NAPS

Great place. If Navy doesn't give you an appointment direct to USNA, but offers you one to NAPS, GRAB IT.

I did! Never looked back! :thumb:
 
Is there such a thing as 'credit hours' for classes completed at NAPS? If so, are they transferable to the academies or civilian colleges? If not, is NAPS class work like an additional year of high school?

Thanks for any and all replies!
 
I don't believe they can be transfered to the Acadmy because everyone is eaqual when they enter the academy. maybe in some special sircumstances.
 
While classes can't be "transferred" - all USNA plebes are offered the chance to take exams to "validate" classes. It is possible that doing well in say Calculus, Chemistry and/or physics you can validate some or all of those first year classes at the academy.
This is beneficial because it opens the door for more electives later on. So you can concievably come away with about 5 years of school - not just regurgitating your NAPS year over again as a plebe.

As for civilian school - NAPS is a post-grad year. Your may not be granted "college" credit but again if you did well in classes you could probably take CLEP exams and validate classes that way. In any case even if they aren't transferable- so many kids take 5 years to graduate the extra year is no big deal anymore.

Hopefully, a Napster or parent of a recent Napster can comment more on the educational experience of it.
 
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Just_A_Mom said:
Hopefully, a Napster or parent of a recent Napster can comment more on the educational experience of it.

This is a very good synopsis of NAPS coursework written by the parent of a NAPSter:

http://www.usna.com/NAPS/academics/academics.html

Everything J_A_M says is absolutely correct. All incoming USNA plebes take validation tests in English and Mathematics. They may also choose to take them in chemistry, economics, history, physics, political science, and foreign languages.

The "double-edged" sword here is the possibility of more rigorous coursework combined with the challenges of plebe year. The rewards are many: take less courses during the semester, double majors, the ability to take easier electives later on when the major coursework is becoming extremely challenging, or, even possibly VGEP. The Volunteer Graduate Education Program allows selected midshipmen to commence their graduate degree during their senior year at the Academy. They do this at one of the DC area universitites and are allowed a semester after graduation to remain in the area to complete the program. Really a very good deal.
 
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My son said he and the other napsters considered themselves to be super-seniors or in 13th grade. It did give him a great foundation for the academy. He said plebe summer was a breeze compaired to indoc at Naps.
 
Yes! thats the advantage. yea they say when ur a plebe or swab or all equal during the summer part but thats an understatement because you know what the cadre is saying to you unlike someone who its their first time exposed to a military environment.The cadre can prob pick out the NAPsters and the ones who went to a military seminar like AIM or even FLC at Norwich which is what I went to. Personally I think FLC was better then the service academy ones because its longer and it included skills that all the branches of the military uses not just the Navy or Army...
 
Dukota said:
He said plebe summer was a breeze compaired to indoc at Naps.
I would argue that the two weeks of NAPS indoc is not as intense as the six weeks of plebe summer. However, for NAPSters who have experienced NAPS indoc, a year of organized physical fitness with others who will be experiencing the same challenges, and even just sitting around the barracks discussing "sea stories" and rumors of plebe summer, will be, as Lesya25 surmises, much better prepared for the Academy than those coming straight from high school.
 
USNA69 said:
I would argue that the two weeks of NAPS indoc is not as intense as the six weeks of plebe summer.

I would disagree. When I went through, NAPS Indoc made Plebe Summer look like a joke. Don't know if that's still true, of course.

Still, the rest of what you said is spot-on. NAPSters have a distinct edge during Plebe Year that non-NAPSters don't. It diminishes over time, but it's there when you need it.
 
Zaphod said:
I would disagree. When I went through, NAPS Indoc made Plebe Summer look like a joke.
You have been there. I haven't. So I reluctantly have to agree.

My argument was that Indoc is mostly physical and plebe summer encompasses more of the "whole person", especially mental. The fact that a higher percentage of midshipmen resign during plebe summer than NAPSters during Indoc could also possibly be used to support my position.
 
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Indoc may have been physically tougher during those two or three weeks, but plebe summer's got that endurance factor workin' for it. It was only seven weeks, but I swear, that was the longest seven weeks of my life.

I think any kind of experience between high school and this place is beneficial. NAPs or otherwise. I spent a year at civilian college and NROTC before coming here, and my dad said he could easily pick me out in a crowd on I-Day because I didn't have that 'deer in the headlights' look. I was just excited to finally be here and trying to absorb everything around me.

The plebe I dragged with last year must have had shell-shock for most of the summer, as he told me it was all just a blur. I didn't really experience that. Maybe that's why it seemed so long.
 
USNA69 said:
The fact that a higher percentage of midshipmen resign during plebe summer than NAPSters during Indoc could also possibly be used to support my position.

Perhaps, but one must remember that the makeup of NAPS is very different than the makeup of a Plebe Summer class. There is a much higher concentration of prior-enlisted folks (meaning older, more experienced, more mature, and tougher) than during Plebe Summer.

My NAPS Indoc was so intense mentally and physically that I went through Plebe Summer pretty easily. How much of that had to do with the remaining 9 months at NAPS getting ready for it can be debated, but on the whole, NAPSters have found Plebe Summer to be much easier than NAPS Indoc.

The most interesting statistic would be to see how many NAPSters drop out during Plebe Summer. I don't think my class lost any. Granted, NAPSters are under a contract, which skews the numbers the other way. My NAPS class DID get slaughtered academically, though, as well as due to other occurrances. NAPS '87 had fewer than 50 graduate from USNA out of an original NAPS class of around 300.
 
Zaphod said:
NAPS '87 had fewer than 50 graduate from USNA out of an original NAPS class of around 300.

I think now NAPS graduation rate is about the same, or maybe slightly lower than the Academy graduation rate of 79% +/-. However, from the Academy, NAPSters graduate at a slightly higher rate than that of the rest of the brigade. Only a percent or two, but, nevertheless, higher.
 
Yep I went to a open housem at USCGA and the admissions told us that and some NAPsters told that to us too. I guess it's really true!
 
Zaphod said:
My NAPS Indoc was so intense mentally and physically that I went through Plebe Summer pretty easily. How much of that had to do with the remaining 9 months at NAPS getting ready for it can be debated, but on the whole, NAPSters have found Plebe Summer to be much easier than NAPS Indoc.

Good discussion even though for me it is hypothical and based half on hearsay with the other half being nearly a half century old.:shake:

Disregard academics. Two candidates of exact equal physical conditioning,mental toughness, and desire for a military career. One goes to NAPS and one goes directly to Plebe Summer. Who will have the most difficult overall experience?

My vote is for the plebe.
 
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