plebe summer, beast, etc will be EASIER if you are physically prepared. Run, Forrest, Run!
I'm sure things have changed - but in my day, the USNA Plebe Summer experience was said to be more psychologically demanding whereas USMA was more physically demanding.
Of course, if you show up not in very good physical condition, you're going to find either quite demanding.
Just dropping down and doing 20 push-ups for not doing something correctly is painless. It seems West Point is more into that sort of thing. The Naval Academy is a little more into the mental aspect - which can sometimes be worse, depending on your particular temperament.
Here's what I told my sons before they went off to the Naval Academy for Plebe Summer.
Remember these five things:
1.) They can't hit you.
2.) The first class midshipmen haven't even graduated yet. They haven't completed
their Naval Academy experience. In fact, THEY are being evaluated in how well they train you.
3.) The first class midshipmen are not perfect. Sometimes they will be unfair ... sometimes too slack ... sometimes they will provide a BAD example ... they are still learning how to be leaders. It's
their training, too. For all you know, YOU are a better Plebe than your squad leader was when HE was a Plebe.
4.) They can't stop the clock. They can't make there be 8 days in a week or 25 hours in a day. No matter how bad your day was, once it's over, it's over. That's one less day of Plebe Summer. It's like turning over an hour glass filled with sand. The first class midshipmen cannot turn the hour glass on its side or flip it and start all over again. When the last grain of sand falls out of the glass - Plebe Summer is over and there is no way they can make it last any longer than it is.
5.) Plebe Summer is pass/fail. You pass if you're still there when it's over. In recent history, I've never heard of anybody getting kicked out of the Academy because there was something they could not do during Plebe Summer. Those who leave always
quit ... not kicked out.