CASTINE, Maine - For most students, going back to school typically involves lectures, study halls, lab work - and, if you're enrolled at one particular college in Downeast Maine, jumping into the ocean.
(Splashing sounds) That's the sound of students at Maine Maritime Academy participating in the annual "ship jump," a 40-foot plunge into the ocean from their training ship, The State of Maine. It's a long-standing tradition - particularly for freshmen - that heralds the beginning of the academic year.
First into the water this year was college president Bill Brennan. Brennan says this unconventional start to the school year reflects the fact that Maine Maritime is no ordinary four-year college. "It really is a unique school in the state of Maine," he says. "It's unique not only in its location, it's unique in its program, and it's unique in the success that we achieve."
By that, Brennan means finding well-paid jobs for the vast majority of its graduates. MMA has done so well that Money Magazine recently named it the best public university in the country for the money. The cost of a four-year degree here is $105,000. And while students are usually able to find jobs, the average starting salary is $64,000.
Students graduate from the academy with a relatively high debt load of more than $41,000, but Brennan says this must be weighed against other factors. "Our students do come out with debt, but within 90 days of graduation we're in excess of 90 percent placement within their career fields - many of those students making six-figure salaries with a bachelor's degree."
Set on 30 acres, on the tip of the picturesque Castine peninsula, MMA was founded in 1941 as a way to train much-needed merchant sea captains to help with the war effort. More than 70 years later, there is still a heavy emphasis on teaching seamanship and the ability to pilot vessels of all sizes anywhere in the world.
Here in one of the academy's state-of-the-art navigation simulators, students can take to the bridge of an imaginary ship, surrounded by computer screens representing a 180-degree view of the coastline. Other vessels appear on the horizon and simulated radio traffic is delivered to the trainees as they learn to call the shots under pressure.
Coast Guard veteran Jim Sanders is a technician. He prepares the simulator for the next group of students.
Tom Porter: "So this is a close as you can get to standing on a bridge without actually standing on a bridge?"
Jim Sanders: "Yes. It gives you a feeling of - once you get in here and things start happening, you do get engaged, it can feel very live."
Tom Porter: "Where are we now?"
Jim Sanders: "This is Prince William Sound, Alaska, so we're way up outside of Valdez. And we're going to make a turn coming up around here."
In another part of campus, a handful of students listen intently as Andy Chase teaches a skill that's been important for thousands of years - how to repair a sail. Many of his students, he says, are looking for careers as professional sailors - mostly on other people's boats.
"I've told these guys that this project they're going to do is a sample, as if they're rebuilding the clew of a sail - the corner of a sail - and sure enough, one of my students had to do that on a 175-foot-tall mains'l - the reef tack pulled out and he hand sewed a new tack onto the sail," Chase says.
About 70 percent of MMA's 1,000-strong student body are members of the so-called "Regiment of Midshipmen." While not actually members of the military, they wear uniforms and adhere to standards of discipline and leadership more typically found at a service academy. For students on track to be deck officers in the Merchant Marine, the regiment is compulsory.
Others choose to join. Joseph Torchia is a junior in the engineering program and a midshipman in the regiment. "Really, the good thing I've got out of it is it's a huge leadership lab," he says. "The regiment provides a ton of opportunities that is just invaluable."
Torchia is headed for a few years of active duty in the Navy when he graduates, but has his eye on a career in the merchant fleet when he leaves the military.
However not all MMA students have salt water running through their veins. Degrees are also offered in subjects like international logistics and power plant engineering. Senior Alex Gagnon is a business major who has barely left dry land during his time at the academy. After graduation, he has a job waiting for him in the energy industry.
"I hadn't heard of Maine Maritime until high school and people I'd already known who had gone there," he says, "and I realized every single one of these people is successful. I want this."
Lillian Slazas is also a senior. She recently completed a summer internship with Boeing, but has not yet made up her mind where to work next year. "I really enjoyed the business program, and it's really versatile," she says. "A lot of us go into logistics but, you know, international business - you can really go anywhere with it."
Tim Leach is the academy's director of career services. He says the level of practical experience MMA students receive means they have no problem attracting interest from employers.
"We're certainly well known by industry out in the world," Leach says, "and we're coming up on a career fair here, and we'll probably have in the neighborhood of 80 companies here on campus, recruiting our students."
Which is not bad, he says, for a student body of less than 1,000.