VMI to Westpoint

Is anyone familiar with the likelihood of getting accepted into USMA from VMI? I understand that grades and leadership activities are taken heavily into account in the application process. If I were to attend VMI for a year and reapply, would I have a good chance if I have no new leadership activities than when I was in high school? It seems like it'd be difficult to have a leadership role while undergoing the rat system in addition to doing well academically.
By the way, I understand that I should only attend a college if I can see myself there for four years, and VMI is definitely an a school that I'd be willing to attend. I admire its difficulty and honor code, and would be happy at both USMA and VMI, since becoming an officer is my ultimate goal.

There have been a few that I am aware of that attended VMI rat year then went to a SA. So it is possible. There will be some leadership in ROTC, not permanent positions necessarily but ways for them to be able to assess you leadership skills..

No way to know unless you try. Just be prepared to stay at VMI if it doesn't work out. I have also heard of Cadets who decided they didn't want to reapply to a SA after bonding with their brother Rats.

Good luck

If you think about it leadership is not that heavily weighted - only 10% of WCS. The highest percentage is class rank (30%) and standardized scores (30%). If you are a college student then class rank is not used and standardized scores are given more weight. If your standardized scores are lower than you need then I would not recommend an SMC. They will keep you too busy to find time to do the studying to improve your scores. If your standardized scores are not up to standard, then all the leadership in the world will not get you in. Evaluate your weakness and then make a plan.

It all depends why you did not get an appointment on your first try. If you had a strong application and got bet out by a "super candidate" the extra boost to your academic ranking from a successful semester of college can push you over the edge.

If you just have an average application, then you will have to improve those areas while also being successful during your first year.

You can reach out to your RC to get an idea of things you need to improve, but if you do an honest self-evaluation you already know how strong of an application you have.

General Patton attended VMI for one year (1903-1904) as a member of the Class of 1907; he then was appointed to the United States Military Academy in the spring of 1904 and entered West Point in June.

Army2022Hopeful said:

Is anyone familiar with the likelihood of getting accepted into USMA from VMI? I understand that grades and leadership activities are taken heavily into account in the application process. If I were to attend VMI for a year and reapply, would I have a good chance if I have no new leadership activities than when I was in high school? It seems like it'd be difficult to have a leadership role while undergoing the rat system in addition to doing well academically.
By the way, I understand that I should only attend a college if I can see myself there for four years, and VMI is definitely an a school that I'd be willing to attend. I admire its difficulty and honor code, and would be happy at both USMA and VMI, since becoming an officer is my ultimate goal.

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You are going into this question with a good frame of mind. I can't give you a numerical value of chances of being accepted to USMA from VMI, though pretty much every year there will be one or two kids who leave to start over again at one of the Academies. As a Rat you will have zero leadership opportunities by design- but you will have tremendous opportunities to demonstrate your aptitude for military life and what kind of a team player you are, and you will have a recommendation from the PMS based on your performance in a high pressure environment. So the lack of "leadership" will be more than offset by your demonstrated performance in a very demnading and well recognized crucible.
But- I think that you may also find that it will be difficult to say goodbye to your Brother Rats and start all over again at USMA, so going into this with a committment to VMI while maintaining the possiblity of leaving to go to USMA is probably a healthy approach rather than looking at VMI like you would look at the prep school - which it is not.

Good luck