All I can say is my son is expecting more from the Academy, and will hopefully not be disappointed.
This is I honestly don't know how to reply to this.
Let me try to provide a little perspective.
There's a saying at USNA that "You rate what you get away with." It's true.
At USNA as in real life, there are the serious rules and the . . . well, not so serious ones. While there are consequences for both, the severity of the consequences obviously increases with the severity of the activity.
Murder and exceeding the speed limit are both laws. I think most people have exceeded the speed limit at some point in their lives and many of us do it routinely, even though we know we shouldn't. Not saying it's right, just that we do it and the penalties for getting caught reflect that. DUI is much more serious. Murder -- really serious.
Ditto for USNA. They have rules that are really important and it's made clear to the mids what those are. You violate one of those (e.g., DUI or drugs) and the consequences are usually immediate and severe. Things like music, etc. are not that important on the vast scheme of things and many mids try to get away with that stuff. They have for years. I was probably one of the most compliant mids and I still had a pocket TV. Other folks climbed the wall after taps. And on and on.
You get caught, you fess up (do NOT lie) and take your licks.
If you enter USNA thinking you're with a bunch of choirboys/girls, you not only will be disappointed, you'll have a really tough time staying there. That doesn't mean mids routinely flaunt the rules; rather, they tweak them around the edges. And, the upperclass know what's important and what's not. Leaders know that, sometimes, you have to look the other way -- the trick is understand when you can and can't do it, and that's all part of leadership.
Don't fear -- the SAs are filled with a great bunch of men & women; but they're human beings, not angels.