Fun at A school???

[muhfish]

Hey, just found this forum, gotta say I'm loving the amount of information on here. Really learning a lot about what I'm going to be doing

I was just curious as to the extra curricular activities that are offered either at A school or nuclear power school.  I know that my friend at Annapolis is taking jiu jitsu, do any of the schools during pipeline offer anything like that? Or will it mostly be schoolwork?

Thanks!

[drayer54]

Hey, just found this forum, gotta say I'm loving the amount of information on here. Really learning a lot about what I'm going to be doing
I was just curious as to the extra curricular activities that are offered either at A school or nuclear power school.  I know that my friend at Annapolis is taking jiu jitsu, do any of the schools during pipeline offer anything like that? Or will it mostly be schoolwork?
Thanks!

Ohh, you'll have fun alright, in fact it's sometimes Mandatory fun.

You are there to learn a vast amount of material in a short amount of time....

The concept of fun extracurriculars and 'well rounded' need not apply here. You will be seated from 6ish am until it's dark out. How dark depends on lunar mare and your progression level through class. Mostly classwork is an understatement.

You will get some weekend time to go see bands, beaches, and local girlies who have already met 5 of you.

How much fun and freedoms you have depend on your performance, but the classroom will be your home.

No martial arts or any of that jazz.

Good Luck!

DDD

[730SMAG]

On a somewhat less pessimistic note...

I got into the building at seven in the morning, walked out of the building around four, four-thirty in the afternoon.  Sometimes I'd come back for an hour or two to stand my night study watch or give a friend some help reviewing materials; other times I showed up to make my mandatory study hour requirement.  And yes, you'll have one; I was on 10-0's, some people were on 20-3's.  Err, which translates to ten hours a week, zero daily for 10-0's, and twenty hours a week, three daily for 20-3's.  There are other flavors; I think they were 15-2's and 25-4's.  Same theme.

Otherwise, I spent less than - merrily spent less than - ten hours a day in that place.  Toss in a couple hours a day for "military stuff" like PT or making sure my uniforms were decent-looking, and I'd say that about half my day was free.  Take out six to eight hours for sleep, and you've got four or five hours of free time during the day to do what you want...within the confines of your badge color status.  Green dot, I was generally off-base on the weekends right up until curfew.  Blue dot, I was generally nowhere near NNPTC during the weekends - there are some nice beaches near Goose Creek, and motel rooms are cheap if you don't want to head back.  Double weekends during spring break at Myrtle Beach was awesome.


Of course, all of this is predicated on academic and military performance - maintain the GPA near the 4.0 range, perform well in the military song-and-dance routine, and you will have a lot more freedom and leeway in your actions than Shipmate Screwup who has a 2.6 GPA.

[Starkist]

Id like to point out your shipmate that is honestly trying and is getting a 2.6 is NOT a screw up.

[fiveeleven]

As with most things in life,its all in your perspective and the attitude you approach things with. Every command and overseas port I was stationed at or visited all were told unto me by bad attitude swabbies how bad they "sucked".First and foremost you have to do whatever it takes you on a personal level, to do as well as you can in all of your training, and then do your job to the best of your abilities when you hit the fleet.You should have the attitude that I owe this approach to at least myself,after all I enlisted in this organazation on my own.I know things are different now than 30 yrs. ago, but I also know that some things remain relatively the same. The following is a list of places that puportedly sucked that I personally had a great time at: MM A School-Great Lakes, AIW Prototype -Idaho Falls, Norfolk Naval Base/Viginia Beach area, and last but by no means least - Naples,Italy. I would venture to say that if there is fun to be had in Norfolk and Naples, then there is fun to be had just about anywhere.  MM2(ELT) USS Nimitz  CVN-68 1980-1984. BOHICA

[Higgs]

Id like to point out your shipmate that is honestly trying and is getting a 2.6 is NOT a screw up.

Did you take Shipmate Screwup to be a literal person?

[Starkist]

Did you take Shipmate Screwup to be a literal person?

No, some people actually put in honest effort and still cant manage. Some barely squeak by, some coast through. Their ability level has nothing to do with the kind of person they are. Their effort and dedication say more then that GPA imo.

[Higgs]

No, some people actually put in honest effort and still cant manage. Some barely squeak by, some coast through. Their ability level has nothing to do with the kind of person they are. Their effort and dedication say more then that GPA imo.

Agree, but his point was that if you're a military screw up and have bad grades, you won't have much free time..., and he's right. He wasn't making a judgement of character based on GPA.

[crewjobs_too]

My son got invited to the Submarine Birthday Ball during A school and told us he had a lot of fun there.  He said it was great.  There are some other semi official activities that were fun he said.  He was on vols or 10-0's the whole time in A school and still on vols in Power School  with less than 2 months left.    But he is still studying 2-3 hours a night so grades good enough to stay on vols so it is the same difference.   Just rule out Monday through Friday afternoon for 'fun'. There is plenty to do in Charleston on weekends that is fun, as long as you know where the line is and do not get near the line.   If you want to go out with your over 21 friends on weekends and have Buffalo wings and a beer and have a designated driver  that is fine.  During A school there are a lot of room inspections he does not have that at Power School if you want to have a shot at fun on free time pass all your inspections and whatever qualifications you need to get that are not part of school.  They have free movies on base I hear but usually they go to the mall for first-run movies and they get a huge discount around 50% off.

The other thing is, you have watch and other duties outside of class.  He gets up 4:30 AM every morning, PT at 5:00 then class until about 4:30 PM with a lunch break, then although he is on vols studies 3 hours per night usually.  Best of luck to you.

[730SMAG]

Id like to point out your shipmate that is honestly trying and is getting a 2.6 is NOT a screw up.

My apologies, I don't mean that someone with a low GPA isn't trying.  Permit me to clarify...


Someone who does not put demonstrated effort in to enhance their academic performance will not enjoy their time.  The guy who puts in twenty, thirty hours a week and still barely maintains a 2.6 is going to have a lot of people putting in extra effort to help them.  I know - I was one of them - several people who came in extra hours to work with people like that, because he showed that he was trying, and we were willing to help.  Because, frankly, that's what you do with someone who needs a little help.  People who show effort will get the help they need.  They're the people I want with me when stuff starts screwing up, because they will go the extra mile.


Shipmate Screwup is a hypothetical combination of someone on major mandatory hours who shows up to uniform inspections in the wrong uniform covered in dirt and has to be forced to study - he'd rather be sitting there staring out the window than using those hours productively.  Basically a mobile example of how not to perform in the NNPTC environment and someone who won't really succeed in either the fleet or real life.  It is not an example of a specific individual, it is the worst-case combination of all the people you really, really wish the command would just recycle to chip paint in Diego Garcia.  Lack of effort and poor military performance is...a badness thing.


I hope that clarifies things.

[hoopercj]

I was just curious as to the extra curricular activities that are offered either at A school or nuclear power school.  I know that my friend at Annapolis is taking jiu jitsu, do any of the schools during pipeline offer anything like that? Or will it mostly be schoolwork?

In charleston there is a ton to do if you're willing to go look for it. In general, nuke students tend to stick to the same old routine, and thus a lot of them tend to not get a lot out of the "extra curriculars" available to them. As far as "will it mostly be schoolwork".... in comparison to your friend at annapolis, unless i missed something this means he/she is actually going to college with military requirements, whereas you're going to be going to a training command. This is a different environment altogether, and one where the expectation is that you will learn a specific curriculum in a condensed amount of time while meeting some basic military requirements. This is opposed to your friend that (i assume) was required to choose from a physical activity / sport to be involved with and chose jiu jitsu as his option. PT for us is just plain old boring navy PT normally.

[Fermi2]

Wait they make you get up and PT in Nuke and A School now?

[730SMAG]

Wait they make you get up and PT in Nuke and A School now?

They have for a while.  Shape up or ship out and all that; I saw several people get denied re-enlistment for being on FEP or PRT failures.

[Fermi2]

Hopefully it cuts down on the partying the night before school too. On the other hand we didn't have a whole lot of overweight nukes in NPS in the mid 80s.

[GLW]

Hopefully it cuts down on the partying the night before school too. On the other hand we didn't have a whole lot of overweight nukes in NPS in the mid 80s.

Well, it's not as if what eats did exist at the Bourbon St. Cafe could put weight on ya,.....

[Fermi2]

LOL True!

[730SMAG]

Dunno about partying; NNPTC at Goose Creek kinda isolates you a little if you don't have a car/don't want to spend the cash on the taxi rides. 

As far as fat people go...  That's a whole 'nother can of worms.  :p

[LaFeet]

My oh my how things have changed.   My fun time in A School was spent either trolling Rush Street in Chi town, rolling with the locals in Kenosha, or discussing philosophy with the ladies in Milwuakee.

Oh course my time at Charleston including significant time spent in Goose Creek.  We used to play golf in the snow in December after deployment.

Focus on your quals first and have fun when you can afford to.

[Jechtm]

You will find time to have fun. Don't do what I did and play video games all the time, that's just boring... Hang out with the RIGHT people and you shouldn't have any problems. When I was in NY during the summer, there is a lot to do. Winter... skiing/snowboarding if you like. Not much else. Though I do recommend Whiteface Lodge in Lake placid. Expensive ish. But you only pay about 25% of the rooms fee and 50% of any food, with the mil. Brought the wife there for a surprise christmas gift to go skiing.. just my 2

[MoreHooyah]

I study, then I sleep. There isn't time for that stuff. If you're really smart, you can get less mandatory study hours, but they go back up if you don't justify it on the tests. They give you up to 5 hours a night in mandatory study hours depending on how you're doing. It sounds crazy, I know, but you can do the time. There's plenty to read, and they give you instructors at night who sit in an office and their whole job is to answer questions you have. Spend your time doing this stuff, not worrying about whether you can do martial arts. You'll understand when you get started.

[Valet]

It all depends on what you value most.  If you enjoy working out, you can fit that into your schedule.  If you enjoy playing video games you will fit that into your schedule.  Basically, you will find out what is important to you here.  Your free time will most likely be little.  I'd say I have about 90 minutes to 2 hours of free time broken up throughout the day (not including lunch).  When I was in A school (I'm in power school now, week 19 or so) I had a little more, but had worse time management.  If I could go back... 

To answer the question you actually asked instead of the one I think you asked, there is a martial arts class at a gym that is on base but you must drive there (or run 1.5 miles one way).  Depending on how good at managing your time you are and how much "verbatim understanding" you can get during your study hours you can fit this into your schedule, but probably nothing else.  Don't forget that YOU can organize something too.  A group of people play soccer every Saturday for a few hours before dinner and that is organized entirely by students. 

On a more personal note, I've enjoyed my time here.  I was on 10-0 and 10-2s in A school and have been on vols for almost all of power school.  What I make time for: rock climbing (50ft wall nearby), lifting weights (until week 15ish came around), traveling to nearby cities (Savannah has been AWESOME to us), the bar scene downtown (if you're 21), hookah downtown, my friends, and minor league sports (baseball and hockey).  What I don't make time for: people that complain about school, people that waste time in the building, TV (haven't watched more than 10 hours in the last 12 months). 

A lot will be available to you, but won't have the time to do much of it.  This atmosphere is created on purpose.  They know exactly what they are doing to us.  You will change because of it.