Ask your MIDN about COMRATS.

Two hard classes without any others is a lot better than 2 hard classes amongst 20+ hours plus military obligations. I mean lots of sleep, home cooked food, no watch, etc. Online is definitely a different format, but this generation is more equipped for it and is adjusting to it even more. Just my two cents.
 
I wonder how much the need for labs worked into the options they're presenting. Calc and Statics don't have labs and should work fine online, but Physics? I learned a lot messing with waves and resonance points and whatnot back when I took Physics 2 104 years ago (or was the Phy 3?) but I have no oscilloscope at home, so some of that stuff couldn't occur.

Also, I'd choose hard over easy just because of the sheer amount of free time at hand during this quiet period. The material hasn't changed in ages, but the available hours to pound on it will drop once back on campus.
 
Nav at home. That is an interesting one. Curious how that will work. The good part is the YPs can be picked up when they return to USNA eventually.
 
StPaulDad said:
... but I have no oscilloscope at home, so some of that stuff couldn't occur.
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Have them build their own Project oscilloscope .... resonate circuits from scratch .... or buy one of the Ardruino kits or similar and connect it through your USB. Then they need to write the capture and display SW, or I am sure there is Open Source stuff out there.

Then they need a source to test it on .... For high frequency stuff, you need to teach them about parasitic losses due to Electrical Length and Kinks in the electromagnetic field producing unwanted RF transmission. Shielding design comes into play.

For low frequency stuff, most Fluke meters have displays that work.
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NavyHoops said:
Nav at home. That is an interesting one. Curious how that will work. The good part is the YPs can be picked up when they return to USNA eventually.
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I was a ship's Navigator and the fleet course where they take Junior Officers (plus prospective CVN Navs) and get them ready for the job did not have an at-sea component. Back in the day we did a lot more with paper charts and publications that can probably be (and in reality are) replaced with electronic versions. Off the top of my head, I don't see a lot of barriers to doing this course remotely.
 
NavyHoops said:
Two hard classes without any others is a lot better than 2 hard classes amongst 20+ hours plus military obligations. I mean lots of sleep, home cooked food, no watch, etc. Online is definitely a different format, but this generation is more equipped for it and is adjusting to it even more. Just my two cents.
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This makes sense. Presented it to my mid. The concern I guess isn’t taking a difficult course (or two) but rather difficult, compacted and online. Never been done before!

Hmmmmmm......I still think it makes sense to bang the difficult ones out this summer.
 
A 2022 update to this 2020 COMRATS thread. The rate is now $13.55/day. Reportedly, payments are problematic for mids whose social security number begins with 0 (all New England states, NY, and NJ).

Following six months of persistence with the disbursing office and advice from his chain of command, DS just now received a partial payment. (My info-tech brain cells are twitching thinking of all the accumulated staff and mid angst flowing from this apparent programming and/or database flaw).
 
Trest33 said:
Reportedly, payments are problematic for mids whose social security number begins with 0 (all New England states, NY, and NJ).
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I wonder if this comes from a software (such as excel) treating the SSN as a number instead of text. My squadron had an excel sheet which needed your SSN, so people who had a 0 at the start had problems there too. i.e. in a number context, 02 is the same as 2, so excel truncates it. Just curious thoughts.
 
My son told me that they had problems processing for names with last names with less than 4 letters which seems to have been resolved with today's check. For a year's worth of comrats he had an additional $725 (might be a bit lower than others because he did not take any leave blocks this summer).
 
My plebe thinks they generally never even see it, and that it just gets absorbed into other expenses.

But he's only been there a few months! :p
 
Lol my (now) ensign spoke to this during Thanksgiving. He lost a bunch. He said it happens every year…I believe him. My 2 friends ‘20 grads also lost held pay. And not from a lack of trying to get it. I don’t understand.

Hate to throw out accusations, but sure doesn’t seem right. Some seem to lose more than others. In fact, it seems really, really wrong.
 
The scuttlebutt when in the service is it is difficult to get wrongly calculated stuff (back pay, leave, etc.) but if you owe THEM something, it is gone before you can blink.

Reminds me of the old marching call:

"They give you a hundred dollars, and take back ninety-nine!"
 
justdoit19 said:
Lol my (now) ensign spoke to this during Thanksgiving. He lost a bunch. He said it happens every year…I believe him. My 2 friends ‘20 grads also lost held pay. And not from a lack of trying to get it. I don’t understand.

Hate to throw out accusations, but sure doesn’t seem right. Some seem to lose more than others. In fact, it seems really, really wrong.
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Ensigns, while very junior need to understand this stuff and just saying "It Happens" is not a good attitude for yourself or especially YOUR PEOPLE. Every serviceperson gets a detailed monthly statement called the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES). The first place to look is at the PILE of LESs to see if COMRATS have been paid and if they were, were the correct number of days paid out. This is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE and doing it for themselves is a way of knowing how to help their people do it. If they were not paid for the correct number of days then they need to challenge it with the correct number of days and how much they've been underpaid.
 
IronmanDaremo said:
My plebe thinks they generally never even see it, and that it just gets absorbed into other expenses.

But he's only been there a few months! :p
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Your plebe should not have accrued any COMRATS thus far. What I said above applies to him as well because a good leader needs to be able to help their subordinates with this sort of thing and I certainly expected my Division Officers to do it for their people.
 
Agreed.

I think they actually get them for the Thanksgiving break. First taste of it. ;)
 
OldRetSWO said:
Ensigns, while very junior need to understand this stuff and just saying "It Happens" is not a good attitude for yourself or especially YOUR PEOPLE. Every serviceperson gets a detailed monthly statement called the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES). The first place to look is at the PILE of LESs to see if COMRATS have been paid and if they were, were the correct number of days paid out. This is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE and doing it for themselves is a way of knowing how to help their people do it. If they were not paid for the correct number of days then they need to challenge it with the correct number of days and how much they've been underpaid.
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Of course he fought for it! Its his money. Through proper channels. Last year, and other years, there were issues with held pay. It was a brigade wide thing. And yes it was challenged. By many Mids. Not only mine. I believe there were past discussion threads here last year. At some point, when you leave USNA, it’s forfeited. Others cans speak to that. Maybe others can speak to what happened last year (and other years).

It is NOT from a lack of knowing about it (rocket science), nor a lack of fighting for it. Perhaps there was (is?) a problem with disbursing.

And of course he would fight for it for his people. At least going through the experience, he is able to empathize, and has experience.
 
DS has had issues with held pay, and comrats over last winter break, and he never received reimbursement for the flight to Iday despite resubmitting all receipts and multiple trips to the disbursement office. All of those were filed properly and were followed up multiple times, politely and patiently. This isn't a new thing. I would hazard a guess that pay errors, reimbursement errors and such have been happening as long as service members have been wearing the cloth of our nation.

Several of his friends have experienced the same. They do try to work through it and help one another- as they should.

I am sure the good people working in the pay office are nice, well-intentioned folks. I wish they could figure out how to pay service members correctly and on time. The way it currently is working makes it feel as though it really is as difficult as rocket science.
 
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