Are service academies like West Point considered prestigious?

[Anonymous]

Very prestigious. Employers would jump for these. Similar to an Ivy League

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Average SAT at West Point and AFA is about 1300. Lower at USNA. Not nearly as difficult to get into as an Ivy or any hyper-elite college. Great schools and much respect to the kind of kid who makes the commitment but not nearly the same level of academic performers.

Have at me. (If it helps, I did earn a congressional nomination to the AFA but was denied due to a failed color blindness test. I had no clue I was color blind. It hurt but I would’ve made a lousy cadet. Couldn’t get out of bed. )

I have a relative who graduated very recently from USNA. He could have been a contender for an Ivy, but was a bit surprised that not all of his fellow midshipmen were up to his caliber. Good experience nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Average SAT at West Point and AFA is about 1300. Lower at USNA. Not nearly as difficult to get into as an Ivy or any hyper-elite college. Great schools and much respect to the kind of kid who makes the commitment but not nearly the same level of academic performers.

Have at me. (If it helps, I did earn a congressional nomination to the AFA but was denied due to a failed color blindness test. I had no clue I was color blind. It hurt but I would’ve made a lousy cadet. Couldn’t get out of bed. )

I also noted that the SAT are surprisingly low compared to the reputations.

I guess if your measure of a good school is the average score that its students got on a standardized test they took when they were 16 or 17...then maybe you’re right. Most normal people don’t look at it that way, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Average SAT at West Point and AFA is about 1300. Lower at USNA. Not nearly as difficult to get into as an Ivy or any hyper-elite college. Great schools and much respect to the kind of kid who makes the commitment but not nearly the same level of academic performers.

Have at me. (If it helps, I did earn a congressional nomination to the AFA but was denied due to a failed color blindness test. I had no clue I was color blind. It hurt but I would’ve made a lousy cadet. Couldn’t get out of bed. )

I also noted that the SAT are surprisingly low compared to the reputations.

I guess if your measure of a good school is the average score that its students got on a standardized test they took when they were 16 or 17...then maybe you’re right. Most normal people don’t look at it that way, though.

Or you could just...think something and make no effort to quantify. Pretty uniforms and patriotism I guess. The fact remains that a 1250 gives you a good chance at the USNA and gives you no chance at Williams or Yale (short of some other factor which would just as easily get you into an academy). We see the kids who get into the academies. They are uniformly excellent students and really solid kids. We also have kids who get into Stanford, and they are brilliant and extremely accomplished. They aren’t even close to the same caliber academically.

Your turn. Produce something quantifiable that demonstrates academy difficulty of entry as greater than other elite colleges. I’ll wait.

[Anonymous]

No, not really. Each Congressional District gets some slots. In many Congressional Districts, you have tons of opiod teens. We really had to stretch to pick kids in our office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Average SAT at West Point and AFA is about 1300. Lower at USNA. Not nearly as difficult to get into as an Ivy or any hyper-elite college. Great schools and much respect to the kind of kid who makes the commitment but not nearly the same level of academic performers.

Have at me. (If it helps, I did earn a congressional nomination to the AFA but was denied due to a failed color blindness test. I had no clue I was color blind. It hurt but I would’ve made a lousy cadet. Couldn’t get out of bed. )

I think the low SAT average is partially based on the forced geographic distribution of nominated and appointed students. I'm sure they could load up on high stat kids from NY, CT, NJ, MD, VA, CA etc. like most prestigious colleges do. But they are looking for more geographic balance.

It is interesting that their average SAT/ACT scores are well below even top state schools like W&M, UNC and UVA.

[Anonymous]

Wow,DCUM has a lot of snobs. I guess you’re the same people who have more respect for the Big Law partner next door than the four-star general who lives down the street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Average SAT at West Point and AFA is about 1300. Lower at USNA. Not nearly as difficult to get into as an Ivy or any hyper-elite college. Great schools and much respect to the kind of kid who makes the commitment but not nearly the same level of academic performers.

Have at me. (If it helps, I did earn a congressional nomination to the AFA but was denied due to a failed color blindness test. I had no clue I was color blind. It hurt but I would’ve made a lousy cadet. Couldn’t get out of bed. )

I also noted that the SAT are surprisingly low compared to the reputations.

I guess if your measure of a good school is the average score that its students got on a standardized test they took when they were 16 or 17...then maybe you’re right. Most normal people don’t look at it that way, though.

Or you could just...think something and make no effort to quantify. Pretty uniforms and patriotism I guess. The fact remains that a 1250 gives you a good chance at the USNA and gives you no chance at Williams or Yale (short of some other factor which would just as easily get you into an academy). We see the kids who get into the academies. They are uniformly excellent students and really solid kids. We also have kids who get into Stanford, and they are brilliant and extremely accomplished. They aren’t even close to the same caliber academically.

Your turn. Produce something quantifiable that demonstrates academy difficulty of entry as greater than other elite colleges. I’ll wait.

You aren’t getting into a service academy on SAT scores alone (thank God).

[Anonymous]

It is a self-selecting pool and not enough to have a great GPA and test scores. Must be a good student and leader in your community, physically fit, and interested in serving the military for several years post-graduation.

Plenty of ‘high stat’ kids attending an Ivy or other highly selective college lack at least one of the attributes above.

[Anonymous]

If you're blue collar and country ...they're great. If you come from a white collar, rich family ... they are horrible. To each his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're blue collar and country ...they're great. If you come from a white collar, rich family ... they are horrible. To each his own.

What? Actually, blue bloods are probably over-represented at service academies. You re assuming all rich folks are the same. No, the striver law firm partner won't want his kids at West Point but the folks who arrived in the 1700s and have both wealth and a legacy of service? Absolutely.

[Anonymous]

But why go to college to learn to kill or be killed. Depressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a self-selecting pool and not enough to have a great GPA and test scores. Must be a good student and leader in your community, physically fit, and interested in serving the military for several years post-graduation.

Plenty of ‘high stat’ kids attending an Ivy or other highly selective college lack at least one of the attributes above.

THIS, and that's fine. It's fine to be brilliant but have a physical disability that precludes military service. It's fine to have struggled with your mental health, or to just not want to serve in the military. But for the kids who do have that desire, and do check all of those boxes? There's really no better path to professional success.

If someone graduated from Yale Law, that tells me they are smart. If someone graduated from West Point, it tells me they are smart and they've been trained to lead. Depending on the job, I'm going to want the second one more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're blue collar and country ...they're great. If you come from a white collar, rich family ... they are horrible. To each his own.

What? Actually, blue bloods are probably over-represented at service academies. You re assuming all rich folks are the same. No, the striver law firm partner won't want his kids at West Point but the folks who arrived in the 1700s and have both wealth and a legacy of service? Absolutely.

NO, I worked on Capitol Hill and most of the kids were really just barely middle class or poor. Sure, you might get one or 2 kids from wealthy families in the deep south whose fathers make them go, but those are the exceptions and not the rules. Military academy rules are worse than prisons ... most rich kids would not put up with that. Poor and middle class trivers would because they have nothing better to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NO, I worked on Capitol Hill.

Well, you should have said so!

Honestly, the disdain for the military here is sickening. And so what if poor or middle class kids go to the service academies. They can’t be leaders?