1. There was a lot more diversity than I first expected (I don't mean that in a bad way). In my company, we had a decent breakdown between ethnicities, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds. While most of VMI 50-60% is from Virginia I was able to meet a decent about of people (including myself) who were from out of state. It is not as diverse as USMA where there are cadets from all 50 states and other countries and a large portion of minorities. Roughly 10% of the VMI Corps is female. I did notice a few cases of cadets dating other cadets both within classes and above or below a class. Parties were fairly common mainly off post, after breakout, I went to W&L, JMU, and VT on the weekends. We did have a midwinter dance a week after we broke out but there are dances and after parties for every class. I also know people who get an Airbnb just outside the county lines for the weekend.
The environment at VMI is a lot more supportive than competitive. Especially compared to USMA where everyone is competing against each other which I am personally not a fan of, but OML is a lot more important at USMA.
2. In my personal opinion the characteristics I would say are most admired are cadets who are able to think outside the box when needed. Who is able to know when to take charge and when to follow. It does seem that academics are revered here higher than the other pillars. I personally strive to be well rounded with a little more focus on physicality. The best advice I got from an NCO is as a PL you should be outworking everybody in your platoon and having the highest ACFT score. If private scores higher than you they're less likely to listen to what you are going to have to say.
1. There was a lot more diversity than I first expected (I don't mean that in a bad way). In my company, we had a decent breakdown between ethnicities, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds. While most of VMI 50-60% is from Virginia I was able to meet a decent about of people (including myself) who were from out of state. It is not as diverse as USMA where there are cadets from all 50 states and other countries and a large portion of minorities. Roughly 10% of the VMI Corps is female. I did notice a few cases of cadets dating other cadets both within classes and above or below a class. Parties were fairly common mainly off post, after breakout, I went to W&L, JMU, and VT on the weekends. We did have a midwinter dance a week after we broke out but there are dances and after parties for every class. I also know people who get an Airbnb just outside the county lines for the weekend.
The environment at VMI is a lot more supportive than competitive. Especially compared to USMA where everyone is competing against each other which I am personally not a fan of, but OML is a lot more important at USMA.
2. In my personal opinion the characteristics I would say are most admired are cadets who are able to think outside the box when needed. Who is able to know when to take charge and when to follow. It does seem that academics are revered here higher than the other pillars. I personally strive to be well rounded with a little more focus on physicality. The best advice I got from an NCO is as a PL you should be outworking everybody in your platoon and having the highest ACFT score. If private scores higher than you they're less likely to listen to what you are going to have to say.