Kyoowashugi
New Member
My school does as well; which is good, because they charge more for R/B than most schools do for tuition. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a mid.
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NROTC commitment now 5 years
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My school does as well; which is good, because they charge more for R/B than most schools do for tuition. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a mid.
But the money for that comes from the schools, not the government, so shouldn't have any bearing on this. Big city living expenses, like at Penn, for example, rack up pretty quickly. That little stipend they give doesn't go that far
Kyoowashugi
New Member
True, especially for crosstowners - gas adds up fast. Maybe there's a pay raise on the horizon
True, especially for crosstowners - gas adds up fast. Maybe there's a pay raise on the horizon
A nice pay raise to make us inline with the Army would be nice. But.. I could see it effective for 2010 and up only! (That'd be away to bust some bubbles)
bluedevil1027
New Member
Well you're just not looking hard enough. Dunno what your major is, but I'm an engineer and I can usually get by with about $200/semester on books (Except this year where we were *forced* to pay $200 for our fluid mechanics online textbook/HW program, but that's a different story).
Two semesters ago, books only cost me $80 total. Yay for half.com.
Kyoowashugi
New Member
Congratulations. Try $200 for one finite element method book and then another few hundred for the rest. And those WERE the cheap prices. Hooray for a school that always goes for new editions.
It seems like most of the books I had to purchase as a poli sci major weren't that expensive, but when a class requires 12 $15 books, things start to add up quickly. I always got super pissed at the prof's who wrote their own books (I'm looking at you, Mr Professor of Global economics) and made us buy them for 110 bucks, and then at the end of the semester came out with a new edition that made minor changes, meaning I couldn't sell my 110 dollar book back for beer money at the end of school. Bush league.
Math and Science usually end up cheaper. I have no clue on Enginerding. I paid like $180 for this whole semester (half of which will be used again next semester) because my upper divs tend to based in technical papers / stolen photocopied diagrams.
Profs that use their own book: Lecture patterns your book, thus where prof suck at explaining or where I suck at understanding prof, I'm SOL. The reason I have a book is to reference shit or see something explained in a different way. Stupid way of operating if you ask me.
NROTC mids have to pay for any of their own books? When I did it, you had to check the unit library. If it wasn't there, you filled out a chit, took it to the campus bookstore, and the bill went to the Nav.
Kyoowashugi
New Member
Wouldn't that require that the Navy buy a copy of every book that could possibly be used by any midshipman in any class? Hardly seems intelligent...no, every semester we get $375 for "books and supplies", direct deposit. There are the usual pros and cons...
No. Like I said, the unit had a library, which had all the books previously used by any mids. If someone else had ever used the same book, you checked out that copy. If not, you took the chit to the bookstore, wrote down the names and prices of everything, took it back to the SKC, who turned it into a purchase voucher which you brought back to the bookstore and traded for your books. At the end of the semester, you turned the books into NROTC to be part of the library.
Was your ROTC a smallish one? We had some classes that had 20-30 mids in them at a time. Sharing a physics book between 15 of your favorite ROTC nazi buddies would not have been conducive to maintaining good order and discipline.
Funny ... when I was 'in' ... the UNIT had a library as well, but it was soley composed of USN/history related books ... 'professional reading' ... things to improve your 'professional' mind ... i.e., Mahan, S.E. Morison, E.B. Potter, Nimitz, Toland, Lord, 'et al ...
Maybe I'm not explaining it well.
You "check out" the book for the whole semester. If that was the last copy, the next mid will be the one who goes to the bookstore with a purchase chit. The next one after that will do the same. After the class is over, they turn their books over to the Navy. If it's a class that a lot of mids take, then the next semester the library would probably have several copies on hand.
Of course, as has been mentioned, editions change frequently. Depending on the zealousness of the SKC, you might or might not get permission to buy a new one if a new edition came out. If all they changed were the pictures, you might have to use the older ones in the NROTC library.
Clear as mud?
Halfway through my time at NROTC they changed from giving us a blank check at the bookstore (for books not in the unit library, we had one too) and switched over to giving us a book stipend at the beginning of every semester. The book stipend did not cover the full cost of all your books like the old system used to. After the change, you used to have to shop around for used books instead of charging the new ones to Uncle. On the plus side, you could spend the stipend on other non-book things like kegs of beer.