I Need Help with My Decision: USNA or Civilian College

Just Dad said:

Paul,

Just sent me a tee shirt from the USNA Foreign Affairs Conference where she moderated a panel and was assigned a Senate Staffer to "work for her". She was embarassed, felt like she should be working for him; the guy was a published author re: terrorism. She's done multiple conferences and situation exercises in DC attended by think-tank folks and grad students from GTown and grad students traveling from Harvard, Yale, Etc. She is doing work for "3 letter" agencies/service offices this summer and likely next. She just surprised me with her tentative plan to do a summer block at the London School of Economics in her C1--C2? year. She will have to foot the bill for tution on that one, but thinks USNA will approve. Point is USNA is a pretty rich place for non-stem people.

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I was part of the Foreign Affairs Conference 40 yrs ago and attended part of it this year. One of my fellow International Security Affairs Majors (and classmate) from back in the day was the speaker for the Forrestal Lecture so I joined several classmates in attending. We were pretty noticeable so your DD probably saw us.

OldRetSWO said:

Just Dad said:

Paul,

Just sent me a tee shirt from the USNA Foreign Affairs Conference where she moderated a panel and was assigned a Senate Staffer to "work for her". She was embarassed, felt like she should be working for him; the guy was a published author re: terrorism. She's done multiple conferences and situation exercises in DC attended by think-tank folks and grad students from GTown and grad students traveling from Harvard, Yale, Etc. She is doing work for "3 letter" agencies/service offices this summer and likely next. She just surprised me with her tentative plan to do a summer block at the London School of Economics in her C1--C2? year. She will have to foot the bill for tution on that one, but thinks USNA will approve. Point is USNA is a pretty rich place for non-stem people.

Click to expand...

I was part of the Foreign Affairs Conference 40 yrs ago and attended part of it this year. One of my fellow International Security Affairs Majors (and classmate) from back in the day was the speaker for the Forrestal Lecture so I joined several classmates in attending. We were pretty noticeable so your DD probably saw us.

Click to expand...

I will tell her we ran into eachother in cyber-space. She is home in less than a week.

The Foreign Affairs Conference is one of those unique opportunities that I never thought about before getting to USNA. Before actually coming to USNA, most appointees(myself included) are so consumed with thinking about Plebe summer and other big picture ideas about "Mid life" that the intellectual/networking opportunities offered by the institution are left unrealized. I was a participant in NAFAC this year as well, and never before would I have imagined sitting at a table with one of the most notable and renowned US ambassadors discussing foreign policy... If it makes any difference to appointees who accepted the offer but aren't 100% "gung-ho" about USNA, I was in the same shoes two years ago. Believe me, I've seen some of the "motivators" from Plebe Summer with previously unwavering commitment who are now unsure about signing their names this coming August. For me it has been the opposite. If anything, the experiences afforded to me these past two years have only increasingly solidified my desire to sign 2 for 7's.

@Paul111 Just found this thread from many years ago. In case you still check this forum, wondering how things played out for you?

Poster has not been active since June of 2018, not likely to get a reply.