What are the academics like compared to civilian college and high school?
Compared to high school, they're hard. That's just about for any college. I did AP in high school and the difficulty is right about the same in terms of content, but AP spreads the course out over a full year. Compared to civilian college, I'd say it's a little more difficult. The content is the same, but the professors here definitely challenge you with more difficult problem sets, and I'm asked to explain my answer a lot more here.
mb1395,
Thanks for offering up to help others. I am a grad, so I know these answers for me, but wanted to ask them to a current Plebe as candidates ponder if USNA is right for them. I hope Plebe year is treating you decently and you are enjoying life as much as possible. 2 weekends for football victories is amazing as Plebe. That was the total number of weekends I had a 3/C!
What surprised you most about Plebe Summer? What was the 1 thing you wish had known?
How was the transition from PS to Academic Year? Advice to future Mids? (I struggled on this one and wish I had better guidance from upperclass on the adjustment)
Are you playing a club or varsity sport? Has it been hard to balance?
What has surprised you the most?
Thank you for your concern; I am enjoying plebe year- you only get to be a clueless plebe once!
Honestly, what surprised me most about Plebe Summer was how much we could get done in a day. I went to bed every night exhausted, but I always knew I was getting better and I never felt like we were doing anything for no reason. One thing I wish I had known was that it really will be over before you know it. Also, instead of hoping you don't get rated, it's more fun if you are an overachiever and have fun with it. When you don't take anything personally, and just do your best to be the best plebe you can, it all becomes fun. Personally, I took failure pretty hard for the first couple of weeks until I realized that everybody fails at something. Plebe Summer is what you make it; you can skate by or you can challenge yourself. The latter is more rewarding.
The transition from Plebe Summer to the Ac year was great! No more loud wake up calls, having access to a watch and a cell phone, being able to use a computer to read the news again? Excellent. Of course, the demands on our time are still high, and the best piece of advice I could give is to learn how to not procrastinate. Making it a habit to use your time wisely (such as using the 5 minutes before class starts to work on homework), really adds to your productivity throughout the day. Classes are difficult, but the professors care so much about getting you to pass, and there are so many resources if you're struggling academically.
I walked on to the crew team here. I had never rowed a day in my life, but I learned over the summer and stuck with it. It's not too difficult to balance; the demands on your time are pretty significant, and you're usually getting back to the hall about 2 hours after everyone else has had a chance to start on homework, but it just forces you to spend your time wisely. I have friends in other sports and they spend a lot more time away right now because it's their competitive season, but they also seem to be handling it well. You find a balance between sport and school if it's something you want to do bad enough.
I suppose what has surprised me the most is the pace of this place. When I visited during my junior year (no CVW), I knew I wanted to be here but I didn't know just how busy mids are. If you're interested in a service academy, definitely do your research and talk to mids or grads and decide if you want to be busy, and if you want a challenge. That's what I've told all of our drags so far.