Foreign Students

[NJGolfer]

I believe that only US citizens can attend the service academies. However, at a recent USMA hockey game the roster had many players listing their hometown in Canada.

I assume that they had dual citizenship at a minimum, but is there more going on? Are they recruited and then

 

[ca2midwestmom]

WP accepts up to 60 international cadets at a time. Candidates apply through the American Embassy in their respective country. According to the WP Class Profile online, there are 15 international cadets currently attending. There's more info on the USMA website for international cadets. From what I remember reading somewhere, they attend and participate in the identical 4-yr program as US cadets. At the end of four years, they commission into the branch/service of their respective country's military.

Perhaps what you saw was the semester exchange cadets from the Royal Military College of Canada. I don't know how many are currently at WP, but my DS said there was one in his company last semester. (He hopes to do an exchange at RMC at some point in his 4 yrs.) Last weekend was also when many cadets from RMC visited WP for several days, participating in a hockey game and other competitions. WP took home the Challenge Cup along with the chess, crew and debate titles. The Pipes & Drums groups and Celtic dancers from both WP and RMC put on a show before the hockey game.

Also, you can not have dual citizenship at a SA. You have to renounce the foreign citizenship. I'm pretty sure the question ("do you have dual citizenship?") is somewhere in the appointment paperwork (or maybe it was in the initial application?).

 

[scoutpilot]

You can have dual citizenship at a SA. You cannot, however, get your secret clearance with it and you cannot be commissioned with dual citizenship.

Many hockey players will do a year or two in Canada in the junior leagues, living with a Canadian family. That may be what you were seeing.

 

[kp2001]

USMMA usually has a handful of international students that are sponsored by their home country. My roommate for 3+ years was Panamanian.

 

[LineInTheSand]

Service academies have international exchange students. They will spend four years at the school (and they'll be your real classmates). When it comes time for you to graduate and get your commission in the U.S. military, they'll graduate and get their commissions in their country's military.

In my class we had classmates from Lithuania, Latvia, Honduras, and St. Lucia. I don't think I'm leaving any out….

 

[bruno]

http://www.goarmysports.com/sports/m-hockey/army-m-hockey-body.html

Did you by any chance go to the Hockey game on Jan 24th which happened to be the "Challenge Cup" against the Royal Military College? I think you might have been looking at the Canadian cadets roster -If you look at the USMA Hockey Roster you can see the home towns of the kids on the USMA team- none of whom are Canadian.

 

[ca2midwestmom]

You can have dual citizenship at a SA. You cannot, however, get your secret clearance with it and you cannot be commissioned with dual citizenship.

The eQUIP instructions to cadet candidates specifically says you MUST renounce the non-US citizenship to be granted Secret Clearance. It also suggests you wait until you arrive at WP and they will handle it.

So I guess you could argue that a new cadet may start out at WP with dual citizenship ... but out of curiosity, who is allowed to continue on at WP with dual citizenship, knowing they would not commission?

 

[LineInTheSand]

I'm 99% sure we renounced duel-citizenships before taking our oaths on R-Day. I remember it being in the paperwork. The only think I can't remember was if it was R-day or graduation.... Of course, there's still that 1% that could mean I'm wrong.