frenzymando
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Do you know if Operations Research students are considered engineer students? Or do they have to take a 3rd semester of a foreign language?
I'm a Cow at USMA, AMA (Ask Me Anything)
- Thread starter TPIAD
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You'll do them fairly often as morning PT, but after beast you just about never do them outside of your own personal workouts.
I'm not sure amigo, sorry, you'd probably need to ask someone in operations once you're here. My gut feeling says no, but I am likely wrong.
It'll be annoying to start over, be older then some of those around you. Generally though, so many people do ROTC or prep you'll make friends quickly since you'll share a common experience. It'll be the same as everyone else really. You'll be with your class and age doesn't mean as much then.
Hello, I was wondering about the sports options at West Point. I play football (D-Line) and lacrosse. However, I am not really Division-1 material in either (I'm not bad, but not all-state or anything). I assume lacrosse is available as a club or intramural sport, but I was curious about football. Is tackle football available outside of the Varsity team and, if so, any idea what the schedule would be like? Thanks!
845something
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@wp0524
D-1 sports covered at http://goarmywestpoint.com which includes Football, Sprint Football, and Lax. Nothing to stop you from asking the coach to check you out.
As far as intramural/company athletics, unless something drastic happens, there is no Lax, but companies do have a football team.
And of course, there is the Goat-Engineer game in the lead up to the Army-Navy game. The Goat is the cadet that is last in the class at graduation so aptly named after that dear mascot at Navy. The spirit game pits those in the lower half academically (goats) against those in the upper half (engineers, which are probably all management majors because the actual engineer majors have too much work to do).
D-1 sports covered at http://goarmywestpoint.com which includes Football, Sprint Football, and Lax. Nothing to stop you from asking the coach to check you out.
As far as intramural/company athletics, unless something drastic happens, there is no Lax, but companies do have a football team.
And of course, there is the Goat-Engineer game in the lead up to the Army-Navy game. The Goat is the cadet that is last in the class at graduation so aptly named after that dear mascot at Navy. The spirit game pits those in the lower half academically (goats) against those in the upper half (engineers, which are probably all management majors because the actual engineer majors have too much work to do).
The company football team is flag football and more like 7 on 7 then actual ball. I played O line and in a similar boat. They asked if I wanted to be considered and I decided not to pursue it. In my opinion, there's so much going on here academically and with the sporadic BS thrown in by higher playing D1 sports is extremely hard. I give credit to all the D1 athletes, I don't know how they manage it. It's a very demanding commitment.
Thank you for the time that you are putting into answering these questions. You are doing a very good thing!
I am a mom of a 14-year -old girl who has her sights set firmly on USMA (she spent 3 days there last year as part of the middle school STEM program and decided then and there!)- so we have a few years to go. My job is to make sure that she has what she needs in 3 years when she is applying, and your comments have been very helpful.
My questions relate to homeschooling. Do you know how students who were homeschooled transition to USMA? Do they have any common areas of need or strength?
To avoid answers based on the myths of homeshooling, my DD has a large circle of friends and experiences. She has been on learning adventures for up to 2- weeks, away from home. She is active in our local Civil Air Patrol, and is also starting classes at the local community college in the fall.
Question- Languages:
Academically, she is strong (in fact she is going to the USNA in June for a week for their STEM program). That said, I am concerned about languages. She has been studying Latin and will most likely take the Latin AP exam in 2 years. My plan was to consider that her foreign language (it also doubles as English grammar). Do you think that will fly, or will it put her at a disadvantage for the language courses at WP? She can also speak and cook - but not read or write- Italian. She wil go to Italy for a month next summer. Of course, Italian is not one of the languages offered at USMA. Thoughts? Do you recommend we stay the course, or add in an language taught at WP?
Question- Coding:
She has done the CodeIt program at MIT, and self- taught Scratch but I had not really intended to include more. However, in an earlier thread there was some discussions about programming and coding - so it seems like we should. What would you recommend?
Question- Sports:
There are no Varsity sports for homeschoolers, unless I want to pin a letter on her for beating her brother at soccer. I know that we could join our local high school teams, but that would make it impossible for her to participate in many of her academic programs (homeschool is a misnomer- we go somewhere almost every day for classes and programs- should be called carschooling).
She takes kickboxing classes (with a bunch of housewives because it is at 9am). She has started SCUBA and will have attained advanced guide certification by the time she applies to USMA, and she is part of a youth gun club and has several awards/ certifications there (she actually is an amazing shot and the instructors there have told her they have not seen any other kid advance as rapidly as she has though the various Winchester/NRA levels). In the fall she will start individual training with a Javelin coach but that is not a sport here in RI- she just want to learn the body mechanics for the basketball throw. We will only work with him 2 hours a month. She can run 2 miles in 14 minutes with her CAP group (they do lots of PT actually).
My question is - will any of the above counterbalance the lack of team/ varsity sports for admissions? Will the fact that she does not play a sport be an issue at WP? Does she have to be on a team or will club sports be OK?
I am a mom of a 14-year -old girl who has her sights set firmly on USMA (she spent 3 days there last year as part of the middle school STEM program and decided then and there!)- so we have a few years to go. My job is to make sure that she has what she needs in 3 years when she is applying, and your comments have been very helpful.
My questions relate to homeschooling. Do you know how students who were homeschooled transition to USMA? Do they have any common areas of need or strength?
To avoid answers based on the myths of homeshooling, my DD has a large circle of friends and experiences. She has been on learning adventures for up to 2- weeks, away from home. She is active in our local Civil Air Patrol, and is also starting classes at the local community college in the fall.
Question- Languages:
Academically, she is strong (in fact she is going to the USNA in June for a week for their STEM program). That said, I am concerned about languages. She has been studying Latin and will most likely take the Latin AP exam in 2 years. My plan was to consider that her foreign language (it also doubles as English grammar). Do you think that will fly, or will it put her at a disadvantage for the language courses at WP? She can also speak and cook - but not read or write- Italian. She wil go to Italy for a month next summer. Of course, Italian is not one of the languages offered at USMA. Thoughts? Do you recommend we stay the course, or add in an language taught at WP?
Question- Coding:
She has done the CodeIt program at MIT, and self- taught Scratch but I had not really intended to include more. However, in an earlier thread there was some discussions about programming and coding - so it seems like we should. What would you recommend?
Question- Sports:
There are no Varsity sports for homeschoolers, unless I want to pin a letter on her for beating her brother at soccer. I know that we could join our local high school teams, but that would make it impossible for her to participate in many of her academic programs (homeschool is a misnomer- we go somewhere almost every day for classes and programs- should be called carschooling).
She takes kickboxing classes (with a bunch of housewives because it is at 9am). She has started SCUBA and will have attained advanced guide certification by the time she applies to USMA, and she is part of a youth gun club and has several awards/ certifications there (she actually is an amazing shot and the instructors there have told her they have not seen any other kid advance as rapidly as she has though the various Winchester/NRA levels). In the fall she will start individual training with a Javelin coach but that is not a sport here in RI- she just want to learn the body mechanics for the basketball throw. We will only work with him 2 hours a month. She can run 2 miles in 14 minutes with her CAP group (they do lots of PT actually).
My question is - will any of the above counterbalance the lack of team/ varsity sports for admissions? Will the fact that she does not play a sport be an issue at WP? Does she have to be on a team or will club sports be OK?
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What is the best way for a female to handle unwanted attention, without it turning into an issue? What about deflecting attention that is boarder-line harassment- but not over the line? More like she wants to shut it down before it gets there, and at the same time she does not want to come across as a jerk?
Does your advice change if a female is turning down advances from another female?
What should a straight female do if their roommate is LGBT? Assuming that both are nice people- but the straight girl is uncomfortable changing and sleeping with a person who might see her in a sexual way - and at the same time does not want to cause problems.
Sorry for the uncomfortable questions - but they need to be asked.
As a female who attended a SA, if a male or female approaches you and you are not interested, tell them. This isn't any different then any other school... 18-24 year olds full of hormones develop attractions. Cadets and Mids do the same things others do at any school, ask around if they are single, Social media stalk them to learn if they are single, etc. If someone asks you out and you aren't interested just tell them. If someone can't take a hint the polite way, make it very blunt. If it continues it's time to escalate either officially or unofficially. Many times it can be handled at the Cadet level with someone approaching the Cadet who can't take a hint and making it clear it needs to stop or it will be reported.
Honestly I wouldn't worry about an LGBT room mate. I had several team mates and friends who were gay and it was never an issue. They don't want to make things uncomfortable, awkward, or draw more attention to themselves than they will already get for being openly gay. According to my friends who are gay, the never want to pursue someone who is straight, especially in a SA environment to draw unwanted attention to themselves. If it somehow becomes a situation where someone is feeling harassed by their room mate then report it and leadership will take of it and re-arrange rooms if needed.
Honestly I wouldn't worry about an LGBT room mate. I had several team mates and friends who were gay and it was never an issue. They don't want to make things uncomfortable, awkward, or draw more attention to themselves than they will already get for being openly gay. According to my friends who are gay, the never want to pursue someone who is straight, especially in a SA environment to draw unwanted attention to themselves. If it somehow becomes a situation where someone is feeling harassed by their room mate then report it and leadership will take of it and re-arrange rooms if needed.
bookreader
5-Year Member
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@PJD
My son was homeschooled all the way through, so perhaps I can answer some of your questions. There are many homeschooled students at WP and it was a homeschooled friend who was a WP cadet who inspired my son to consider WP.
Language: my son took Hebrew for three years. I would reach out to a local Field Force Representative or call the admissions dept to ask about Latin. Colleges seem to have differing opinions about Latin and if it fulfills a language requirement at their school. A simple solution would be to have her take 2 semesters of Italian at your local community college. This would equal 2 years of a foreign langauge on a high school transcript and yet would be completed in only 2 semesters.
Coding: my son had no computer programming classes during high school.
Sports: my son was heavily involved in two sports - karate and roller hockey (via the local rec dept). You are right that varsity sports aren't generally an option for homeschoolers, so some creativity is definitely in order. We were told that WP wants to see a sport that has team involvement. So, karate alone would not have been enough, even though he was a black belt (and the youngest black belt in his school). So, hockey fulfilled the team sport 'requirement'. I put requirement in quotes because I don't know that it is an actual requirement or just that WP really, really likes to see team sport involvement. Also, WP has a real fondness for team captains. Since our son knew this, he looked to be a team captain on his hockey team. I would encourage your daughter to find a sport where she can be a team captain. As you know, WP values leadership.
Yes, sports take up a colossal amount of time and it is hard to juggle classes and other activities around sports, but it is a requirement for WP, so you need to make hard choices here.
My son was homeschooled all the way through, so perhaps I can answer some of your questions. There are many homeschooled students at WP and it was a homeschooled friend who was a WP cadet who inspired my son to consider WP.
Language: my son took Hebrew for three years. I would reach out to a local Field Force Representative or call the admissions dept to ask about Latin. Colleges seem to have differing opinions about Latin and if it fulfills a language requirement at their school. A simple solution would be to have her take 2 semesters of Italian at your local community college. This would equal 2 years of a foreign langauge on a high school transcript and yet would be completed in only 2 semesters.
Coding: my son had no computer programming classes during high school.
Sports: my son was heavily involved in two sports - karate and roller hockey (via the local rec dept). You are right that varsity sports aren't generally an option for homeschoolers, so some creativity is definitely in order. We were told that WP wants to see a sport that has team involvement. So, karate alone would not have been enough, even though he was a black belt (and the youngest black belt in his school). So, hockey fulfilled the team sport 'requirement'. I put requirement in quotes because I don't know that it is an actual requirement or just that WP really, really likes to see team sport involvement. Also, WP has a real fondness for team captains. Since our son knew this, he looked to be a team captain on his hockey team. I would encourage your daughter to find a sport where she can be a team captain. As you know, WP values leadership.
Yes, sports take up a colossal amount of time and it is hard to juggle classes and other activities around sports, but it is a requirement for WP, so you need to make hard choices here.
I'll be attending USMA class of 2020. I'm also homeschooled. I can perhaps shed a little light on the sports question. Varsity sports were something that congressional nomination people and FFOs stressed very highly. One thing you should look into is the status in your state of allowing homeschoolers to play public school sports. My state made me take one class at the school to participate, but it was a small price to pay for the sports team experience. If you have any other questions about homeschool admissions, let me know and I can share my experience.
For homeschooled students, the biggest thing I noticed was more on the social end. I don't want to come off as a jerk, but usually homeschooled cadets were the ones were didn't quite fit in as well. There's probably plenty who did so we never notice, but the real odd cadets were usually home schooled. That might be a factor. I know there are myths, but like I said these are just patterns I noticed. We had a homeschooled cadet in our company (before he voluntarily chose to leave) and while he was really nice, he just had some really interesting quirks that stood out to the rest of us. That said, I know neither you or your daughter so this is just all hearsay and definitely not a flat judgement of how it will be.
Languages: They probably won't take it, even cadets who had taken languages end up just getting dropped in the advanced sections (usually to their annoyance, the courses are hard). Again, far from an expert. You could call admissions and they might have a better answer.
Coding: If she likes coding, try and have her learn Java (super easy) then take the AP COMPSCI test. I self taught from a young age as well, got 5 on AP COMPSCI but I only validated CS301 which was a CS entry course. Unless they wise up at some point, she'll probably take IT105 but it is such an easy class I wouldn't even worry.
Sports: To be honest, I'm not sure. I'm ignorant of how much of the process works for homeschooled cadets. Personally, she could join some club level sports at a nearby rec center. As someone said earlier, USMA likes to see team sports because they're opportunities to learn leadership. That's why varsity and team captain look so good, they demonstrate skill and leadership. I know community rec centers will have junior leagues for sports, that could always be a consideration.
Next questions: Advances:
It is usually a nonissue. If guys are interested and she tells them she isn't, the vast majority will take it at that and leave her be. If someone decides to push it and make her uncomfortable, all she has to do is talk to her first line supervisor in her chain of command. If they don't help, go one up. We had a couple issues this past semester of people not respecting the others choice to not date and get pushy. When company leadership pulls you aside and tells you to back off, they usually do. It shouldn't be an issue and the majority of female cadets here do just fine.
LGBT: I think you'll find it isn't nearly as much of an issue as you'd think. I too thought that way, coming from the Southwest. One of my good friends is gay and you realize that, as a user said, they're not out to convert anyone or ruin friendships with advances. They know who is and isn't gay, usually from the LGBT clubs and don't put any outside pressure on. If she really does feel uncomfortable, she can talk with her Chain of Command and they'll make room adjustments. I think staying roommates would be best though.
It is very, very hard. You'd need to validate a ton of courses, or do a bunch over the summer. I have heard of a language/mech double major but he was taking maxed out credit hours every semester. I'd recommend focusing on just mech otherwise you'll find yourself busy as can be.
What are the chances we can get off as a plebe throughout the year and visit somewhere like DC? I'm transferring in from another college and was wondering if it was even realistic to think that I could go back and visit my friends from my old school plebe year. Also, is there any kinds of things that people join or try out for to get more privileges (D1 sport team,etc.)?
Clubs will allow you to leave, but you also get one pass as a plebe. During one of the long weekends you could go visit your friends. That said, clubs are your best bet (or a team) if you really want to bounce every weekend. The current commandant is trying to put an end to that so it might be different in the future. You'll also get a performance pass for doing something extra (like Tunnels to Towers which I would recommend anyway since it's a good time).
USMAROTCFamily
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I'm guessing this must depend on the Company, as my DS and his roommates, who are Plebes, have had multiple passes this year. I believe he said they were awarded for performance, but it seems they have been quite easy for them to get. My DS is an Old Grad, and he can't believe how many times our kid has been able to go down to NYC for weekends. Like you said TPIAD, this may be stopping with the new COMM and it could be a very rude awakening to all of them as Yuks next year.