I lived 90 miles from West Point. I lived 190 miles from Annapolis. I came from a very poor family. Also, being from New Jersey, there was no "University of New Jersey". They had these dinky schools like Princeton and Rutgers. Yes, they had a state university, "Montclair State University", but even for state residents, it's very expensive. Point is, college for me was not an option. Even with excellent grades in high school, I could only get partial scholarships. In the 70's, you basically went to college if you were #1 in your class and got an academic scholarship; was a superstar jock and got a scholarship, or your family had money.
Because very few in my family ever went to college, and even if they did, the "Family" stayed close to home; no one told me about the military academies. Not even our guidance counselors. Mind you, I lived 90 miles from west point and didn't know I could apply to go to school there. I knew I could JOIN the military; but the academies were never mentioned let alone encouraged. And for what it's worth, college wasn't a last minute thing. I knew in 10th grade that my parents weren't going to be able to get me in, so I looked at out of state options. I received scholarships to many colleges/universities. Unfortunately, it isn't like today. Basically, they paid for tuition. It was very intimidating to go from New Jersey to say Colorado or Utah for college; have your tuition paid for, but have no place to live, eat, etc... or a job to help those things. Needless to say, I turned these options down. Today; fortunately for most kids; college is more available and advertised.
But again; 90 miles from West Point; 190 miles from Annapolis, and neither my guidance counselors, parents, neighbors, or friends knew to tell me about it or recommend it. Even the recruiter who recruited me for the air force, didn't mention the academies. Mind you, Vietnam War had only been over for 3 years, so the recruiter was probably motivated to get me to enlist. My ASVAB and SAT scores were good enough that the recruiter gave me a guaranteed contract with a guaranteed job. (We actually signed contracts back then with guarantees). But again, no one ever mentioned the academies.
So don't be so surprised. As an ALO, I go to a lot of schools where students have obviously heard of the air force academy, (We only live 150 miles from the academy); but very few of them think it's any type of an option. Many think it's something you can go to AFTER you are in the air force.
Some, including some guidance counselors, put the academies on a pedestal that is WAY TOO HIGH and they think it's a catch-22. "You have to be the #1 student in the class to go the academies, but if you ARE the #1 student in the class, then you're probably going to go to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Purdue, etc....". Can't tell you how many guidance counselors have told me they don't really have any students they recommend for the academy...... Until I start asking detailed questions about students and their grades and such. Then they are like: "Oh yea, we have some students like that". Now, the town I live in, which isn't where most of my schools are, is a big air force military community. The academies are more well known here, than say, 100 miles north.
