We did not have a car for the first few months here and it sucked. They offer free bus passes to all of us living off-post so that's how I got to school. That part wasn't bad. You can get away with having one car; we do. I rarely drive to school (it's about a 15-20 minute drive) unless I have to for some important reason. If you like bike riding on hills, you will like it here; there is very little flat ground. And there is really nothing around here (the housing) except the commissary and a couple of community buildings like the gym and the library, etc.

Class start time is really varied. I started a month after I got here; some people had to wait 1.5 or 2 months, some started after a week or two; it really just depends on what class they've put him in. The first week for us is spent doing admin-type stuff (CAC cards, meal cards, orders, etc.) and then various Navy indoc things. His is probably similar. From what I understand about classes, the people who decide these things schedule classes to start at certain future dates and then say to each service branch "here is X number of slots for you, fill them or we give them away" and classes get filled pretty quickly. Its difficult to change languages (I've been told Air Force is just not allowed to) but we were able to in the Navy IF a spot was open.

Also it's not really like college at all; there are semesters per se, but it's according to each individual class's schedule. There are no semester breaks. Every class gets a class break of one week and gets to choose when to have that. There's also days off at Christmas and holidays but other than that, we're in school every day.

When I arrived I didn't go to the housing office right away. When I finally did, they showed me the houses that were available and what their move-in dates were and I could choose from any of them. There's no telling what he's going to find when he gets there (although its better to call and ask whats available rather than going in since its off-post and annoying to get to during the duty day) but the available houses change all the time so if he doesn't find something he likes, he can keep calling every day to see if something else comes up.

I don't mind helping you out; I tried doing research on this before I shipped to basic and came up with very little which was frustrating. I had to ask a lot of questions when I got here which I'm sure was annoying but given the lack of decent info...anyway if you have any other questions just ask. :)