Moosestache
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2012
- Messages
- 148
I think what should be considered; and is probably most important; isn't what Forbes, US World, Princeton Review, or any other review thinks of the academy. What matters most is what EMPLOYERS think of your education. After all; once the dust settles, more than half of officers; ROTC/OTS/Academy; will not make the military a career. They will get out and go to work in the private sector.
In this regard, the academies are considered very prestigious among Fortune 500 companies. Even the "Cal-Poly" website says:
This is the same with many employer's view on education. The military academies; all of them; are considered very prestigious and most employers are extremely impressed with such a degree. Why? 2 reason. 1) The curriculum is indeed rigorous and challenging along with many of the ivy/prestigious schools. 2) The graduates have the discipline of a minimum of 9 years of military service. They stuck it out. They aren't quitters. (This is also the same reason many companies like ex-military in general).
Now the emphasis is on engineering. In that concentration, the military academies definitely stand out among most colleges in the country. For the student with a different major; e.g. behavioral science, math, history, english, management, etc... I believe you will find that an academy education will stand up there with the same degree major from harvard, yale, princeton, etc...
Equally as important, is that in today's world, a graduate degree is becoming more common. And once you get a graduate degree, where you went for your undergraduate is almost irrelevant. For those not interested in the military, I've been counseling them for years if they intend on going to grad school, don't go into debt with your undergrad. Go to State-U or wherever you can go cheap and save your money, loans, scholarships, or whatever for the more expensive "Better" grad school. I.e. Is it better to have an undergrad from Harvard and a grad degree from the University of South Dakota; or the same exact degrees in reverse? Undergrad from the University of South Dakota and the grad degree from Harvard?
There are a lot of officers getting their graduate degrees. When the time comes to go out into the civilian world, the employers will look more at my son's PhD from RAND than they will his BS from the air force academy. Same if you were an ROTC grad from Rice, Purdue, UCLA, Harvard, etc...
Well, while I agree with most of what you say, trying to compare Cal Poly's engineering program to Stanford or MIT or Cal Tech, or wherever, is an uphill battle. The discussion, though, has never been, can you get a great education from USMA, yep you can. The discussion became, is it the best undergraduate education.
Yankees suck by the way.
If your goal in all of this is to get a job 10 years after college, then there are a ton more factors in that equation that aren't really pertinent here.