Should I go USMA?

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Gangplank

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Hey guys, I want to be a journalist or screenwriter. Would you recommend going to USMA? Becoming an officer is a personal goal of mine, but I ultimately want a writing career.
 
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

Carl Jung
 
I don't see a reason why you couldn't do your time in the army and later become a journalist, not sure how what major you could choose though.


2019 WestPoint class appointee

Recipient of 4 year army rotc scholarship.
 
USMA is a place to become an Army officer. The hope is you won't "five and dive," but many do. If you want to train to be a screenwriter, perhaps do ROTC some place that has the best writing department...and if you decide to commission, great. You can always change your mind about the commission elsewhere, but if you change your mind after you start your 3rd year at USMA, you will owe $$.
 
civic29 said:
I don't see a reason why you couldn't do your time in the army and later become a journalist, not sure how what major you could choose though.


2019 WestPoint class appointee

Recipient of 4 year army rotc scholarship.
Click to expand...

English major or something. West Point has a humanities.

And doesn't the Army have COMCAM people? Or is that the Marines...

Edit: I think it's called public affairs and they do have officers.
 
West Point has APL (Arts, Philosophy, Literature) that you can major in. As senior CPT, you have the ability to move into a functional area which can include Public Affairs. I've also had friends that spend their time writing speeches. It's not exactly Journalism, but it isn't that far off from it. Given the state of journalism today, your time in the military (5&dive) would probably give you enough credentials to be a senior military contributor somewhere. There are options. Just depends on how much journalism matters reference becoming an army officer.
 
"Journalism? You think you're Mickey Spillane? Do you think you're some kind of writer?"
 
Troll Alert.
Same q posted on USNA and USAFA forum.
 
Not trolling. Im still very far away from the application process but interested in all three schools. I expected good feedback and different points of view because I'm aware that these schools are all different. I guess that's too much to ask for.
 
You should not have posted the same thing in all the different S.A.s. People find that irritating.
 
Carl Jung said:
Hey guys, I want to be a journalist or screenwriter. Would you recommend going to USMA? Becoming an officer is a personal goal of mine, but I ultimately want a writing career.
Click to expand...

First you have to make up your mind as what you want to do ultimately - to me journalist and screenwriter are close but not close. Although it seems like some journalists create stories themselves instead of just reporting them, they are supposed to report what they see and perhaps do some investigation and analysis. Screenwriters deal with fiction. You could even become a blogger to write. Writing career could vary much and when do you want to start.

The link is to a list of West Point grad published books http://gradstore.west-point.org/booksbygrads.html

Simply, any service academy will give you the tools to achieve your goals on their timeline - 4 years at school and 5 years as a military officer. So if you want to write after graduating from a college, perhaps a service academy is not a good idea. If you can wait 5 years after graduating college, a way to go.

What you do with the world class education and military experience is up to you.
 
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