WiFi.

You can use your issued laptop for almost whatever you would want to as long as it's legal. You can't download games off of steam on the USNA internet, but you can off of the wardroom Wifi and play them offline on your computer. The bandwidth is such that most video streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime tend to run pretty well. They do block some websites but it's things like gambling and porn and stuff like that. VPN's are strictly forbidden. The wardroom wifi comes with some rules, like not downloading pirated movies or pornography or anything like that. They do monitor those types of things and will sometimes shut the wifi down for everybody and/or give you a conduct offense for misusing the wifi.

At the end of 1/c year, they will remove all of the government/security software that's on the laptop so that you can use it after you graduate.

For what it's worth, I don't know many people who choose to use a personal computer. It's just not very convenient since it wouldn't be able to connect to the intranet. Some people have them, but it's not common.
 
I suppose you could get a personal laptop or an IPad to use at your sponsor's. However, the amount of time you'll have to use it plebe year is very small -- more as time goes on. Also, you can't have it PS, so would need your parents to bring/send it PPW. The above said, there are probably ways to spend the same amount of money.
 
I would not get a personal laptop. The issued laptops have been getting better over the last few years. Like was said above, they will wipe them before graduation and re-install the microsoft package and fix anything that is wrong. I'm still using my issued laptop.
 
Perfect. Thank you for this informative response! The cadets also get a desktop computer as well, right?
And are cadets allowed to keep gaming systems, like an Xbox, in their rooms once they become 2nd and 1st class men? Or are they only allowed in the wardroom?


You will be issued a gov't laptop. Mine (2018) is a dell, I think '20 got a hp. It most likely will be different than the previous classes'. You're not going to get a top of the line computer with all the bells and whistles, but it won't be crappy either.

Personal computers cannot connect to the ethernet internet in the hall, nor can they access the wifi in the academic buildings. Every company has a wardroom with a civilian WiFi set up, so you can go in there (IF you're not a plebe) and hook up a personal computer or an xbox or an ipad or whatever. The Supe promised that WiFi would be installed throughout the entirety of Bancroft in the near future, but I'm not sure if it'll be the military USNA wifi (and therefore restricted) or civilian WiFi.

You can use your issued laptop for almost whatever you would want to as long as it's legal. You can't download games off of steam on the USNA internet, but you can off of the wardroom Wifi and play them offline on your computer. The bandwidth is such that most video streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime tend to run pretty well. They do block some websites but it's things like gambling and porn and stuff like that. VPN's are strictly forbidden. The wardroom wifi comes with some rules, like not downloading pirated movies or pornography or anything like that. They do monitor those types of things and will sometimes shut the wifi down for everybody and/or give you a conduct offense for misusing the wifi.

At the end of 1/c year, they will remove all of the government/security software that's on the laptop so that you can use it after you graduate.

For what it's worth, I don't know many people who choose to use a personal computer. It's just not very convenient since it wouldn't be able to connect to the intranet. Some people have them, but it's not common.
 
Perfect. Thank you for this informative response! The cadets also get a desktop computer as well, right?
And are cadets allowed to keep gaming systems, like an Xbox, in their rooms once they become 2nd and 1st class men? Or are they only allowed in the wardroom?

1) Someone that attends the Naval Academy is referred to as a Midshipman. Cadets go to USMA, USCGA, and USAFA, not USNA.


2) The answer to your question is no. You will only be issued one computer. The laptop comes with a charging station that you can connect to a printer, keyboard, and an external monitor, so a desktop isn't really necessary. After plebe year you are allowed to keep a gaming system like an xbox in your room. It won't have internet connection because it can't be put on the ethernet, but you can play offline.

Edit:
A word to the wise, sometimes it's not such a good idea to have a gaming system in your room. I used to play games somewhat compulsively in high school, so I decided not to bring any system to the Academy with me when I was allowed to have them. It would have been too much of a distraction for me. You can always play on somebody else's system every once in a while
 
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Yes, by all means lose the cadet vernacular. The Naval Academy has Midshipmen, the SAs with students who couldn't get into Navy have cadets.

DS's laptop is a Lenovo if I remember correctly. The device is pretty current and has all the horsepower needed to meet all your academic needs at the academy. As for gaming devices, give it up. Binge when you're home on break. The first year you can't play because, well that's the rules, Plebes don't rate video games or anything else for that matter. Second year you're way too busy to touch a gaming system. By the time you hit the last two years, Annapolis offers many distractions that you haven't had access to in the first two years; think girls, beer, heck even sunshine! Who wants to be inside with video games with those distractions?
 
Does anyone know what kind of laptop is issued? Details on the brand/specs would be very helpful!
Thanks!

The exact same one every other Mid is issued. Specs don't matter, they are sufficient to meet your needs at the academy. It's not like you can bring your own, can't use it on the yard, you have to use the issued device.
 
Yes, by all means lose the cadet vernacular. The Naval Academy has Midshipmen, the SAs with students who couldn't get into Navy have cadets.

DS's laptop is a Lenovo if I remember correctly. The device is pretty current and has all the horsepower needed to meet all your academic needs at the academy. As for gaming devices, give it up. Binge when you're home on break. The first year you can't play because, well that's the rules, Plebes don't rate video games or anything else for that matter. Second year you're way too busy to touch a gaming system. By the time you hit the last two years, Annapolis offers many distractions that you haven't had access to in the first two years; think girls, beer, heck even sunshine! Who wants to be inside with video games with those distractions?

Unless they switched back with 2020, my class was the last one to get Lenovo. They switched to Dell with 2017.

Plebe year, you aren't going to have time or even be allowed to play video games. (If midregs is still the same then I think the caveat is that Plebes ARE allowed to use them during town liberty hours, so noon to midnight on Saturdays.) Youngster year, you honestly will probably have time. It's amazing how much your time free's up when you no longer have chow calls or pro know or anything else Plebes have to do all the time. 2/C and Firstie year, people were still playing video games. Down time does in fact exist at USNA. Moments may be few and far between, but sometimes you're stuck on duty on a Friday night, or it's 10 degrees outside and you don't want to trek downtown. If video games is a good outlet for you to decompress and relax a little, by all means use it. Just don't let it get in the way with the things you actually have to get done.
 
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