The Navy pays for the tuition, room and board, and medical and dental care of Naval Academy midshipmen. You also enjoy regular active-duty benefits including access to military commissaries and exchanges, commercial transportation and lodging discounts and the ability to fly space-available in military aircraft around the world. Midshipmen pay is $764 monthly, from which laundry, barber, cobbler, activities fees, yearbook and other service charges are deducted. Actual cash pay is $75 to $100 per month your first year, increasing each year to $400 per month in your fourth year.

Leave and Privileges

The Naval Academy’s combined academic, military and physical development programs demand a lot of effort, requiring you to spend more time on campus than the typical civilian college student. But midshipmen enjoy Christmas and summer vacations (leave) plus shorter periods of time off (liberty). Free time to be away from the academy is based in large part on assigned military responsibilities, performance in academic and military endeavors and class seniority. You earn more liberty and privileges each year you advance at the academy. All midshipmen generally are granted leave during these periods:

• Thanksgiving leave
• Christmas vacation at the end of the fall semester
• Mid-term leave during spring semester
• A short break at the end of spring semester and before Commissioning Week
• A month-long summer vacation.

During semesters of the academic year, off-campus privileges fall into two categories: town liberty and weekend liberty. Weekend liberty permits you to leave the academy after your last military obligation on Friday afternoon and return Sunday evening. Liberty curfews differ according to seniority. You are not eligible for liberty if you are assigned a military duty/watch (rotated responsibilities) or if you are having serious difficulty in academics, conduct or military performance. Generally, town and weekend liberty is authorized for midshipmen as follows:

• Plebes have town liberty on Saturday afternoons and evenings and liberty within the Naval Academy complex on Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons. Special weekend liberty may be granted on special occasions.
• Three liberty weekends each semester are authorized for third-classmen, five a semester for second-classmen and an unlimited number (except for watch/ duty weekends) for first classmen.
• Weekday and weekend liberty is graduated according to seniority.

Motor Vehicles

Restrictions apply to your use of motor vehicles as a midshipman. This is necessary because parking space is very limited at the academy and in Annapolis. Also, you have limited time off in the first years to make use of a private vehicle. These are the current rules:

• Third-class midshipmen and plebes are not permitted to operate motor vehicles except when authorized leave, such as during Christmas vacation.
• Second-class midshipmen may have a car but must maintain and operate it beyond academy grounds.
• First-class midshipmen may drive a car in Annapolis and on board the Naval Academy and may park at the academy.
• No midshipman is allowed to maintain or operate a motorcycle within town liberty limits.

Alcohol and Drugs

As a future naval officer, you learn at the Naval Academy to drink in a responsible way, if at all, and to shun illegal drugs entirely. Normally, plebes are not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages except when of legal age and on leave away from the academy. As an upperclass midshipman, you may drink if you are the minimum legal age for drinking in the state, 21 in Maryland. The use of illegal drugs is strictly forbidden and results in expulsion from the academy. As a midshipman, you are subject to random drug testing through urinalysis, consistent with Navy-wide policies and procedures.

Services

Almost everything you need as a midshipman is available on the academy grounds. There’s a bookstore, uniform and tailor shop, cobbler shop, snack bar, barber/beauty shop, post office and recreation rooms. We also provide the following services:

Recreational Facilities

The Naval Academy has a wide variety of activities that are available to midshipmen. Located in historic Dahlgren Hall are the Drydock Restaurant and the ice skating rink— home of the Navy hockey team. The Steerage Restaurant is located in Bancroft Hall.

Dining

The entire brigade eats at one time in a 55,000-square-foot dining area or wardroom, King Hall. Companies sit together, and food is served family style for breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday, and on Sunday night dinners. All other meals are served buffet style. The typical daily diet adds up to about 4,000 calories and includes such dishes as steak, spiced shrimp, Mexican cuisine and home-baked pastries. All of the food for the 12,000 meals served daily is prepared by our food service staff in the kitchens adjacent to King Hall.

Medical Care

Modern facilities for medical treatment are conveniently located at the Naval Academy. Besides routine medical treatment, orthopedics/sports medicine, podiatry, physical therapy, gynecology and preventive medicine and optometry services are available. Specialists in dermatology, neurology, cardiology and urology schedule visits to the academy. Consultation and treatment including inpatient care, in all major medical and surgical specialties are available at the National Capital Area military treatment facilities. However, most orthopedic procedures and emergency conditions are referred to Anne Arundel Medical Center, a fully accredited civilian facility in Annapolis.

Dental Care

Comprehensive oral health care is provided by the Dental Clinic conveniently located in Bancroft Hall. The professional staff provides the full range of dental hygiene and general dentistry treatment. The specialties of Oral Surgery, Orthodontics (limited), Periodontics and Prosthodontics are also available.

Midshipmen Development Center

A wide variety of training, educational and clinical services are provided to promote and enhance the adjustment, well-being, and professional development of midshipmen, including confidential individual and group counseling, workshops and support groups.

Legal assistance

The Office of Legal Counsel is available to assist midshipmen with personal and military legal questions.

Financial advice

Regular seminars offer information on savings, loans, insurance programs, investment opportunities and tax returns. Individual financial counseling is available from a Navy Supply Corps officer who serves as the midshipmen financial advisor.

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