No doubt that this wasn't one of those: "2nd year is up, I tried, I just can't deal with it". I help a lot of kids get into colleges. Including the "Biggies" like yale, harvard, stanford, and princeton. She didn't just decide in May that she couldn't deal with the DADT. She had this one planned out for at least 9 months. Probably sooner.
And you're right to question her motives. If she hadn't been accepted to Yale, or some of the other schools she probably applied to, she probably would have stayed at Westpoint. I don't know this woman personally, so I can't say for sure what's going through her mind. But personally, I believe the academy wasn't her first choice, and she's using the DADT as an excuse. The article says that if "SHE" can get the DADT policy lifted, she'd re-apply for the 2011-2012 school year. Sorry, but I'm calling B.S. on this. This is the military, hence the government. "She" doesn't have the power to have the DADT lifted, and she sure in hell isn't going to see such action become implemented in the next 6 months. She's pulling what we use to call in poly-sci and stats "The Impossible Finite Argument". When you present hypothetical statements that are impossible to happen, therefor you can never be proven wrong. E.g. A white man saying: "If I was black". A man saying: "If I was a woman". A poor person saying: "If I had grown up in a privileged home". These are all examples of basing a debate on arguments that are impossible to validate. She is doing the same thing.
Bottom line: She will get out of the academy. She will give some B.S. arguments about "If the DADT policy didn't exist...." She will claim to be a victim and how her life would have been so much better if...... Truth is, the DADT is not going to change in the next 6 months and even if it had, there's no proof that she would have been happier or excelled more without it. There's a lot of people who leave the academy every semester for some many reasons. She's simply using a reason/scenario that can't be proven either way. That allows her to be the victim and no one can dispute it. Personally, I'm glad she's leaving. Our academies and military services don't need her type of person in the military. Military individuals and cadets deal with undesirable situations every day. And most of them learn to deal with them. If she really wanted to serve in the military and attend the academy, she would have dealt with this undesirable situation; and got it changed from within. There's a lot of Non-Gay individuals who are helping to change it. She could have dealt with it from within the system if she truly wanted the military. She doesn't really want the military. The DADT is just an excuse. Just my opinion, of course.