Why are the service academies so selective?

[Anonymous]

“Academically highly selective kids don't choose service academies.”

I personally know kids who went to service academies and then got Ivy or Cambridge PhDs but whatever.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The admission stats at the Naval Academy are nearly identical to Virginia Tech. So, stats wise, it’s not selective. But they put up a bunch of hoops that make it difficult to be accepted.

Stats are the easiest box to check in the application prices for sure. And I don’t mean they’re easy- just relative to the rest of the requirements. 4.5 and 1550 is totally irrelevant if you’ve taken ADHD meds, antidepressants, aren’t an athlete, or have any health issues at all.

How will they know what medications anyone has taken, or what health issues there are?

The medical portion is intense. They send you to a military hospital where you go to pretty much every department and are checked inside and out. DC was at the hospital for 4 hours. They have all of your previous records and double check everything. Broke your arm in 3rd grade, they're checking to see if it healed properly.

And a past mental health issue is a non-no?

Which makes sense. Though my neighbor's kid who would have been a stellar officer (he's already a stellar human being) was dinged b/c he saw a therapist for a semester after 9th grade when his parents unexpectedly (in his view) divorced and things got a little messy. Since then, no need, happy and well adjusted kid with all the right stats, motivations, and stuff to contribute to the military. Oh well, West Point's loss is Dartmouth's gain.

Past mental health issues are automatic disqualifiers

But only if you sought treatment...

Doesn't someone who recognizes the need treatment, get treatment, and are better because of it a better bet for a future officer than those not aware enough to know they have issues?

That is a key issue. Reading comments here suggests not getting treatment and choose self medication with alcohol (and other rec drugs) is preferred. People lie about sex, drugs and mental health, that’s not debatable.

Just one of the ways competitive schools encourage lying to get in. You’ve got to be perfect and do more than most 40 year olds in order to compete. For Harvard you have to exaggerate your resume and for service academies you have to “suck it up” when your parents ugly divorce at 14.

[Anonymous]

Where do academies plan on getting the next generation of recruits? After disqualifying every teenager who is obese, has been to therapy, been on ADHD, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, how many are left that are also interested in attending? Are they going to lower the stats requirements? Would be a shame and have long term consequences. The rest of the world is encouraging kids to get help, so their pool is shrinking considerably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do academies plan on getting the next generation of recruits? After disqualifying every teenager who is obese, has been to therapy, been on ADHD, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, how many are left that are also interested in attending? Are they going to lower the stats requirements? Would be a shame and have long term consequences. The rest of the world is encouraging kids to get help, so their pool is shrinking considerably.

And that’s why they end up with veritable Neanderthals from Appalachia and Wyoming and what not. Practice your bow to your future Chinese leader..

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The admission stats at the Naval Academy are nearly identical to Virginia Tech. So, stats wise, it’s not selective. But they put up a bunch of hoops that make it difficult to be accepted.

Stats are the easiest box to check in the application prices for sure. And I don’t mean they’re easy- just relative to the rest of the requirements. 4.5 and 1550 is totally irrelevant if you’ve taken ADHD meds, antidepressants, aren’t an athlete, or have any health issues at all.

How will they know what medications anyone has taken, or what health issues there are?

The medical portion is intense. They send you to a military hospital where you go to pretty much every department and are checked inside and out. DC was at the hospital for 4 hours. They have all of your previous records and double check everything. Broke your arm in 3rd grade, they're checking to see if it healed properly.

And a past mental health issue is a non-no?

Which makes sense. Though my neighbor's kid who would have been a stellar officer (he's already a stellar human being) was dinged b/c he saw a therapist for a semester after 9th grade when his parents unexpectedly (in his view) divorced and things got a little messy. Since then, no need, happy and well adjusted kid with all the right stats, motivations, and stuff to contribute to the military. Oh well, West Point's loss is Dartmouth's gain.

Past mental health issues are automatic disqualifiers

But only if you sought treatment...

Doesn't someone who recognizes the need treatment, get treatment, and are better because of it a better bet for a future officer than those not aware enough to know they have issues?

That is a key issue. Reading comments here suggests not getting treatment and choose self medication with alcohol (and other rec drugs) is preferred. People lie about sex, drugs and mental health, that’s not debatable.

Just one of the ways competitive schools encourage lying to get in. You’ve got to be perfect and do more than most 40 year olds in order to compete. For Harvard you have to exaggerate your resume and for service academies you have to “suck it up” when your parents ugly divorce at 14.

Nice.

And true I suspect.

[Anonymous]

Because we don't need an infinite number of officers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do academies plan on getting the next generation of recruits? After disqualifying every teenager who is obese, has been to therapy, been on ADHD, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, how many are left that are also interested in attending? Are they going to lower the stats requirements? Would be a shame and have long term consequences. The rest of the world is encouraging kids to get help, so their pool is shrinking considerably.

And that’s why they end up with veritable Neanderthals from Appalachia and Wyoming and what not. Practice your bow to your future Chinese leader..

Well that’s rude but it is true that our military used to be as diverse as our nation and now it pulls more heavily from the south. If southerners are not addressing mental health like the northwest and west, then they’re going to get even more southerners. But just because someone hasn’t received mental health care doesn’t mean they don’t need it. Sounds like a potential nightmare to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do academies plan on getting the next generation of recruits? After disqualifying every teenager who is obese, has been to therapy, been on ADHD, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, how many are left that are also interested in attending? Are they going to lower the stats requirements? Would be a shame and have long term consequences. The rest of the world is encouraging kids to get help, so their pool is shrinking considerably.

And that’s why they end up with veritable Neanderthals from Appalachia and Wyoming and what not. Practice your bow to your future Chinese leader..

Well that’s rude but it is true that our military used to be as diverse as our nation and now it pulls more heavily from the south. If southerners are not addressing mental health like the northwest and west, then they’re going to get even more southerners. But just because someone hasn’t received mental health care doesn’t mean they don’t need it. Sounds like a potential nightmare to me. [/quote

Um, the Army and Marines ALWAYS pulled heavily from the South. Yes, those dumb mouth breathing white men whom you all despise were doing a disproportionate amount of fighting and dying for you. Don’t be surprised when they quit signing up to fight for a country that very clearly hates them.

[Anonymous]

Kids can’t do math so we get rid of some math classes. Young adults can’t pass physical standards for military, so some people here suggest they lower standards. You can see where these approaches lead. Have we lost the ability to expect people do something (study math, get in shape) even if it’s not easy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do academies plan on getting the next generation of recruits? After disqualifying every teenager who is obese, has been to therapy, been on ADHD, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, how many are left that are also interested in attending? Are they going to lower the stats requirements? Would be a shame and have long term consequences. The rest of the world is encouraging kids to get help, so their pool is shrinking considerably.

And that’s why they end up with veritable Neanderthals from Appalachia and Wyoming and what not. Practice your bow to your future Chinese leader..

Well that’s rude but it is true that our military used to be as diverse as our nation and now it pulls more heavily from the south. If southerners are not addressing mental health like the northwest and west, then they’re going to get even more southerners. But just because someone hasn’t received mental health care doesn’t mean they don’t need it. Sounds like a potential nightmare to me. [/quote

Um, the Army and Marines ALWAYS pulled heavily from the South. Yes, those dumb mouth breathing white men whom you all despise were doing a disproportionate amount of fighting and dying for you. Don’t be surprised when they quit signing up to fight for a country that very clearly hates them.

“Always” being after Vietnam. And yes, 20 somethings are less interested in the military lifestyle and constant war they grew up with. They used to sign up and know there was a CHANCE they’d go to war. I lived the life for 29 years and although the training, friendship, and service are valuable, I totally understand why current young people aren’t interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do academies plan on getting the next generation of recruits? After disqualifying every teenager who is obese, has been to therapy, been on ADHD, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, how many are left that are also interested in attending? Are they going to lower the stats requirements? Would be a shame and have long term consequences. The rest of the world is encouraging kids to get help, so their pool is shrinking considerably.

And that’s why they end up with veritable Neanderthals from Appalachia and Wyoming and what not. Practice your bow to your future Chinese leader..

Well that’s rude but it is true that our military used to be as diverse as our nation and now it pulls more heavily from the south. If southerners are not addressing mental health like the northwest and west, then they’re going to get even more southerners. But just because someone hasn’t received mental health care doesn’t mean they don’t need it. Sounds like a potential nightmare to me. [/quote

Um, the Army and Marines ALWAYS pulled heavily from the South. Yes, those dumb mouth breathing white men whom you all despise were doing a disproportionate amount of fighting and dying for you. Don’t be surprised when they quit signing up to fight for a country that very clearly hates them.

Lets's not bring the Marines into this. Crayons. Enough said.

The reason a lot of southerners are in the military is that's where the bases are. It's normalized. A lot of families have members serving. It's less likely in New England or the West Coast, where there are comparatively fewer bases.

Pretty sure California took the most casualties in Iraq/Afghanistan. There's nothing special about southerners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it just because they're free?

They’re prestigious, and rigorous, and open a ton of doors professionally, AND they’re free. So, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The admission stats at the Naval Academy are nearly identical to Virginia Tech. So, stats wise, it’s not selective. But they put up a bunch of hoops that make it difficult to be accepted.

Stats are the easiest box to check in the application prices for sure. And I don’t mean they’re easy- just relative to the rest of the requirements. 4.5 and 1550 is totally irrelevant if you’ve taken ADHD meds, antidepressants, aren’t an athlete, or have any health issues at all.

How will they know what medications anyone has taken, or what health issues there are?

It's a very intensive application. They'll know. I had one that went through it. Color blindness. So that was the end of the navy. Army is more accommodating.

You can't hide anything on an academy app. Absolutely everything gets tested.

Oh stop my high school friend wasxolor line and went to the naval academy. Just couldn’t be a pilot.

[Anonymous]

Color blind, sorry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Color blind, sorry

Not the Naval Academy.