Reply to Are service academies like West Point considered prestigious?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Are service academies like West Point considered prestigious?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My high school boyfriend went to a service academy (he actually didn't get in anywhere else). It's a really interesting environment.  They will not let you fail. College is such a time of independence, and there is zero independence at the academy. They assign you a tutor, make you come to study sessions, your professor meets with you if you're struggling, and it's all mandatory.  Contrast that to a major university where all the responsibility for getting help falls on the student.  I think that when you require all students to take physics and calculus, you have to have such systems in place though, or a good portion wouldn't make it.

The school gives you a local "host family" who is your home on weekends, can drive you places, etc--so that level of independence is gone too.  You eat in the cafeteria all four years, so you never have to manage a budget or cooking, just academics (with aforementioned tutors and study groups assigned to you).

I remember it feeling like an extension of high school when I would visit, and how different it was from my own school.

I would think very highly of a female graduating from the academy, because holy cow the level of harassment I witnessed was insane, and anyone who can survive that can get through anything.  The guys were okay--some were super smart, some super patriotic, most were fairly middle of the road and were chasing a free education (at least the ones in my bf's social circle).  A handful were prior enlisted folks going through to get the officer credentials.  Quite a few had gone to the prep school for a year first to get their grades up to be eligible.

This was mid 2000's.  Maybe it's changed?  I wouldn't think of it as prestigious, but I would think of a graduate as someone who would be dependable and goal oriented, which is a fabulous thing for most would be employers to seek.[/quote]

The #1 thing that has changed is, today, your college is probably far more coddling than it was then, but the service academy stayed the same.

We live in Annapolis and the "host family" aspect is alive and well but it's not really the dynamic you describe. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics