Cal, SUNY, TMA, Mass, Maine

[Kevin]

Hi Im Kevin and will be starting school next fall. I live in Texas and have visited the TMA, obviously with in state tuition, this seems like my best option. I have read some on this board about these schools, and I have gathered the feeling that the TMA maybe isnt the best school for Marine Transportation and being on the sea as a career.
Cost is most surely an issue, but I am also interested in going to the best out of these schools assuming it is not the TMA.
Anyway, any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks again
Kevin

[New3M]

It depends on what you're looking to do after you graduate. If you want to work in the Gulf, the Texas is probably the way to go. Deep Sea, probably Mass, Suny, or Maine. I hear a lot of the Cal kids work on tugs, and the Great Lakes kids get pilotage for the Great Lakes, so a lot of them stay up there.

[Kevin]

Thank you for the information, after further research into the school I am now looking into SUNY with TMA still in the back of my mind. Something I noticed about SUNY was the Marine Business and Commerce degree with the deck license. I know this may sound like a dumb question but is this similar or the same to a 'Marine Administration' degree? I want some kind of business degree and I know at TMA you cannot get a license with Marine Administration degree.

I hope this makes sense.

Thank for the help
Kevin

[New3M]

Kevin,

I'm a SUNY grad - check your PM box.

[hp181san]

Kevin,

First of all, as far as the best school for you to got to there isn't a "best" school. You're going to get out of college whatever you put in to it.
I am a TMA grad from '97 and wouldn't have changed where I went to school for anything. I have spent my entire career in and around the Houston area working on tugs and ships.

While I was at TMA I had the pleasure/displeasure of shipping out with SUNY one summer. I have nothing bad to say about SUNY other than the schools are very different. If you're looking for a military setting then SUNY might be your place. For me the size of TMA, the price, the faculty to student ratio, and the location were perfect.

As far as the MARA vs MART degree they are basically one in the same.
90% of the people I went to school with, who ended up with a MART (marine transportation) degree currently work shoreside where all the MARA people are. Going to sea is not as romantic as it used to be, so if you think you're going to sail around the world and see all these cool places and do a bunch of cool things you're sadly mistaken.

Hope this helps out and good luck in your future endeavours,

HP181