Looking for advice..sorta

[GreenBox123]

Good day all, thank you for taking the time to open this thread. I don't know how long this is going to be but I guess I'll just start.


  I've always wanted to be a mathematician and I like doing pure math problems because it requires actually thinking about the problem. Not just remembering some facts or properties and then plugging and chugging in the numbers to get an answer like they have you do in school. You have to think about the problem in a creative way or from a different angle. So why am I tellling you this?  Well, I was thinking about going to college and pursuing a math degree but I didn't want to be too hasty without looking around for other options.   After searching through the internet, I found about the nuke program! It sounded cool, getting to learn fluid dynamics, heat flow and all of this awesome stuff that requires a lot of math like differential equations,integrals,..etc.  It sounded like I hit the jackpot. College would have me racking up debt, not too much but still debt. It seemed like I could learn a ton and that it would benefit my future plans of becoming a mathematician.


So I enlisted about 4 months ago and am still currently in DEP ( I graduate in about a week). I still continued researching everything I could about the nuke program and there was a post here about "How much do I need to know to prepare for A/Power school?" or something along those lines. I read the replies and people were saying that the hardest math you'll use is algebra and everything below it. No calculus I,II or III. No multivariable calc. Nada. Is this true? Is it really just basic math? The type were you just remember some properties and plug in numbers.


This is a huge turnoff for me. Does being in the nuke program benefit me as a aspiring mathematician? How will go about telling my recruiter that I don't want to be a nuke anymore if this is what it entails. Memorizing and repeating stuff verbatim. Not fundamentally understanding it.


Thank you for any inputs/advice you may give me. I appreciate it all.

[Sadawg04]

I didnt enlist in the navy but I got my degree from college. From what I remember it was not basic math. Thermodynamics was a hard class I called it physics on steroids. My teacher would write out these ridiculous problems that were not easy to solve. My circuits classes over DC and AC were also pretty heavily involved in math and they were not easy. I dont know about power school because I never went through the experience but I would imagine its hard. If my classes werent heavily involed with math I was learning all about a pwr and how it worked. Other than that I dont know much about power school but hope this helps.

[GreenBox123]

Thank you @sawdawg, I'm more of a math than physics kinda of guy. Not saying it isn't interesting but it's not what I wanna focus on in my life. I thought going through the nuke program would help me a lot, it isn't what I thought it was. I thought 6 years isn't too bad since the first 2 years will help me get college credits but it turns out only 2 specific colleges will accept them. Excelsior and another one, both only counting them towards a degree in nuclear engineering (not what I plan on doing).

Thank you again, I appreciate it.

[GLW]

Good day all, thank you for taking the time.....

the Navy has a mission,....

warheads on targets,....

the Navy Nuclear Power Pipeline (NNPP) prepares the vast number of candidates to operate a nuclear steam plant on a warship which puts warheads on targets,...

somewhere on the fringes of that vast number of candidates there are a small number of possible outcomes (for a small number of candidates) which results in something other than operating a nuclear steam plant on a warship,...

it seems that at least 50% of the new users to these threads are gaming for that fringe outcome, and inquiring of the veterans of these boards how to increase the OP's probabilities of acquiring that fringe outcome,...

the job of a recruiter is to convince you that the fringe outcome is much more likely for you because you are special,...

the typical response OPs find here is, "The world may be telling you that you're special, don't count on it.",....

OPs should come here before they ever talk to a recruiter,...

but, look at it this way,...

you're not a math prodigy, if you were you would have already been handed a full ticket scholarship and would not even be on these boards,...

if you're not a math prodigy no one is really interested in the fact that you like math but yourself,...

and no one is ever gonna give you a job because you like math and you would like to work for somebody doing math,...

doing math that a microsoft spreadsheet can do everyday, all day, for an undeniably cheaper investment than hiring you to do math,....

a spreadsheet probably developed by a math prodigy,...

or a programmer with epic skills working in concert with a math prodigy,...

but, then again, in the USN,...

you'll be earning a paycheck, not accruing debt, your math skills should help you discipline yourself with that dose of reality,...

the USN will, sooner or later, pay for your math degree should you seek that outcome, and the immediately preceding statement will be maintained,...

there are other pretty good benefits for some folks (especially starving mathematicians) once you are honorably discharged,...

most of those benefits make finances in your post-Navy years a bit more manageable,...

not to mention post-Navy nuke workers can do pretty well for themselves, and a math degree never hurts in the technical specialist end of the post-Navy nukeworker job market,...

AND, maybe, just maybe at best, YOU will become one of those few fringe outcome persons in the NNPP and actually end up with a Navy specialty which uses your desire to exercise mathematics,....

THAT outcome will mostly be up to your ability to perceive an opportunity, your willingness to persevere, and your adaptability when conforming to what the Navy specifies for that fringe outcome,...

AND,....some probabilistic serendipity,...


almost forgot,...(sic) for beercort,....

[GreenBox123]

@GLW, I never said I was a math prodigy nor do I claim to be one. I wish to study Pure Maths and I believe I have the right to do so. I don't need to be "special" to do that. Maybe you don't understand the kind of math I mean, I don't mean the math a Microsoft spreadsheet can do nor the one that a computer can do.  I mean the abstract math, the kind computers can't do. Take this problem, for example, start with any positive integer n. If n is even, take half of that, if not then multiply by 3 and add 1. Repeat forever. The conjecture is that no matter which n you choose, you will always end up at one.  Is that something a computer or Microsoft spreadsheet can do?

I understand that you weren't entirely trying to attack me and at the end there, trying to encourage me. But do not try to scare or belittle me with accruing debt, starving or being unemployed because I am not better than a computer. Money and a six-figure job do not give me fulfillment, perhaps to you. I just thought I would be able to learn what I love and then serve, but it's not what it is.

Thank you and if you have any other advice, I would appreciate it if was on the question on how do I go about telling my recruiter that I don't want to join.

[GLW]

.............Thank you and if you have any other advice, I would appreciate it if was on the question on how do I go about telling my recruiter that I don't want to join.

yeah, straight up tell the recruiter you ain't gonna enlist,....

you will piss off the recruiter,....


as you will have wasted that recruiter's time, and your decision will reflect negatively for that recruiter vis a vis the people that the recruiter answers to concerning your reneging on the deal,...

but, that's not your problem, that's the recruiter's problem,...


some folks decisions and actions fricking up other people's lives is just part of what happens when some folks move through life,....

the enlisted NNPP will not indulge your desire to exercise this as part of your assigned duties:

start with any positive integer n. If n is even, take half of that, if not then multiply by 3 and add 1. Repeat forever. The conjecture is that no matter which n you choose, you will always end up at one.....

you will have liberty time when you can indulge that investigation should you follow through with enlistment,....

[hamsamich]

You will be able to see what math can do in real world situations based specifically on the job you will eventually do, but it is NOT close to on par with college calculus  IMHO.  It is cool to see how physics, heat xfer fluid flow, reactor theory, materials, and electrical theory are used in conjunction with math (yes mostly plug and play equations) to give outcomes to explain nuclear power principles.  But you probably won't use much of it after power school. ROs do calculate rod position before a startup to know how far to pull rods based on earlier reactor power, rod position and time (reactivity).  I did it once pretty cool but I don't like math as much as you.  I was waiting to pull into a port so I could get drunk and chase foreign women for 48 hours.

[SloGlo]

yawl want two study math on sum buddy else's dime, git a scholarship to a major university. the u.s.n. ain't you're cup of tee.

[GreenBox123]

@hamsamich, Yea that was what I was afraid of. Not that I am afraid of Applied Math but that I'm not going to be doing some of the more "advanced" math. Thank you hamsamich.

@SloGlow I thought since it was the most difficult program it would involve learning advanced math topics, I am not saying that I thought it was all math and nothing else. Of course, there was going to be physics and the concepts that go along with it.
Either way, you are right, the USN is most likely not my cup of tea.

[Chimera]

Any military program and/or university course will only require you to learn enough math to get through their program and/or course.  What else you get out of it is a function of what you put into it, e.g., your inquisitiveness.  Only you can limit yourself.

[The Point]

Navy Nukes are not mathematicians. They are operating engineers. How on earth did you get the opinion that navy nukes are mathematicians? Go to college.

[TVA]

Uh they arent Engineers..

[Marlin]

Uh they arent Engineers..

Seriously!!! The term engineer is used in a variety of ways train engineers, operating engineers out of union halls etc. etc. I heard the term for everyone in the engineering department with the department head called "The Engineer". You need to get checked for the Buzz kill gene. 

[SloGlo]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer


"Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are people who invent, design, analyse, build, and test machines, systems, structures and materials to fulfill objectives and requirements while considering the limitations imposed by practicality....The foundational qualifications of an engineer typically include a 4-year bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline, or in some jurisdictions, a master's degree in an engineering discipline plus 4–6 years of peer-reviewed professional practice (culminating in a project report or thesis) and passage of engineering board examinations."

[Marlin]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer


"Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are people who invent, design, analyse, build, and test machines, systems, structures and materials to fulfill objectives and requirements while considering the limitations imposed by practicality....The foundational qualifications of an engineer typically include a 4-year bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline, or in some jurisdictions, a master's degree in an engineering discipline plus 4–6 years of peer-reviewed professional practice (culminating in a project report or thesis) and passage of engineering board examinations."

International Union of Operating Engineers

https://www.iuoe.org/

Railroad engineer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_engineer

Custodial Engineer

https://careertrend.com/info-8613579-job-description-custodial-engineer.html

Radiological Controls Engineer

My point being, what is the purpose and how was it helpful to post a terse, unhelpful, myopic, trolling response. I refer to Nukeworker rule number four yet again:

4. Please learn to be respectful, tolerate and support each other.  NukeWorker.com's goal is to help others, not see how many people we can annoy. Do not initiate arguments or tension. This will only cause the triggering of other members and make this site less professional.

https://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,4700.0.html