5 years later.
An update:
I really don't know where to begin on this one so I will just start typing.
The short of it. I chose to be a deckie (ship driver), had an awesome sea year, school is something I would never want to go through again, awesome senior year got picked up for SNA, got to Pcola and whammied to SNFO, and am now in Week 1 of API.
words of appreciation at bottom.
The long of it: For those who care or are looking to go to MMA.
Reasons for attending academy: I knew I wasn't going to get into the Naval Academy, and after finding out about USMMA, and the chance to travel the world etc etc, I thought it would be a better deal for a couple of reasons:
1: I always wanted to go flight, no doubt about that, it was just a matter of how to get there.
2: I figured that if I ended up not liking military life, I had a good occupation to fall into while still having the government pay for school. Some of my friends who are in the industry right now are making $90,000 a year working 28 days on, 28 days off.
3: If I couldn't get Navy flight there was always the possiblity of going to another branch. (I don't recommend this, unless you want to go Marine Air, which there is a pretty good system put into place.)
For those of you who are just looking to go flight out of USMMA, I'm not going to knock it because it is what I did, but there will be people who give you shit for doing this. Especially when you are out on merchant ships during your sea year. Just play the game and act like you want to sail, otherwise you will be considered a waste of the crew's time to train you. I usually told them straight up that I wanted to fly after a while onboard and after I established that I did want to learn, and wasn't a douchebag. Your classmates can ruin your time on a ship.
My major was Logistics in Intermodal Transportation. The school is split in half with 3 majors in the deck department and 3 in the engine dept. Basically I learned how to drive a ship and how to be a logistician/business major.
Don't bother the Naval Science department until its time to start looking for an internship during your sea year, if you read this site, you probably know more about what is going on than they do.
Your first year is going to suck. Indoc summer lasting all of 17 days (we have a long academic year) and then the suck for the rest of plebe year until March.
After the year of suck and the basic knowledges to drive a ship or work in the engine room you will either go right out as soon as graduation happens for the seniors, or a summer, and one trimester of school, and then go to sea.
Sea year is a blast, first one is 4 months, and you will either get on an awesome ship and love it or get on a slave ship and hate it. I got lucky and loved it. Had an awesome time at Pax River with USNTPS for 2 weeks bumming rides in jets and helos, plus a turboweenie ride.
Then you go back to school for another trimester, learn, and then go right back out to sea, again I got lucky and got to go to some awesome places with some good crews. You will be there to learn and used as slave labor. I got lucky and never got to experience the hell that some people did.
Had an awesome time at Pax River with USNTPS for my 2 week internship bumming rides in jets and helos, plus a turboweenie ride.
While at sea you will be doing sea projects which are about 8 credits worth for the first one and about 14 credits worth for the second year, do not blow these projects off, that is how a good number of classmates will get the boot or setback.
After a short or long junior year you will dive into senior year. Focus on keeping grades up and making it to licensing, there are a number of factors that can make the lead up to license suck. Don't be a fuck up and you will be fine, its not that hard to have all your ducks in a line.
Make sure Naval Science knows your name in the good way. Packages are simple and are due in October. Now comes the hellish wait.... in the meantime you will get your physical done sometime in December. Generally about 15-20 people will apply for flight, and this is a class out of 212 or so. During plebe year a ton of people will say they want flight, but when senior year comes around $$$ signs sway people. Apply for jobs while you are waiting, you dont want to be left without a job come March as most of the good ones will be taken.
IF YOU GET A PILOT/FO SLOT AND TURN IT DOWN... I WILL PERSONALLY STRANGLE YOU as you have taken someone else's spot.
The results for flight come out at the beginning of March.
We had 10 pilots and 3 FOs selected out of 15 for my class.
2009, just had their selection results come in, 9 pilots and 2 FOs out of 15-16 people that applied.
Your chances are pretty good, but you cant be a rock at school nor do you need to be a rock star. I had a 3.2 and a 7/7/6 on the ASTB, no school sports, just a few clubs, some awesome letters of recommendation, one thanks to this website, good shipboard evals, plus the letter you have to write on why you want to be a Naval Officer.
Not all my time at school was fun and games, there were many times I thought about quitting, especially junior year, and there are many frustrating things about the school and the direction it is headed that might not make it a great option.
As an aside to what MerchantMiddie said, you can have a somewhat normal life at one of the state schools, and if the regiment isn't your thing it might be worth a look. For flight spots we compete out of the same pool as them, but we end up taking the majority of the flight spots as many don't apply out of those programs.
For those applying, shoot me a PM, I will try to answer all questions, and if you are curious about the negative side of school, I will give my opinions.
KP might be small, but alumni are everywhere, some who lurk on this site. I ran into many graduates while stashed in San Diego, and many serving in different capacities in the Navy. Life might suck while at school but it is well worth it in the end.
I would especially like to give a big thanks to everyone I have interacted with personally through the years keeping the light on at the end of the tunnel, and those who have helped me on the website. What an amazing networking tool.
And finally, I would like to thank the webmaster for creating this site as I stumbled across it while a junior in HS looking for an answer to the oh so common depth perception questions.
End Novel.
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