Computer Conversations with Your Mid

E-mailing and IM’ing Your Midshipman

One of the hardest things parents of Midshipmen have to adjust to is the inability to pick up the phone and call their son or daughter any time they want.  While there are now telephones in the dormitory rooms of Bancroft Hall; your Mids, especially your Plebes, are not always able to use them.

Fortunately, with the modern wonders of computer technology, we have a way to communicate with the Midshipmen on a regular basis, through the use of computers, the Internet, email and Instant Messaging (IM).  Your Mids will quickly learn that computers are an indispensable, and critical, part of their life on the Yard. This is the way all Midshipmen communicate on a daily basis.   Many assignments, research tasks, all  grades, announcements, movement plans, orders and announcements are transferred to each Midshipman via his/her computer.  Parents can "talk" on a daily basis with their Mid's, once Plebe summer is over. Instant Messaging (whether via AOL or another vendor) is great for this.  Get it, try it, and your Mid will know whenever you are both on line at the same time.

Every Midshipman is issued a computer at the start of the academic year (this is AFTER the end of Plebe Summer – Plebes DO NOT have computer access on a regular basis during Plebe Summer).  

If you have a computer with Internet Service at home, at your office – or both – once the Academic Year starts you can usually communicate with your Mid, whenever their schedule and permissions allow. 

Every Midshipman has an E-Mail address – it is a combination of their Alpha number (m08xxxx) and their Internet address (usna.edu) thus, their email address will be (m[alphacode] @usna.edu .... or ... m084321@usna.edu).

Using your computer, you can leave messages for your Mid any time, day or night. Your Mid will receive these messages when he/she checks their e-mail messages. Since most of the communication on the Yard is through computer, they will be checking their e-mail daily for messages from professors, other Mids, high school friends now at other colleges, haircut schedules, grades etc. Each time your Mid checks electronic mail, your letter will be retrieved as new mail. You can leave a message on a regular prearranged time schedule or just whenever you have the urge or need. You stand a much greater chance of receiving an e-mail message from your Mid than a letter. It's much easier for the Mid and you to communicate in this manner. You can send a message through just about any e-mail threshold on any any ISP (Internet Service Provider).  Your Mid's computer flashes them a message when they have mail waiting in their in-box. He or she then answers by the same medium or calls home on a telephone, whichever is appropriate.  It takes just seconds for you to send or receive a message over the internet, and there are no long distance phone charges.

We strongly recommend this method of staying in touch with your Midshipman.

This is NOT a program for computer nerds only! Anyone who can turn on a computer and type should be able to use this medium for keeping up with the everyday life of your Mid. While a letter may also be sent it takes on the average three or four days for the Midshipmen to receive their mail at Bancroft, while an e-Mail message is literally there in seconds!!!