Posted: 9/8/2011 8:04:29 AM EDT
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I have a friend who is thinking about going to this school. Anyone here have any experience there or know of anyone who has experience? |
| Wife's cousin went there. Says the training was good, but they have no job placement program. He took out a big loan and got his schooling, then moved to Florida in hopes of getting a dive job, ended up working in a scuba shop. He saved up enough money to move back and is now filing for bankruptcy. YMMV. |
| One of my best friends went there, graduated, and moved on to working off shore in the gulf for several years making a good living. He left that field for some reason but still gets calls/offers to dive for them and works on the side as a recreational instructor at local dive shops when he needs some fun $$. YMMV |
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If he's under 35, in good to great shape, can pass all the physicals, has had no heart or breathing problems, no Eustachian tube or other ear problems (i.e. can clear his ears of pressure, no perforated ear drums), no major surgeries (especially no metal in the body) and a whole host of other things, than it's a good gig. DIT is a good school, long and epensive. BUT part of the length and expense is teaching skills for when kids fail out of the diving industry. Schools like the one in Morgan City La are shorter, and cheaper if a person intends to go straight offshore. Offshore, no one gives a shit what school you went to. All the money is offshore, inshore pays much less, unless you get in on good union gigs but that's one of those "you have to know someone" to get in type deals. DIT cost $16k when I went, but fortunately I had spent the previous year in Iraq, so I had no taxable income, and qualified for a lot of grants, and my GI bill paid the balance. Everyone bitches about how much the school costs, but when you get offshore you make BANK. I hired on at $10 an hour, as soon as you hit the boat, you get paid 12 hour days minimum, so each week is 40 hours straight time, 44 hours overtime. I'd stay out for 2-3 months come back in for a week or two than go straight back out. $10 an hour doesn't sound like much until you do the math on it, then it starts to sound pretty good. I was making $19 by the time I left the gulf, and as a broke out diver, only working 4 hours a day, getting paid 12, and getting paid by the foot per dive. When I did my Sat dive, the day rate started at $880 a day. If I had'nt had to hang it up to come home to do live in caretaking for my grandfather, and help my cousin with his bar in belltown, I'd probably be doing even better. It's one of those shit or get off the pot decisions. Everyone knows someone that went, or thought about doing it... Not very many people actually pull the trigger. In the states, the number of active divers is probably right around 10,000. When I started, it was around 5k. Katrina and Rita swelled the ranks for sure. |
| I went to the College of oceaneering in Long Beach CA, name has changed,maybe closed that school as they had a couple. Life time job placement. I did In-Shore diving (sewage, Damns, Bridges, Nuke intakes, Water tanks ect..) Great money as long as the owners kept the jobs coming in. Was diving my first day on the job. Spent 2 years in the business then ended up joining the Coast Guard when the jobs ran out. Went to navy dive school, and ended up doing a lot of research diving in Antarctica, and in the Arctic. |
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DIT as a whole was a good place to go, I was fortunate to be in a class (101-05) that was comprised of mostly former military, so everyone clicked real well, and got shit done. There was no petty schoolroom bullshit, and the few people who were behind the power curve got lit up, instead of being allowed to drag the whole class down. I have many friends who were in classes at DIT, College of Oceenering, and whatever the place is in New Jersey that were not as fortunate, and feel like they got cheated a little bit because of student bullshit. Basically, you show up, learn a metric shit ton of math, biology, and physics, then start diving. There's a little break to learn topside welding and cutting. At nights, we would all go out and get hammered at Ballard bar and grill (think that's it, behind the fred meyer on leary). Now that the schools moved, i don't know what the local bar is. Pretty much all the instructors are retired navy dive masters, or commercial divers. When I was there, it was a 50/50 mix. When I went back a year ago to stop by, most of the commercial guys went back to work, and it was primarily Navy cats. I was also fortunate to get a GREAT line up of instructors. Would I go to DIT again? Only in the exact same circumstances, grants and GI bill. Otherwise I'd save up cash, head down to Louisiana, and go to school in Morgan City. |
Right on! It's a good gig, being prior military helps a lot, as many people who enter the field tend to be prior service, and a higher percentage stick it out. If he's ever been on ship, he'll feel right at home!  It's sort of a down industry right now for offshore, don't know about inland. Offshore revolves around everything getting fucked up by hurricanes and creating work. The drilling moratorium, and BP spill REALLY fucked things up. Ships husbandry last I heard was rocking, as big companies are starting to pull an "Atlas Shrugged" and sending all the rigs and such to other countries. I have a few buddies from school still in the gulf, one in Fla, and one from my old Platoon who's in Cali, I need to check in on them so I'll try to get a feel for whats going on. Nothing says 6 months from now it'll be the same though! Much like other heavy industries, the guys that get shit done are the ones that will always have work. Offshorediver.com and longstreath.com are two of the old school hardhat diver sites, apparently inland diver's shut down. But those two are a wealth of knowlege (offshorediver.com used to make this place look like a playground). http://www.coastguardtraining.com/rem_diving/default.htm Dive school in La. Last I heard out of state tuition was like $7000, probably more now. |
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If he still has GI benifits, the school takes them, and if he has at least 7 months of post 9/11 GI bill, he could probably go to school, tuition paid for, and get $1350/ mo. BAH. The BAH has been all dicked up by the current congress, and there is no more break pay. Like I have said before, I understand that the .gov is broke and needs to make cuts, but it is fucked up that entitlement (protection) money still gets paid out, but they fuck the vets first. |
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Quoted: I thought GI Bill money was it's own protected little thing? Nice to know the current administration can fuck that up too!Quoted: If he still has GI benifits, the school takes them, and if he has at least 7 months of post 9/11 GI bill, he could probably go to school, tuition paid for, and get $1350/ mo. BAH. The BAH has been all dicked up by the current congress, and there is no more break pay. Like I have said before, I understand that the .gov is broke and needs to make cuts, but it is fucked up that entitlement (protection) money still gets paid out, but they fuck the vets first. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I thought GI Bill money was it's own protected little thing? Nice to know the current administration can fuck that up too!
Quoted:
If he still has GI benifits, the school takes them, and if he has at least 7 months of post 9/11 GI bill, he could probably go to school, tuition paid for, and get $1350/ mo. BAH. The BAH has been all dicked up by the current congress, and there is no more break pay. Like I have said before, I understand that the .gov is broke and needs to make cuts, but it is fucked up that entitlement (protection) money still gets paid out, but they fuck the vets first. Nope, and it has put a hurtin' on myself and Lisa. The woman at the VA office actually blamed Obama, and as much as I'd like that to be true, I can't see that being entirely correct. |