Prototype in Ballston Spa?

[Cycward750]

I'm currently 5 weeks away from graduating from Power School and I will be heading to Ballston Spa for prototype, I have been looking online for places to live and I have found a few really nice and inexpensive places in Saratoga Springs surrounding Empire State College just east of Broadway. Mapquest and Google Earth both are calculating this to be about 10 miles, or a 20-30 minute drive, but I'm not too trusting of the internet.

Can anyone confirm that this would be a good place to stay or recommend any other areas to check out?

[LDO4CNO]

Thats a good location, 15 minutes to the site, minutes from downtown, and near the Y.  Good luck. 

[Austria]

It's been a long time, but....if I remember correctly I was renting a house with some friends right at the corner of Church and Van Dam. Saratoga Springs was a great town to live in and the drive to work was pretty easy and maybe 20 minutes at most.

Overall, between the town and prototype it was a nice place to be. Enjoy your time there and good luck with your training! 

[shehane]

It has been awhile but I lived in an apartment in Clifton Park.  The drive was alittle longer but it was a nice town.  More than half the trip was on interstate so I think it took about 25 minutes to get to the parking lot. 

[xforcehunter]

Sounds like a good spot.  Downtown Saratoga Springs is a great place to be.  Especially during the late summer and fall.  It will take you 20 minutes max to get to the site.  Once you get familiar with the back roads it will probably take you closer to 10 minutes to get there.  Enjoy your time up there.  Lots of great stuff to see and do.

[Cycward750]

Thanks for all the info.

My only problem now is staying motivated enough to finish out power school strong constantly thinking about with how awesome it will be to finally be back up North, especially in such a beautiful town.

[JustinHEMI05]

Thanks for all the info.

My only problem now is staying motivated enough to finish out power school strong constantly thinking about with how awesome it will be to finally be back up North, especially in such a beautiful town.

How about this... if you don't finish strong you will be on mandatory hours and not be able to enjoy being north again?

Justin

[135i]

Anywhere downtown is great, especially if you're 21.

If I were you I'd be thinking more about how you're going to qualify than about how awesome it's going to be up here. 12 hour days are not awesome. 14 hour days and being forced to come in on the weekend are even worse.

A lot of our students go through a bit of a shock when they get here because they think it's going to be so awesome.

Don't get me wrong, it's great up here and I'm sure you'll have a great time, but you need to get your priorities straight. You will have to work much harder here than you have thus far in the navy. Sitting in a classroom all day with someone talking at you and studying is a lot easier than what you're going to be doing here. Keep that in mind. Enjoy your leave.

[PapaBear765]

I lived in a big 100-year-old house on Clinton St. in-between Van Dam St. and Church St.  It was just two blocks or so from the downtown stuff and an easy drive to the Wal-Mart (the only thing open when you get off swings).

Anywhere that's walking distance from the bars, if that's your thing, is good.  One less opportunity to have an alcohol related incident.  You'll get hours of lecturing by the NPTU staff and the local Sheriff's office about the history of poorly behaved prototype students in that area.  Try not to contribute to that.

[rlbinc]

I lived on Round Lake , Star Route 9. It was a great location.

I went to MARF, which at the time, was rodless. 
My advice is - get ahead early. Qualify early. Get off 12s early.
I had 2 months of proficiency watches, and learned to fly low and avoid radar.
The Fleet was easy by comparison. Qualify, work, and they leave you alone.
Prototype was full of staff pickups. Largely brown nosers and backstabbers.
I'm guessing affective domain issues were the primary selection criteria.
That means attitudes and behaviors, not knowledge.
A generalization for sure, but the shoe seemed to fit.
I hope the Navy got away from that.
Years of plant experience works best for Instructors.

[bheinz]

I was an instructor at prototype for a few years as a Sea returnee and I still have my house in Wilton, which is about 20-30 minutes from site. First, work with the housing office. They know which spots are really Navy friendly, and which ones are not. Second, since you are going to be going to prototype in the fall/winter/spring, I recommend living close to the site. There is nothing like having to do 12,13, or 14 hours of studying and having to do an hour drive home because the roads in upstate NY, no matter what town you are in, suck. I'm on one of the local fire depts, and it's crazy the amount of calls we get for accidents for students. That being said, make sure that you fully understand the terms of your rental lease where ever you rent. With the rising cost of heating bills, and it's going to get worse by then, make sure it's all spelled out on how much you have to pay, and what it has been in the past. I hated seeing my students getting burned by not so honest slumlords.

[genghis_kahn03]

I lived in Burnt Hills... not horrible, but not near the Saratoga excitement. Best thing was, there's a great back road route to take to the site that bypasses that horrible triangle stop where everyone piles up in the snow every winter.