I'm interested in applying to VFMC for the ECP program. I would like someone to tell me about their experiences. What are the academics like? How difficult are admissions, ect? Any other info is greatly appreciated!
The academics at Valley Forge vary greatly depending on your willingness to push yourself. Unlike somewhere like West Point, not everyone takes mostly the same classes. I know some ecp guys in Calc 3 and some that never even take Trig. They are pretty strict about not letting students take more than 18 creedits per semester, so you won't be reallly busy with schoolwork all the time.
Admissions are pretty much anyone that can either afford the school or has scholarships. For the school in general, they accept just about everyone. I believe that the school does have some type of Pre-ECP program, where you come visit in the spring, take an APFT, interview with ROTC, and then if accepted attend a Pre-LTC at Valley Forge then the actual LTC at Fort Knox. The only people who I have heard that were not accepted were those that failed the PT test pretty badly. Many more were accepted and then disenrolled at the start of the school year for failing to pass DODMERB.
As for the ECP experience, I can't really say. I'm a prepster so this is just what I've seen or been told by my ECP buddies.
As for the Valley Forge experience in general, the school has a lot of things it needs to improve and very little money to spend on improvements. The food is pretty terrible, but thats to be expected. The school has an odd mix of British military traditions, so when you are not doing ROTC stuff you will march like a British person, which is very different than US Army marching. you will find a lot of your time wasted by a lot of seemingly pointless meetings, by fellow cadets who are only at the school because they wern't accepted anywhere else, and by poor leadership in many positions from cadet to administration. However, Valley Forge is a means to an end, so if you push yourself academically, cut through the crap and focus on ROTC, you will come out of it having learned a lot. Sorry if I made it look terrible, but I just woke up for PT only to find out that it is canceled because we have another meeting.
