And as hard as it is to understand, not ALL of those turning down an Air Force Academy appointment are taking one to another academy. Close to 50% of the initial 10,000-12,000 applicants were also applying to a number of very prestigious civilian schools. Remember, the people on THIS forum are GUNG-HO Military. Meaning, the academy is probably your #1 choice. But lets say that 100 of you are actually posting on this forum. (It's LESS than that, but I'm making the numbers simple). That means, you 100 posters, represent 1% of the 10,000 initial applicants.
I've always told people who apply to the academies, that if you truly think you are the academic, leader, athletic, and EC type of applicant that should be able to make it into the academy.... then you SHOULD BE APPLYING ALSO to the other very Prestigious universities in the country. E.g. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornel, Stanford, etc. The academies rank right up there WITH those schools. So it only makes sense, that if you are applying to the academy, then you're probably applying also to some really good schools. They are the same caliber of student. So it makes perfect sense to see an individual turn down the academy for Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA, USC, Georgtown, William & Mary, Purdue, etc. The MAJORITY of people applying to the academies, ARE APPLYING to these other schools.
There are some that don't. Some that applied to the academy, and if that doesn't work out, then they'll choose to go to their local state college or CC college. Nothing wrong with that; it's usually because of a lack of knowledge on how to apply, get accepted, and pay for ANY school in the country you want to. But that's a different topic. Point is, the posters on this forum is a very small percentage of applicants. LESS than 1%. So because this forum is MORE PRO-Academy Military Lifestyle type people, it would seem natural to wonder WHY ANYONE would turn down an appointment. Truth is, you're in the minority. About 20-25% of all people offered an appointment would/will turn it down. That number is probably a little less, now that the academy doesn't dump as many appointments all at one time. Plus, using the EA, they can judge a little better. But just 4-5 years ago, the academy offered on average, 1700 appointments, knowing darn well, that 500 people would turn it down.
You should have seen the reaction on some of my son's teacher's and counselor's faces when he named the schools he TURNED DOWN. He was the opposite. He wanted the air force academy. (NEVER applied to any of the other 4 academies). But he did apply to 4+ other universities. Some, pretty prestigious. Got accepted to all of them. Some, full ride scholarships. He turned them all down for the air force academy. While Harvard wasn't one he applied to, can you imagine what people would say if you said you TURNED DOWN HARVARD??? Same as you wondering HOW someone would TURN DOWN an academy appointment.