Since there appears to be considerable misunderstanding of the USNA Majors Program among those who graduated prior to 1967, we thought it best to first provide this paper, which describes the academic program of the `30's through the mid 60's, the so called "lock-step" program, and the current academic program, The Majors.

• two years of math through differential equations
• one year of chemistry
• one year of physics
• two years of foreign language
• many courses over four years in English, History and Government, Electrical Engineering, Marine Engineering, Ordnance and Gunnery, Seamanship and Navigation, and Leadership--too numerous to list here

There were no provisions for validating courses for those who had previous college level education and those who successfully passed Calculus, and advanced Chemistry and Physics, in High School. As a result, those who had passed certain college and some high school level level courses were required to retake the same courses at USNA.

Common exams in each subject were administered classwide at the end of each semester. Daily recitation grades in each course were the norm. Those who failed a course based on a combination of daily grades and the final exam, barring a reexam offered by the Academic Board, were dismissed from the Academy for "academic reasons." A reexam, if offered, was taken within a few days after appearance before the Academic Board. Failure of the reexam, barring the granting of a re-reexam by the Board, resulted in dismissal also. In some instances, midshipmen who were deemed to be so deserving, were "turned back" to the USNA Class behind them.

Since the course content was uniform for all classes taking that course, the course was pitched in level of difficulty to the average midshipman, often leaving the more academically gifted without a significant academic challenge in that course.

All midshipmen who successfully completed the four year program (three years for Classes of 1942 through 1948A) were conferred a Bachelor of Science degree (undesignated) as authorized by an Act of Congress.

Management and oversight of the academic program were in the hands of senior naval officers, usually a Captain, holding positions as Secretary of the Academic Board, Department Heads for MATH/ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING/MARINE ENGINEERING/ORDNANCE&GUNNERY/SEAMANSHIP& NAVIGATION/ENGLISH, HISTORY&GOVERNMENT, and FOREIGN LANGUAGES.

The faculty was split about 50-50 between civilian professors and military instructors. There was no academic dean.

The advantages and disadvantages of the old academic program are opined to be:

ADVANTAGES

• Simplicity of operation and administration
• Uniform approach to determining academic standing among peers, with concomitant impact on future lineal number in the USN
• Quality and depth of education based on curriculum offered was uniform

DISADVANTAGES

• No validation of previous college or certain high school courses passed was allowed with concomitant inefficient use of time and lack of academic challenge to those midshipmen with varying amounts of college level, and some high school level, experience (most notably in math, science, English and foreign languages)
• Course content and level of difficulty were aimed at the average midshipman with concomitant lack of academic challenge to many more academically gifted students
• inefficient preparation of some who sought postgraduate education in engineering and science disciplines under USN auspices through failure to provide many undergraduate courses necessary to fulfillment of the graduate degree. The consequence--about three years devoted to postgraduate education to obtain an undergraduate degree and a Masters degree in those disciplines with significant affect on time away from the operational venue
  
• accessions impact on potential candidates, particularly those with college level experience, who preferred to either pursue designated degrees or not have to repeat courses they had already mastered
• significant academic attrition due to quick reexams for those who failed subjects, who in most instances were not prepared academically to pass the reexam. The "lock step" program did not have the flexibility to repeat a course in its entirety except under the "turnback" option.

THE MAJORS PROGRAM (1967-today)
The Academic organization, headed by an Academic Dean (previously a civilian academician but currently a USNA graduate with significant academic administration background), consisting of four academic Divisions headed by a senior naval officer (usually a Captain), is constituted today as follows:

ENGINEERING/WEAPONS DIVISION

• Aerospace Engineering Department
• Electrical Engineering Department
• Mechanical Engineering Department
• Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department
• Weapons and Systems Department

MATH/SCIENCE DIVISION

• Chemistry Department
• Math Department
• Computer Science Department
• Physics Department
• Oceanography Department
• Quantitative Economics Department

HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE DIVISION

• Economics Department
• English Department
• History Department
• Language Studies Department
• Political Science Department

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DIVISION

• Leadership, Ethics, and Law Department
• Seamanship and Navigation Department

The various "majors" made available to midshipmen, as well as the advent of the majors program, was initiated during the tour of VADM Calvert when he was the Superintendent.

The Majors Program today consists of the following "MAJORS" (Note: an * asterisk indicates that a designated degree--such as BS Aero Eng or BS Computer Science--is offered for those majors only)

General Engineering and General Science majors may be elected by midshipmen. These majors are also `fallback" for those who originally select other majors but, for whatever reason, are not able to continue to pursue the major originally selected.

CURRICULA REQUIREMENTS
All Plebes must complete a common 4/c academic year. The requirements are shown later. Curricula for 3/c, 2/c, 1/c vary depending on the major selected. The course requirements for each major fall into three areas:

• CORE---essential to every midshipman's education regardless of major selected
• DIVISION---common to all majors within a Division
• MAJOR---prescribed set of courses necessary for the designated degree

CORE COURSES
These CORE requirements apply to all majors:

• Mathematics--three semesters of calculus plus either a course in differential equations or probability and statistics. Those who can validate take higher level course
• Chemistry---One year of chemistry. Those who can validate take higher level courses
• Physics---One year of Physics. Those who can validate take electives
• Engineering---All Division I majors, as well as Math/Physics/Chemistry majors, must take two electrical engineering and two systems engineering courses. All Division II and III majors must complete two courses in Naval Engineering. All Division III majors, plus Computer Science/General Science/Oceanography/ Quantitative Economics must take three integrated electrical/weapons engineering courses.
• English---All are required to take a two course sequence in English. Those needing additional preparation must take "Practical Writing." Validators take advance courses in English.
• History---All are required to take a course in American Naval Heritage and a two course sequence in History of Western Civilization.
• Writing---The two course sequence in both English and History require significant amounts of writing. If a midshipman is deemed deficient in writing at the completion of those course sequences, he may be required to take an additional course, "Professional Writing."
• Government---All are required to take a course in American government and constitutional development.
• Humanities/Social Sciences---All midshipman requires 24 semester hours of core courses in this area. The English, History and Government courses specified above count towards the 24 hours requirement. Additionally, two Humanities/ Social Science electives are required.
• Languages---All Division III majors must complete or validate 4 semesters of a foreign language.
• Professional---All majors must take three specified Naval Science courses, a specified Navigation course, two specified Leadership courses, and a specified Ethics Course. Professional courses cannot be validated.

• Leadership and Human Behavior
• Fundamentals of Naval Science.
• U. S. Government and Constitutional Development
• American Naval Heritage
• Two semesters of calculus of varying difficulty dependent on validation/ placement examinations.
• Two semesters of chemistry of varying difficulty dependent on validation and placement examinations.
• Two semesters of English.

• Complete or validate the core, divisional and majors courses specified in the course matrix for each major.
• Complete or validate a minimum of 140 semester hours, including a minimum of 90 hours in the CORE program with a cumulative quality point rating (CQPR) of 2.0 (Note: Quality points for each course taken are awarded as follows: A=4; B=3; C=2; D=1; F=0).

DEGREES
All those who complete the course of instruction and become graduates receive, as a minimum, a Bachelor of Science Degree (undesignated) as provided for by an Act of Congress. Those who successfully complete the requirements for a designated degree (e.g. BS Aero Engineering or BS Computer Science) are awarded a specific degree in that major. There are no Bachelor of Art degrees or designated degrees in non-asterisk majors (e.g. English, History, Political Science, Math, Physics, etc.)

SUMMER ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Midshipmen attend summer school for a variety of reasons. Some volunteer in order to move ahead in their major to take additional elective courses, and some try to improve their QPR by repeating courses where they were given a "D" grade. These volunteers attend during their summer leave program.

Those midshipmen who have failed a course, fall behind in their major matrix, change majors, or have a low CQPR (< 2.0), may be directed by the Academic Board or Academic Advisory Board to attend summer school to take, in many cases, a different course in order to open a hole in the next semester schedule to repeat the course that was failed. Attendance of those directed to summer school, which is mandatory, may preclude participation in some aspects of summer professional training programs as well as summer leave.

VALIDATION
Validation and placement take place during Plebe Summer at the request of the individual midshipman to the cognizant Department Head(s) of the course(s) he wants to try to validate.

The advantages and disadvantages of the "majors program" are opined as follows:

ADVANTAGES

• accession of potential candidates is improved by the availability of designated degrees, validation, and choice of major even though the term "major" is somewhat of a misnomer in that the overall curriculum for all is heavily engineering and science oriented as it always has been.
• course content and degree of difficulty can be varied to meet the need of a wide spectrum of academic ability with the concomitant effects that the education level is expanded for the more academically gifted and all levels of academic ability will be challenged
• provision for designated degrees in engineering and science permits those who may seek postgraduate education under USN auspices in the same discipline to complete their Masters degree program in about one year vice a nominal three year program under the 'lock-step" program. This reduces time away from the operational venue
• institution of the summer school program has reduced academic attrition significantly and essentially removed the potential stigma associated with the "turnback" midshipman. More importantly, it provides a midshipman who has failed a course an opportunity to repeat that course in its entirety with an extremely high rate of success, as opposed to the old "reexam" approach which had a much lower rate of success
• elective courses are generally available to midshipmen in varying quantities, all of which tend to broaden their knowledge and understanding in academic areas of interest to the individual midshipman

DISADVANTAGES

• the operation and administration of the academic program is significantly more complex that the older program
• the advent of the Academic Dean, with many of the trappings from academia

Most of the complaints heard from older graduates seem to focus on the "fact" that USNA has English, History, Economics and Political Science "majors". To put that in perspective for many of you, the following data is offered from the curricula matrices for those majors:

TYPICAL CORE COURSES
SUBJECT	TITLE	YEAR	APPLICABLE MAJOR
Math	Calculus and Analytic Geometry I&II	4/C	ALL
Math	Calculus III	3/C	ALL
Math	Probability and Stats or Diff. Equations	3/C	ALL
Chemistry	Foundations of Chemistry I&II	4/C	ALL
Physics	General Physics I&II	3/C	ALL
Engineering	Electrical Engineering I&II	2/C; l/C	DIV I plus Math, Chemistry, Physics
Engineering	Naval Weapons Systems	2/C	same as above
Engineering	Control Systems	1/C	same as above
Engineering	Naval Engineering I&II	2/C; l/C	ALL DIV II/III
Engineering	Intro. Electrical Technology	2/C	DIV III plus CompSci,Gen.Eng, Oceanography and Quant. Economics
Engineering	Intro. Wpns Systems Engineering	2/C	same as above
Engineering	Weapons Systems Engineering	1/C	same as above
English	Rhetoric and Literature I&II	4/C	ALL
History	American Naval Heritage	4/C	ALL
History	History of Western Civilization I&II	3/C	ALL
Government	American Gov't & Constitutional Devel.	4/C	ALL
Humanities	Two (2) Hum/Soc. Sci. electives	2/C; l/C	ALL
Language	Four(4) semesters of one language	4/C; 3/C	ALL DIV III
Professional	Fundamentals of Naval Science	4/C	ALL
Professional	Tactics	2/C	ALL
Professional	J.O Practicum (in service select. area)	1/C	ALL
Professional	Navigation	3/C	ALL
Professional	Leadership/Human Behavior	4/C	ALL
Professional	Leadership: Theory and Practice	2/C	ALL
Professional	Law for the Junior Officer	1/C	ALL
Professional	Ethics and Moral Reasoning	3/C	ALL
Notes:
(1) Few, if any, "majors" related courses are taken until 2/c year, after the midshipman is committed to stay at USNA
(2) All Engineering "majors", except EE, take courses familiar to old grads, like Statics, Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Materials
(3) There are some variations in the core courses in Math, Chemistry, Physics and English dependent on validations and placement exams
(4) The Junior Officer Practicum required in 1/c year is a course in the duties and responsibilities expected of a junior officer in his area of service selection

 

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