1.You can go to the US Merchant Marine Academy Facebook page to see daily posted pictures of the current indoc to get a better idea of what a typical day looks like. As far as do’s and don’s, I gave my kid three pieces of advice when he left for KP.. 1) do what you're told. 2) do what you're told. 3) do what you're damn well told. He followed that advice and it all worked out fine. His indoc experience was almost 20 years ago, so I don't know if things are maybe easier for plebes now.. but regardless, you can’t go too far wrong by keeping your mouth shut and your ears open.
2. In academics, my son told me that a big part was figuring out what to concentrate studying on and what to let pass. He and his roommates figured out the system pretty fast. He had a battle with Calculus, and failed it, but was able to redo it during the summer session. He also had to fight through his Probability and Statistics class but ultimately succeeded in passing that too. All his other classes he did okay in.
3. I don't think there's much change after acceptance.. not sure about plebe life after recognition, but it's probably a little bit easier. I know my son was much happier after recognition.
4. Food is nothing to write home about, but it'll keep you from starving.. As a plebe, you're pretty much stuck eating at school; at least that's the way it was when my kid was there. As an upperclassman he did go out with his rugby teammates fairly frequently to a couple of local joints to eat. Croxley's ale house for 'wings and beer' Wednesdays was one of their 'go to' places as I recall.
5. I guess you could request a particular route/destination; whether the ATR’s will assign you there is another matter.. My son did request to sail on my ship his first sailing period and it was granted.. Aside from that one request, he just went with wherever they put him.
By the way,
@airbornedaddy I like your screen name.. As the son of a World War II paratrooper I approve. My dad was in the 504th PIR, 82nd Airborne. He had a couple of combat jumps [Gela and Salerno] and fought at Anzio. After Anzio he rotated back stateside to Benning and was an instructor at The Parachute School. He retired from the army as an SFC in 1965.
