colorblindness

evniwi

5-Year Member
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Dec 24, 2010
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I have a friend whose son wants to apply to USCGA, but he is "slightly colorblind". This issue has been discussed with regards to the other service academies but I don't see any discussion withint USCGA. Does anyone know how strict admissions is on this issue?
 
I have a friend whose son wants to apply to USCGA, but he is "slightly colorblind". This issue has been discussed with regards to the other service academies but I don't see any discussion withint USCGA. Does anyone know how strict admissions is on this issue?

If you look on the USCGA site and check DoDMERB's common disqualifications, one of them is color vision. I'm not sure as to what the degree of it is, but the only way to find out is to take the medical exam.

Here's the link for the common disqualifications: http://www.uscga.edu/display.aspx?id=2932
 
Color Blindness Thread - CGA

Color blindness, even a slight deficiency, can be a serious problem since it most frequently affects red-green discrimination under certain conditions, which won't work for someone on a ship looking at channel markers. I am red-green deficient and can confirm this, even though under most situations I can easily differentiate between red and green (fortunately my son has normal color vision). He was cadre last year and felt sorry for the swab discussed in the following thread. It should give you some good information.

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=13359&highlight=medical+discharge
 
I have a friend whose son wants to apply to USCGA, but he is "slightly colorblind". This issue has been discussed with regards to the other service academies but I don't see any discussion withint USCGA. Does anyone know how strict admissions is on this issue?

I think what trips up a lot of people is the phrase "color blind". The response back is usually, "I'm not color blind. I can see colors sometimes I just confuse funny shades of green." About 15% of males (it is a genetic defect passed by the female to their male offspring) are red/green color deficient.

If you have any question, PLEASE, save yourself a lot of time and heartache and have you local eye doctor administer the Ishihara Plate Test and the Farnsworth Lantern Test. If you can't pass those two tests you are not going to pass the medical review at Coast Guard or Naval Academies however, you MIGHT be accepted at Air Force or West Point.

As an admissions partner (who IS red/green color deficient) I interviewed a promising high school student for USCGA who told me he "had a little trouble with red and green" but his mother quickly corrected him and said, "he's just a boy, he doesn't follow colors like a girl does---there is nothing wrong with him" I saw the young man months later at the All Academics Winter Ball in a Air Force Academy dress uniform. He shook my hand warmly and said, "You were right! Coast Guard rejected me but I got into Air Force!"

Bottom line: get tested.
 
Remember also that you are retested after to you reach the Academy, about the second or third day in. In my son's swab summer class, there were something like 9 cadets sent home for failing the test.:eek:
 
I know of one swab from '15 who has already been sent home for failing the colorblind exam at CGA. There are always a couple each year who fail during the physical re-exam the first week of swab summer and yes, it is both sad and unfortunate that they come so far only to be sent home. :frown:
 
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