Recent content by TotheTop

  1. TotheTop

    Military Terms and Symbols

    For those of you attending West Point soon, I congratulate you! Lots of good advice on this forum, I'd like to offer some that you may not heard of before. As you are getting ready to go, consider looking up ADRP 1-02 (just google it), it's more or less the Army's manual for the terms, symbols...
  2. TotheTop

    Dropping Class

    It's an important officer skill to know when to cut out unimportant things from your life/workload. Good leaders know when to give up on something that doesn't make sense. I think navyafgirl brings up a good point, if you use that extra time wisely it could be an incredible benefit.
  3. TotheTop

    Highschool junior with aspirations to get into West Point Academy?

    Y_D, I'm an '09 grad from west point and a current officer. If your goal is to be an officer, ROTC is an excellent option and it is much easier than going to an academy. Once you graduate no one really knows your commissioning source unless it comes up in discussion. In my experience, West...
  4. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    So I am not a good one to give you advice on this. When I was a cadet I didn't validate anything, and as an instructor I have no clue which of my students validated what during Beast. I thought I was brilliant as a high schooler but once I got to R-Day I realized I was very, very average. In the...
  5. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    Sappers Lead the Way! Always good to see prior service guys and gals go to West Point, they make a big difference. I wish her luck! She may end up in one of my classes.
  6. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    Haha, I do not regret it, you actually sound exactly like the Cows I teach, they are always asking me this stuff. It is not particularly difficult coming back as an instructor if you do well as a Commander and you have the time to go get a masters and then teach. They generally will only take...
  7. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    It's a bit complicated, and this isn't exact, but the MS grade is worth 1.5 credit hours for a semester, so that ties into your academic grade slightly. It is also worth about 25-33% of an academic years Military Grade, and that Military Grade is overall worth 30% of your cumulative GPA. It's a...
  8. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    I've heard it is a great program and as USMA21 said, it can be very useful as an officer. I'd say go for it if he enjoys it!
  9. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    Great question, one that I honestly can't answer right now haha. I'm an Engineer Captain, however I'm teaching Military Science to the cows, so I don't know the civil curriculum. I can find out on Monday though, I will get back to you.
  10. TotheTop

    Current USMA Instructor reach out

    Hey all, just wanted to put this out there, I am an '09 graduate from West Point and I currently teach there as an Engineer Captain. If you have questions or want some perspective, feel free to pick my brain!
  11. TotheTop

    Best Courses for West Point?

    And if you want something a bit mental to focus on, take a look at Military Terms & Symbols (the book is called ADRP 1-02). This will start getting you into the mindset and into understanding common language we all use. If you want I can send you a link to some resources for those. Good luck in...
  12. TotheTop

    Best Courses for West Point?

    So I may have a bit of a controversial opinion, but I am an '09 graduate from USMA and I currently teach there. Best thing you can do for yourself is take it a bit easy, as in don't overload with difficult AP classes, and really focus on getting some sort of leadership experiences in and focus...
  13. TotheTop

    SCM, Absolutely! Let me know what you're thinking and I'll reply as soon as possible.

    SCM, Absolutely! Let me know what you're thinking and I'll reply as soon as possible.
  14. TotheTop

    Brand new here and looking to help my son prepare

    I'm an '09 graduate from West Point and I didn't even know the place existed until my Junior year of high school haha. The best advice I can give is play a lot of sports and get good grades. I wouldn't outright recommend taking really hard classes unless you can handle them because a bad GPA=bad...
  15. TotheTop

    Urgent and Interesting Situation

    Jebdad great question, its easy to forget that to many people the military is a foreign world. I can only speak from nearly a decade of service at USMA/Army as an engineer officer, so really I cannot speak very accurately as to the life of an airforce officer but I will tell you my impression...
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