Upcoming Navy Nuke, Question about College Courses to Prep for Nuke School!

[matchbox182]

Hey! My name is Angel, and I have enlisted into the Navy Nuke Program. My ship date is May 3rd, 2011, so I have decided to take a semester of college to keep my brain thinking and prep myself for Nuke School!

I enroll tomorrow, actually, and I was wondering what classes specifically would help me? Right now, I have down Applied Calculus I, and a toss up between Fundamentals of Chemistry I & College Physics I.

In high school, I took AP Chem, Physics, College Algebra, and Trig.

I would appreciate the help very much! I am pretty savvy at math and science, getting A's in Physics, Trig, & College Algebra, while scraping out with a B in AP Chem. As I enroll tomorrow, I wanted to get some immediate advice in what to enroll in! I still am uncertain about taking a Spring Semester as my ship date is straddling the Finals line.

Please help an aspiring Navy Nuke out! Thank you!

[DDMurray]

IMHO,
If you're already strong enough to take college Calc, you have enough background for enlisted NNPS.  The Physics course will likely make you use your Math skills more than Chemistry so you could probably get by on just the Physics.  Either Chemistry of Physics will help you to some extent at NPS.  I wouldn't want to take Chemistry and Physics at the same time so I won't recommend that.  Kudos for trying to stay sharp.  Best of luck!

[co60slr]

I enroll tomorrow, actually, and I was wondering what classes specifically would help me? Right now, I have down Applied Calculus I, and a toss up between Fundamentals of Chemistry I & College Physics I.

As a recommendation for a future technical degree (not for enlisted NPS), I'd start with the traditional Calc 101, and Calc-Based College Physics.   Normally, these two classes go together in a semester, but you can check with the college adviser.    If that doesn't work, than you'll also need a chemistry component eventually...Chem 101.   

Many of "us" that go on to calculus courses later in life (i.e., 10 years into the Navy) end up being sorry for not springboarding off the advanced high school classes and getting Calc I and II out of the way.   

Co60

[MMM]

Based on your HS classes, you will more than likely kick @$$ at NNPTC, so don't think about what else will help there. Look at what you want to get a degree in. If it's technical, the hardest classes to take in the navy are chemistry labs (actually any lab). I'd try to get those taken care of first.

[Takai]

Not trying to be a know it all, but the nuke guys that gave me my test today were telling me that they actually prefer those that don't go through college becuase the nuke school is like no other school you'll ever go to or have been to. They said it's actually harder on college guys because they have to break your study habbits and reform them to fit the school.

What is true and what is false is beyond me, but there's my two cents.

[co60slr]

Not trying to be a know it all, but the nuke guys that gave me my test today were telling me that they actually prefer those that don't go through college becuase the nuke school is like no other school you'll ever go to or have been to. They said it's actually harder on college guys because they have to break your study habbits and reform them to fit the school.

Many of the guys that were in my Boot Camp company that had prior college weren't Enlisted because of good study habits.   Facing life after complete failure with a 1.5 GPA has a way of motivating someone towards "if I can't make the enlisted Navy work for me, what the heck am I going to do then?"

However, if your recruiter was correct, than I don't know how any officier candidate (i.e., with a college degree) could get through the officer side of NPS.

You don't need college for enlisted NPS.   In my previous postings where I recommend college, it's to give the new recruit something constructive to do, and college should be in most people's future...one way or another.   No better time to start than today.  Otherwise, if you're afraid/nervous about a particular area (e.g., math, nuclear physics), then there are DOE Fundamental Handbooks out there for you to read.

[IPREGEN]

The entire program was developed to staff a nuclear propulsion vessel at sea with the majority of the engineroom people being non-degreed enlisted men. The Navy crafted a program that will teach everything you need to know how to do that. Extra college courses are nice to have, but not need to have. Will it prepare you for the way the Navy teaches? No. Honest effort is all it takes to make it.

[KUrunner]

Honestly, none of those classes will really *help* you in regards to Power School.  Enlisted NPS is non-calc based and they'll teach you what you need to know for Physics and Chemistry.  In fact, Chem and Physics are two of the shorter classes and cover only a fraction of what you'd learn in high school classes (non-AP) let alone a semester in college.  Your study skills will be much more important than prior knowledge.

What's your ultimate goal?  Unless you plan on getting a BS in a science-related field, most colleges require only one semester of Physics OR Chemistry.  Did you take the AP Chem test?  You can usually get credit for General Chemistry if you got a 4 or 5.  What are you more interested in?  It's true that it's harder to take lab classes in the Navy, but both Chem and calc-based Physics are lab classes... so, I guess it's a toss-up. 

Just to share my experience -- I got my BS in Chemistry from the University of Kansas.  They gave me credit for College Chemistry (non-calc) and several credits for advanced Physics for Power School.  I still had to take General Chemistry and Physics I/II for my degree requirements.   

[NHSparky]

If your ultimate goal is to obtain a BS in a technical field using your NPS and A school credits to help you along the way (and Thomas Edison State College is an excellent place to cash in on that), I'd actually focus MORE on the General Education stuff like English, History, Poli Sci, or other "basic" requirements towards a degree.

Technical Writing is also an excellent choice, and I found it immensely useful for tests when answering questions quickly, completely, and concisely.

[MMM]

I suggest Physics and Chemistry with labs. They won't help with NNPTC, but it's tough to get the labs once you're in the fleet, or even on shore duty. Any other classes you can usually get in evening classes, unless you want an Engineering degree, then the upper level courses might be hard to find.

General Ed would be my second choice, you can use distance learning for them once you get to the fleet, although like NH said, Tech Writing will probably help a lot with all the writing you'll be doing.

[jay121]

Back in IT "A" school (I'm not a nuke, I'm an airdale), I met tons of nuke dropouts that had college degrees in science related fields, so going to college prior to enlisting in a nuke rating is no guarantee of doing good in power school.   All the actual nukes I've met had little or no college background, however.

Plus, with the training given at Charleston, a BS in Nuclear Engineering can be easily obtained taking the DANTES and CLEP exams.  Don't ask me why I know that.

[ISOCS]

Getting thru nuke school with over a 3.7 gpa is easy. Write as much down as possible and memorize. Do the same each day. Do you all use pens and paper anymore. When I went thru we were the last class with slide rules. Good Luck.

ISOCS

[co60slr]

Plus, with the training given at Charleston, a BS in Nuclear Engineering can be easily obtained taking the DANTES and CLEP exams.  Don't ask me why I know that.

Given your first several postings here focused on your personal IT Airdale exploits with nukes, where you suggested they were probably on their way out for FFD concerns, it's not completely clear to me why an IT is giving advice based on her experiences with these guys.  However, perhaps you picked up on a few tidbits to share.

Meanwhile, your tidbit above is incorrect.  I spend a lot of time discussing this subject and while I can ignore the drug use and pregnancy postings, this posting needs work.

You can NOT get a BSNE out of Charleston.   Furthermore, the nukes with no college courses do need more than just a few CLEP exams.  Finally, there's nothing easy about it (e.g., going to work, coming home to study/homework/exams until midnight).

[MMM]

To clarify a little: You can get a Nuclear Engineering Technology degree relatively easily, depending on where you go. A couple colleges will accept almost everything from transfers and CLEP/DANTES tests. I believe all colleges require a certain number of credits from them, the fewest I know of is 4.

[co60slr]

To clarify a little: You can get a Nuclear Engineering Technology degree relatively easily, depending on where you go. A couple colleges will accept almost everything from transfers and CLEP/DANTES tests. I believe all colleges require a certain number of credits from them, the fewest I know of is 4.

You've completed Calc. II and gotten one of those degrees?

[MMM]

Yup. Although I only did two CLEPs. I think I took about 12 or 15 classes, most of them in the shipyard when I had a 4 hours of commuting every day.

[Mike_Koehler]

Sorry to be late jumping on the pile..... I had what seems like a similar experience prior to going nuke and found that, for me, the class in nuke school that I struggled with was Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow (HTFF) (known to civilians as Thermodynamics). If I had it to do all over again I would have used my DEP time with at least one class in Thermodynamics besides all the time spent enjoying my freedom.... That enjoying your freedom part is actually important as you might not have a lot of it soon.

Mike

[co60slr]

Yup. Although I only did two CLEPs. I think I took about 12 or 15 classes, most of them in the shipyard when I had a 4 hours of commuting every day.

It's not that easy of a process.   Most people work their ass off to get that degree amidst work and family life.   It is an education and not just a "piece of paper" that some organization make it out to be.

There are many "degree mills" out there.   If you received a degree through non-traditional means, then you have to defend that process a bit as being a challenge that furthered your education.   If all you had to do was send in $19.95 and your Military Page 4, it's not an education.

Clarification for the other 4,000 lurkers that will read this. 

[co60slr]

Sorry to be late jumping on the pile..... I had what seems like a similar experience prior to going nuke and found that, for me, the class in nuke school that I struggled with was Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow (HTFF) (known to civilians as Thermodynamics). If I had it to do all over again I would have used my DEP time with at least one class in Thermodynamics besides all the time spent enjoying my freedom.... That enjoying your freedom part is actually important as you might not have a lot of it soon.

Heat flux, fluid velocity, bernoilli's equation....there's nothing special about fluid kinetic energy in the military (including the course name).

DEP'ers can start here:
http://homer.ornl.gov/nuclearsafety/ns/techstds/standard/hdbk1012/h1012v1.pdf

[MMM]

Like I said, I had a lot of free time during commutes. Although it did take about 5 years to get all the classes done (not including the several years of stopping). I'm also a bit of a nerd, so I enjoyed the math and science that I had to do. The humanities, however, were a pain.

For anybody looking for classes before entering, I suggest topics you think you'll need a teacher for (i.e. Calculus) or labs (i.e. Chemistry). The first ones so you can get help easily, the second ones because you can't do them easily on a ship.