USMA vs MIT

[AROTC-dad]

Lurker, your continued posts, designed to provoke and not inform, do not demonstrate wisdom or leadership.

 

[gf16]

Seems there's a reason his username is lurker

 

[oldcorpsdad]

Sooo... this has been an interesting thread. As the parent of a WP Grad who also went to MIT let me offer my 2 cents. My DS was probably in the top 3% academically at WP. He got put into the scholarship grooming program at WP and competed for the Rhodes, Marshall, Rotary and other scholarships. He won one and got to go immediately to MIT for Grad school as a 2LT. His comments were that, as expected, the cultures were fundamentally different. At WP there was the collective support, mentoring, and classmate support. People helped people. The whole experience bonded people with a common goal even if everyone wasn't actually a friend. The shared experiences, Beast, Buckner, Sosh, SAMI and everything else positive an negative was life changing. The leadership development, physical development and military training further confirmed that WP was his best choice to become an Army officer. He had applied to MIT when he applied to WP and declined when he got his appointment. He then went to MIT for Grad school. There he saw an environment that was more challenging academically. Some of that he attributed to instructors who weren't always as focused on student success as other factors. He also felt that it was also much more academically rigorous in some areas. Even though they had section differentiation at WP, at MIT it was like all classes are all filled with Starmen. Also, there was much more specialization at MIT. Chemistry and more chemistry for chemistry majors. Who needs liberal arts, so it was much more focused on academic disciplines rather than the whole person concept. The students, grad and undergrad, were culturally more inline with what he had experience in high school. People sleeping in class and the instructor not caring, playing games on their computers, and other factors more inline with the general societal norms. He did mention that he found it funny that he has never heard anyone talk about sports, not college or professional. Monday morning is more like "Did you hear about the xyz discovery?" rather than "Hey, my team kicked your teams butt". The student body is a bit more diverse at MIT as well. AT the end of the day, both produce Great AMericans, just different Americans.

 

[mahkcots]

Hasn't logged in since the day the thread was posted, so he's probably not even viewed it.

Thank you all for the replies so far, they've been very helpful! I have been following the threads progression but have not logged on to do so. Just to clarify and echo some of the other comments being made, I'm not particularly interested in which is more rigorous to get into as I have already passed that stage and I feel I also have a healthy grasp on the difficulty of academics at each school. At this point, I'm more interested in seeing if anyone else has a perspective on the issue that I have not yet considered. I am going to join the military after college and I know I will serve more than my required time, I am just not sure how much more. Thanks

 

[EOD/SEALmom]

Thank you all for the replies so far, they've been very helpful! I have been following the threads progression but have not logged on to do so. Just to clarify and echo some of the other comments being made, I'm not particularly interested in which is more rigorous to get into as I have already passed that stage and I feel I also have a healthy grasp on the difficulty of academics at each school. At this point, I'm more interested in seeing if anyone else has a perspective on the issue that I have not yet considered. I am going to join the military after college and I know I will serve more than my required time, I am just not sure how much more. Thanks

I wish you all the best for your future - it is bright whichever path you choose!