BOOST Questions

[KimberlyD]

Another thing I forgot to mention (you'll find that I'm more for the wives than the SM, after all the wives are going through a change too!) is the Junior Officer Spouse classes. I know that they offer then in San Diego, Norfolk & Jax so if you're near any of those, make sure your wife attends these classes (contact your local FFSC to see if they have them in your area). They're different every single time so it's important to attend each one, they're usually held twice a year & as an OC, your wife is eligible to attend these classes. They'll tell her all sorts of useless information (how to arrange flowers) but also some useful information (how the new surge program works up for a deployment). There'll be other info that she'll need to know to just fit in when you get your commission (like wetting downs, hail & farewells, what to wear depending upon what uniform you're wearing). All sorts of stuff. Also, there's a party at the end of NSI, the night before graduation usually, strictly cocktail attire, below the knee, & no tattoos showing (hopefully she doesn't have any but just in case). I recall quite a few wives being told that their tattoos were inappropriate & to cover them in the future.

 

[kray1395]

Hey STA-21,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. UofM was pretty cool. I ended up choosing UofM because my wife (who was my fiancee at the time) is from there. I could have gone to some other schools, probably had some more fun, made more friends, but alas, Memphis is were I went. It was definately an adjustment at first being prior enlisted. I believe that is the same no matter what school you go to. I would say first that your experience will probably be completely different from mine. The atmosphere you experience in the ROTC unit is really dependent on the current officer and senior NCO staff there at the time. I was there for 5 years and the unit was completely different when I left than it was when I got there. Overall I felt that it was a unit mainly run by the marines. Typical Marine stuff, tell you that academics come first but really mean that you need to be better at PT. It's all part of the rite of passage. Once I realized that it was a game that I needed to play, things went really smooth.

You should have a much easier time than I did seeing as how you are part of the STA-21 program. I had to work 30-40 hrs a week the whole time I was in school to support my wife and I and have medical insurance. Put that on top of a full engineering curriculum and a unit that didn't really care and things could be stressful at times. It all comes down to time management.

I can't really help you with the International Studies stuff. I found those classes to be more about patience when dealing with liberal tree-hugging hippies than anything else. I did better in areas of academics where the answers were either correct or incorrect, not based on your instructors anti-gonverment views. Anyways, I would recommend UofM to anybody who was interested in going there. BOOST definately prepares you for at least your first year there. Actually you'll be overprepared for Memphis. And what I mean by that is all I really did for my first year of classes is turn in the stuff I did at BOOST and got straight A's. If you have any more questions drop me an e-mail or give me an IM.

 

[STA-21-INTEL]

As far as classes at BOOST go, how would you rate them (interest and difficulty). Similar to a Navy "A" school (ridiculously easy), community college, Ivy league, etc. I read the instuctors are moslty former college profesors, just curious how they rated.

 

[kray1395]

I definitely underestimated the difficulty of the classes going into BOOST. I had the hardest time with the English classes. I had two instructors in English when I was there. The first was a Dr. who had taught at Holy Cross before she started at Newport. The other was concurrently finishing his doctorate at Brown. Being more of a left-brained individual, I had a hard time coming up with what they wanted out of me in my papers. I had an easier time with the math and science courses, but I wouldn't call them easy overall. The academics were certainly more difficult than in A-school. You don't receive any floor stomping from the professors. Just stay on track with studying. If you get behind, they have programs such as mandatory study and tutoring to bring you back up to speed. If I remember correctly, the English classes are the same for everyone. They gave us an entrance exam for math and science which determined what level of classes you would attend. I don't remember if there were 2 or 3 levels but most everyone was placed where they belonged. Thinking back I wouldn't call any of the classes interesting. My best memories of being at BOOST were $5/lb lobsters at the O-club on Thursdays and trips to Boston to see games and have fun. If you're over 21, you can have fun in Newport. I didn't turn 21 until near the end of BOOST so Newport was pretty boring for me.