Thanks for the substantive information, 845something. I have spent some time with DS2 in the past couple of days discussing with him how others have come through the pain of a SA rejection. Take, for example, Richard Davis, the USAFA rejected him. Richard came from a blue collar family (dad was a truck driver) so he needed to work to pay his college tuition at a civilian college. Richard got a job as a bank teller. He worked in the bank during his college years. Upon graduation, Richard decided to keep working in the banking industry.
Today, Richard Davis is the CEO of US Bank. He is the most inspirational leader I have met. (No, I do not work for US Bank.) He is responsible for almost 65,000 employees, not to mention his responsibilities to a board of directors, shareholders and regulators. He oversees the management of more than $416 billion in assets.
Twenty-five years ago, a large national firm would not even meet with me during on campus interviews. I was a honors student, but I did not graduate from a tier one professional school, which is a desired plum for the nation's largest firms. Eleven years later, that firm reached out to me to determine whether I would be interested in joining the firm as an equity partner. Fast forward to today, I am a senior partner in that firm.
My point is that getting in to a SA or landing a plum position immediately upon graduation from college or professional school does not necessarily define a person's career trajectory. I know graduates from the SAs (and other highly regarded civilian colleges) who, although reasonably intelligent, have a sense of entitlement because they "wear the ring." That sense of entitlement does not work well in the civilian world. The ring might get you in the door of America's best companies, but whether you stay and climb the ladder of promotions will depend in large part on what you have to offer in terms of talent--and a work ethic. Some of my SA friends have told me that they are frequently criticized by civilian bosses for not being creative in their approach to solving problems or growing a business unit. In a nutshell, graduating from a SA is a nice stepping stone, but a person's career is a series of building blocks and college is just one of those blocks.
The eighteen or nineteen years of life that have brought you to where you are today are a precursor to the hopefully 70 years or more that you have in front of you. Stay focused, work hard, stay out of trouble and exercise good judgment and you'll do just fine, regardless of where you go to college.