City: Castine, ME

Category: Relocation

Telephone: (207) 326-4311 or (800) 227-84

Description: People see the cadets marching around Castine and automatically think of this nautical college as a military institution. It’s not. About 60 percent of the school’s 861 students are enrolled in the regimental program, which is quasi-military, but they’re learning to be sailors in the merchant marine, not the navy. And students study a lot more here than simply commercial sailing. Majors include marine engineering, ocean studies, and marina management, among other things. The school is one of only seven merchant marine colleges in the nation, and it has a fleet of more than 90 vessels, most impressive of which is the State of Maine, a 498-foot training vessel that takes up blocks of the town’s waterfront when it’s not out on a tour. The 50-acre campus is an attractive centerpiece of the downtown of this historic community, all old brick and lawns, and the students here help offset the loss of the tourists and summer people in the fall. The school has a great record of job placement, too and was ranked 10th among baccalaureate colleges in the north by U.S. News & World Report.