We've been shocked that many of the kids we met at Parents Weekend for 2013 and whom we kept contact with their parents are setbacks. Further still our plebe must have had 10 or so roomates by now. A couple of them have been setback. BUT WHAT IS ATTRITION? I don't think at KP you can look at attrition on a freshman class or annual basis.
The post above says 305 started - 265 are in the class of 2013 now. It does not say 265 of the ORIGINAL 305 remain. Does the 265 number reflect (i think the plebes call them super plebes) that were in the class of 2012 originally and are now back in the class of 2013? Many of them should have returned to campus and taken their place in the class of 2013 by now I would think. Our plebe says many of his setback friends will be back next year in the class of 2014.
So I don't think we should look at overall attrition on a calendar basis. We too were concerned about this when our plebe chose USMMA over USCGA. We have no doubt (as does our plebe) that the correct choice was made.
But when you look at attrition and compare it to the other academies. It is not exactly comparing apples to apples. I don't think other academies do setbacks, or if they do, they are rare indeed. When this class began the talk was that ADM Worley was going to reduce setbacks, but I don't see how you could do this or if it would be right. Our kids are all already the brightest of the brightest. They are taking a course load (arguably 40% or more tougher) than most college students in America (including the other academies on the semester system with 4 years on campus). I think the recognition of this alone is enough to grant an immediate setback for the plebe who has trouble with one or two classes, but is otherwise a fine plebe.
So WHAT IS ATTRITION. We all look at the numbers, but the math for attrition at USMMA is a bit fuzzy, since KP's graduating classes generally consist of original members of that class and some setbacks from the year previous to that class. And then when you look at attrition from the perspective of how many kids start and finish KP, it seems on par with other academies, and it does seem a genuine effort is under way to improve it still.
I had all the hesitations of the parent who started this post a year ago. Our plebe has had to dig deep at times, especially in the academic arena. He is a much different person now than he was in HS. And when I hear about the difficulties faced by these plebes, I quite honestly would have expected our plebe to be flirting with disaster. But a friend of his just yesterday said it best, failure or quiting is not a viable course of action for him. So he has found the mettle he needs to make it. The mettle not readily apparent in him when he left for INDOC in July.