Thank you for the responses again. It's giving me a lot to think about and that's exactly what I need right now, I think! My advisor mentioned that there was a Midshipmen a few years back that realized he wanted to study a very high level of math and wanted to be a math prof. He DOR'd and ended up transferring to MIT. I was wondering if anyone else knew of him or someone who took a similar route.
I haven't talked to anyone outside of advisor, professors, family, and civilian friends because I was advised to not tell my chain of command that I am applying to other colleges. I am meeting with an upperclass that I knew personally from high school who was a high validator and did extremely well here sometime soon. I guess I prefaced it wrong - it's more that what I want to study is not available here and less about the rigor.
What made you want to apply to USNA in the first place? What made you accept the offer of appointment?
I ask because USNA doesn't have a rep as a school that is strong in life sciences. Did you think you were going to do computational biology there? Or did you figure that there was some kind of trade off that was acceptable? Again I'm not trying to be snarky. Most BGO interviews spend at least some time discussing career goals and limited majors available at USNA. It sounds like you had options. What made you choose USNA in the first place.
If you had unrealistic expectations or were more interested in things like no tuition or prestige or career placement then you have to decide if you want what is on offer from the Navy and USNA. You have a clearer view now. You will know still more after youngster summer.
If you were my kid I might suggest returning for youngster year. Not only is life very different for youngsters than plebes, but unless you have transfer apps in by this week you are unlikely to be able to start in the fall anyway.
I wouldn't necessarily discuss dropping out with your chain of command. I would consider having discussions about academic goals and how you might meet them at USNA.
The post up thread about not using your degree much as a JO is worth considering. On the other hand, there are plenty of grads of civilian schools who are not working in their degree field either. No one is going to force you to stay at USNA against your will, but you should be realistic about what your alternate choices are. As much as possible try to compare reality to reality, not USNA reality to civilian school ideal (or USNA worst case depiction to civilian school ideal).
It's possible that you might not be accepted as a transfer student by your dream school. It's also possible that you would have much less financial aid than you were offered when you applied to schools as a high school student.
Again, I would try to have some detailed conversations with officers in the Yard. They can give you perspective that is based on some distance from freshman year and time in the fleet.