Taking a lot of heat for choosing USNA over Stanford.

Kierkegaard said:
Why do you care what they think? It’s time to escape that mentality.
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This. 100% this. If someone starts in on you just reply, “Sounds like not my problem.” FWIW, if your high school friends are true friends you’ll find away to keep being friends through your years at USNA.
 
This heat is common to anyone not doggedly chasing college rankings to the very end. There are kids all over the country getting quizzical looks for picking better programs at "lesser" schools, or "settling" for financial reasons, or trading prestige for staying "too close" to home. Remember that Purdue severely outranks Yale (in engineering) and Missouri is a top school in the nation (for journalism) and your list matters more than whatever criteria Fiske or USNWR or Forbes is using this year. You have a particular set of priorities and got into a school that aligns with them. Best result possible, it's wonderful you got accepted to a couple excellent options and you have clear feelings about which you prefer. So if this is your dream then just say "Dreams don't read USNWR rankings" and move on.

As far as moving on, know that regardless of your choice you won't be seeing these people again. Caving in to other people's parents' expectations and picking Stanford won't matter to them any more than choosing USNA. This is just a stage in graduating from high school, so from here you're just going to move ahead and not discuss the subject again, that holds true for everyone. This is normal, if uncomfortable, and should be easier to ignore. But these people are frequently family or parents of friends who you've been raised to respect and try to please, so it can be hard to discount their opinions. Welcome to adulting, where not all paths run in parallel and not all choices can follow the same flock instinct.

Finally, when you get into any school a bubble forms that cuts off many old ties and replaces them with new faces, classes, clubs, teams and relationships. It's particularly explicit at an SA, but I know families that go weeks between contact with their kids who attend a college five blocks from home. Trust that you'll find a new life that'll feel very natural within a year. It might not be the same as high school, in fact it shouldn't if you grow and change, but it'll reflect who you are at that time and from there you'll go on to the rest of your life. Don't look back, don't wait for applause, just keep your eyes up, your feet moving and your mind open to the journey. Good luck.
 
Take pride in it. Objectively more difficult to get into USNA than Stanford. Congrats on both though! :muscles2:
 
dirtyflaco said:
Take pride in it. Objectively more difficult to get into USNA than Stanford. Congrats on both though! :muscles2:
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Sorry, but this is just not true. Objectively, Stanford's acceptance rate is lower than any of the Academies.

The acceptance criteria are different, but Stanford's acceptance rate of roughly 4% is lower than Navy's rate of roughly 10%.

Many attendees at Stanford could not get into Navy, but many attendees at Navy also could not get into Stanford.

To be accepted by both signifies a truly exceptional candidate. BZ to the OP.
 
After graduating high school you will never see 90% of your high school class again. I saw maybe 10 people when I went home for the summer at USNA, and now 9 years post USNA graduation I still keep in regular contact with 1 person from high school. Don't worry about what they think. Most people don't even know what the academies are.

Also, why would you want to live in California? lol
 
OP, there's not shortage of opinions in this world, and everyone seems to have one about everything. However, you're going to be the one ultimately living with your decision, so choose what you want to do.

To iterate some on the reverse conundrum, I have "taken heat" over the years for choosing an Ivy over a service academy. But the best thing to do is to not let those comments get you down and just know that you made the right decision for yourself. I could not be happier with my choice, it was and still is the right one for me. Both options you have are great, and now it's up to you to choose between them.
 
DTT!FSA! said:
Sorry, but this is just not true. Objectively, Stanford's acceptance rate is lower than any of the Academies.

The acceptance criteria are different, but Stanford's acceptance rate of roughly 4% is lower than Navy's rate of roughly 10%.

Many attendees at Stanford could not get into Navy, but many attendees at Navy also could not get into Stanford.

To be accepted by both signifies a truly exceptional candidate. BZ to the OP.
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How many of the 4% accepted at Stanford could pass the CFA requirements?
 
I met many, many MIDN who chose USNA/NAPS over whatever "elite" school you care to name. You won't be alone.
 
Ivy22 said:
OP, there's not shortage of opinions in this world, and everyone seems to have one about everything. However, you're going to be the one ultimately living with your decision, so choose what you want to do.

To iterate some on the reverse conundrum, I have "taken heat" over the years for choosing an Ivy over a service academy. But the best thing to do is to not let those comments get you down and just know that you made the right decision for yourself. I could not be happier with my choice, it was and still is the right one for me. Both options you have are great, and now it's up to you to choose between them.
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Good points - and since no one can take both paths at the exact same time in life for a side-by-side comparison, it’s all moot. If someone feels a path is the right choice for them at that time of their life, all is well; they will never know if they could have been equally happy on the other path.

The critical takeaway is if you feel you have found a path that seems like the right one, you stick with it.
 
Alchemist said:
How many of the 4% accepted at Stanford could pass the CFA requirements?
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Forget the CFA, that's a layup (at least to pass it is IMO). How many people could pass DODMERB? There is major carnage in my area with candidates that are in line for a waiver. One of the kids on my DS's swim team last year was DQ'ed and the waiver was declined.
 
personally, i would have chosen Stanford with Nrotc over USNA, but that's me. Congrats on being accepted to both and only you get to decide where you are going. Can't go wrong either way. As for your friends who got rejected from Stanford, obviously, they are jealous. What could be worse to them, you being accepted and then rejecting the school.
 
DTT!FSA! said:
Sorry, but this is just not true. Objectively, Stanford's acceptance rate is lower than any of the Academies.

The acceptance criteria are different, but Stanford's acceptance rate of roughly 4% is lower than Navy's rate of roughly 10%.

Many attendees at Stanford could not get into Navy, but many attendees at Navy also could not get into Stanford.

To be accepted by both signifies a truly exceptional candidate. BZ to the OP.
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That's kind of a misleading statistic IMO especially as it relates to a SA, and I would surely not use it as any meaningful metric as to one being harder to get into than another. Stanford has an applicant pool almost 300% larger than Navy while its incoming class is only about 45-50% larger than Annapolis. They also admit a significantly lower amount of students, because they know (like Navy) that close to 90% of admits will end up enrolling. Take a school like UCLA (which of course is a phenomenal school as well) they only end up matriculating about 50% of admits, so their acceptance rate has to be 9-10%. May it be tougher to get into Stanford academically? Possibly. But as far as difficulty getting in considering the hoops to jump through for an SA, I am going to have to give the nod to a SA.
 
UnDon0 said:
I filled out the Stanford application back when I was unsure if I would get an appointment to USNA. Friday, I received word that I was accepted into the Stanford Class of 2028. People at my school found out I got in (told a few close friends) and I've been taking a lot of heat for choosing USNA over Stanford. To me, the decision is obvious: I want to serve in the Navy as a career and already accepted the appointment AND told my BGO officer that USNA is my top choice. I've tried explaining this to people, but USNA isn't well known where I live and its hard to understand. Most people in the school probably think I'm just weird and leave it at that but there are a few friends of mine who were rejected from Stanford and are much more resistant to the idea. They've told me that they think I'm being arrogant by choosing USNA when they would choose Stanford in a heartbeat. On one hand, I do believe I came on a little strong in support of choosing the Naval Academy and can certainly see where they're coming from. On the other hand, I'm know that the Naval Academy is where I belong even if I had a Stanford NROTC scholarship. Any thoughts?
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My DS got a similar reaction to choosing his current college/ROTC path over UCLA. He knew where he wanted to go ... Sound like you do as well. It is your decision and opinion that counts.
 
USMC Crayons said:
That's kind of a misleading statistic IMO especially as it relates to a SA, and I would surely not use it as any meaningful metric as to one being harder to get into than another. Stanford has an applicant pool almost 300% larger than Navy while its incoming class is only about 45-50% larger than Annapolis. They also admit a significantly lower amount of students, because they know (like Navy) that close to 90% of admits will end up enrolling. Take a school like UCLA (which of course is a phenomenal school as well) they only end up matriculating about 50% of admits, so their acceptance rate has to be 9-10%. May it be tougher to get into Stanford academically? Possibly. But as far as difficulty getting in considering the hoops to jump through for an SA, I am going to have to give the nod to a SA.
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I don’t really think it’s relevant to compare the two because one is a regional/congressional and one is a national competition for the most part. I think the more important distinction is that both are difficult to get into, but SAs are significantly(by several orders of magnitude) harder to stay in, which is why it commands so much respect.
 
creation123 said:
but SAs are significantly(by several orders of magnitude) harder to stay in,
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What is the measurement of this ? Graduation rates at USNA are pretty high, and I would guess that most attrition nowadays is voluntary or conduct/honor related than academic. USNA is pretty committed to making sure every Midshipman has opportunity to succeed. The days of "look left, look right, at graduation one of you will be gone " are long gone.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
What is the measurement of this ? Graduation rates at USNA are pretty high, and I would guess that most attrition nowadays is voluntary or conduct/honor related than academic. USNA is pretty committed to making sure every Midshipman has opportunity to succeed. The days of "look left, look right, at graduation one of you will be gone " are long gone.
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I’d say the high grad rate is a testament to how good Admissions is at filling the class with people who can handle the four difficult years. Attrition may not be the goal of the Academy but the experience certainly has its share of adversity.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
What is the measurement of this ? Graduation rates at USNA are pretty high, and I would guess that most attrition nowadays is voluntary or conduct/honor related than academic. USNA is pretty committed to making sure every Midshipman has opportunity to succeed. The days of "look left, look right, at graduation one of you will be gone " are long gone.
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I think that’s mostly a result of the type of people SAs attract. I wasn’t thinking in terms of pure academic difficulty; there are certainly some state schools (and especially in schools in our neighbor to the north) where even “easy classes” are extremely brutal. I was more referring to the stressors that a military life puts on a mid/cadet, which are just stacked already onto a plate with pretty rigorous academics (especially compared to many top schools which inflate grades nowadays) . I think more and more people are realizing how difficult the school is on the mental, and (from anecdotal evidence so take this with a grain of salt) this might be why a lot of people choose ROTC at a civilian school over a SA.
 
True story.... my classmate (pretty close friend) at USMA decided to leave after 2 years and not commit. Where did he go? Stanford was happy to accept him and he finished his degree there. If he went to Stanford initially and decided 2 years in that he should have gone to USNA then unfortunately that ship would have already sailed.
 
"Cool! You can pick where you want to go to college and I will pick what is best for me."

This is a very short period in your life where anyone cares about your college choices.

Later it will be "Wow! US Naval Academy!"
 
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