Help deciding which academy to attend

Perspective

USMA 2022
Joined
Jul 10, 2017
Messages
51
Hello,

I have been offered an appointment to USMA, USNA, and USAFA. I am having a somewhat difficult time deciding which academy to attend.

I want to major in cyber security/computer science.

Any advice? Thank you!
 
Work backwards. Which service’s missions, culture, opportunities and duty stations appeal the most?

On your visits, which SA and its cadets/midshipmen felt like the best fit?

The SA is a way station to prepare you for a period of 5+ years of service.

Are there career fields you absolutely do not want to do, if you find yourself not getting your first choice? If you don’t want to serve on the water, under the water or land a plane on a steel postage stamp in the middle of a lot of water, many communities in the Navy or Marine Corps will not be for you.

Ten years from now, which would you most regret?

Go back and read the essays you wrote for applications. Which feel most authentic to you now?
 
Sounds like you are set on Cyber and maybe all three services have cyber slots directly after graduation. I know Army does, but not sure on the others. The main consideration then would be.... what if, for some reason, you don't get cyber. What would be next on the pecking order? That will lead you to the service that would be best fit for you. Congrats and best of luck to you!
 
I have been offered an appointment to USMA, USNA, and USAFA. I am having a somewhat difficult time deciding which academy to attend.
Any advice? Thank you!

My advice is to not brag about triple appointments on a forum where posters are feeling tremendous stress right now hoping for just one offer. Not cool.

That being said, the above posters make great points.
 
My advice is to not brag about triple appointments on a forum where posters are feeling tremendous stress right now hoping for just one offer. Not cool.

That being said, the above posters make great points.

The OP is not bragging, he/she is simply asking a question that has come up multiple times on these forums over the years. The posters on these forums with knowledge on both the services and their respective institutions can offer immeasurable advice or information on each that could potentially help the OP make a decision. His question is a fair one and he should not be admonished for his success just because it might make a few other potential appointees uncomfortable or feel "tremendous stress." The simple fact is that not all that apply will be accepted. Some will have multiple appointments, some will have one, others will have none. As several other posts have said, not entering a SA on your first try, or not ever entering one, is not a failure. There are multiple ways to get to the goal you ultimately wish to obtain....the fact that this OP has been offered three appointments bears no weight on the paths of those still waiting.

Besides, once he/she decides on one SA, that leaves two more appointments for others to be offered. It's a small world, maybe one of those "stressed posters" will be one of the individuals offered them.

To the OP, you have resources here, but you also have the opportunity to do research. Heed what previous replies have said, look at the services closely, decide which mission/creed/career progression best fits you and then look at the institution. Four years, while it may not feel like it, flies by and the true test of your success comes not at school but at your commission as an officer. If you cannot find the answers on the specific services, come here and ask. There are multiple people on here from each of those branches.
 
Do you have an offer of appointment?
 
Hello,

I have been offered an appointment to USMA, USNA, and USAFA. I am having a somewhat difficult time deciding which academy to attend.

I want to major in cyber security/computer science.

Any advice? Thank you!
Bragging? Just kidding. Congrats, that must feel really great to be offered appoinments to all three. I know the Air Force has a whole division/department dedicated to Cyber. Not sure on the other branches
 
From what I have read, there are two building projects currently underway on the Yard...one is a parking lot, the other is an entire building dedicated to cyber. Each year the number commissioning directly into the cryptologic from USNA is growing, although still very small in overall percentage. The Superintendent has said he sees the cyber arena as 'a big deal' and these growing numbers seem to back this up. Although maybe in it's early stages, the Navy seems to be moving forward with a forward-thinking cyber agenda (along with helping with some parking issues). In all seriousness, not sure how that information will fit into your future desires/plans, but Capt MJ's post is excellent advice for any decision that needs to be made.

All the best to you in whatever path you choose and congratulations on your appointments--BZ.
 
Perspective that’s awesome. Congratulation on your Appointments.

You have a very valid question and an important decision to make very soon. So let me give it a shot answering your question since my DS just went through evaluating Cyber Ops in the Army Navy Air Force and Coast Guard meeting with all services in active duty.

It is very clear that Cyber Ops has become very important to all services. All services are investing in Cyber Ops and expanding capabilities and roles. All services don’t have enough enlisted and officers to fill their demand. The role of officer in Cyber Ops is to analyze the threat, strategize, report intelligence to their commands and share intel within the joint command communities including the NSA and other intelligence organizations and with our allies. This is not a secret. What we learned from this interaction, it is actually the enlisted men/women doing the programming and data analyses. Officers for most part work as strategist, policy analyst, and mission managers. Yes there’s probably Officer Programmers but they are more likely also managing other enlisted programmers.

Among the Academies only Naval Academy offer Cyber Ops as a major today. Other Academies offer Computer Science and Cyber Club as the path to Cyber Ops. So if you are seeking dedicated Cyber Ops as an academic major, it is the Navy. One of few SMCs that offer Cyber Ops as major is Norwich. Norwich is DoD approved for Cyber Ops as a Major.

Non of the Ivies MIT Stanford are DoD certified even though they offer certification courses in the discipline. I looked into this because I am taking grad courses in Cyber Ops now through Stanford. And my DS is auditing the same course.

Today, no Academies offer Cyber Ops as a Major except Navy. And USNA has been designated as the National Cyber Ops Center of Excellence with a major investment with secure modern building, a dedicated facility at USNA. So this major and field will get a lot of DoD funding with career mobility. Same is true in the civilian sector with industry expected to grow to $400 billion by 2028. Perhaps other SAs will adopt Cyber Ops too in few years but there’s no discussion on this yet.

Army has slowly adopted Cyber Ops as a career. In recent years, it has branched from Signals with human capital coming from both Signals and MI to fill the demand. Today, Cyber is a branch on its own. Army does not encourage new butter bars to branch directly into Cyber Ops. In fact, most can’t. Most have branch detail to do their Platoon Leader role in Infantry Armor Artillery then transfer to MI or to Cyber Ops after 3 years. Cyber Ops want Captains! MI is the same way. One of my protege in the Army is a Colonel and Commander of a MI Brigade. He didn’t get to do MI until he became a young Captain. Similar now for Cyber Ops. That’s the Army.

Today, we learned that to go Cyber Ops directly from Air Force, you have to be Comp Sci major. But many don’t do that. Many come from other Air Force and Army jobs before going into Cyber. Most people we met in the Army Air Force and Navy non went directly to Cyber Ops.

Air Force and Navy can branch into Cyber Ops upon graduation. But there’s cost to doing this to your career. If you go directly to Cyber, you will not know the real Air Force nor the real Navy. Why, because you lack the field and junior officer platoon experience on ship land and Air. If you start in Cyber that’s your career. Perhaps you can branch into Intelligence since Intel and Cyber work so closely together. But you cannot go to ship air land jobs to command soldiers airmen and sailors. Because you don’t have the relevant leadership experience in other communities.

Cyber and Intel jobs are better met if you have relevant field experience first. So you don’t have to major in Cyber Ops to go Cyber Ops. You can major in anything you like and go Cyber Ops and each service will send you to school to get the technical skills you need to do your job. That’s the current position in the service.

So in our conclusion, and in our decision, my DS will not pick the Academy or college or service for Cyber Ops or for Cyber Career. You pick the Academy or college because that’s where you feel the most affinity and want to build your fraternity. If you choose the Naval Academy, it is a bonus to go Cyber Ops Major. Although nicer to have, don’t think you will get special privileges during your career in Cyber Ops because you took it as a college major since you will have plenty of opportunities to take grad courses on DoD dime while on the job if needed. It is all about how you perform on the job during your career.

Also no guarantee you will remain in Cyber Ops in the military nor in civilian career. Average college students consider changing their majors 2-3 times during college.

I hope this has been useful for your upcoming consideration choosing your Academy. It has been for us.
 
trackandfield08 said:
...Besides, once he/she decides on one SA, that leaves two more appointments for others to be offered. It's a small world, maybe one of those "stressed posters" will be one of the individuals offered them...

That is not my understanding.
Each year the SAs send out A-amount of offers, planning on B-amount of declines, resulting in a class size of A - B = C.
The OP's two declines of the three are already figured into the algorithm. This is why some classes are larger than others.
 
Your choice depends on whether you care more about your major or your job. Most people on this forum will tell you that you should care more about your job, but that's really up to you. If you want the major specifically called "cyber ops" then obviously that's only offered at navy. But USAFA has cyber science and computer science as majors.
Today, we learned that to go Cyber Ops directly from Air Force, you have to be Comp Sci major. But many don’t do that. Many come from other Air Force and Army jobs before going into Cyber. Most people we met in the Army Air Force and Navy non went directly to Cyber Ops.

This is not true. You can be picked up for the cyber AFSC with any major. So if yourey more worried about your job, don't worry about this.
Air Force and Navy can branch into Cyber Ops upon graduation. But there’s cost to doing this to your career. If you go directly to Cyber, you will not know the real Air Force nor the real Navy. Why, because you lack the field and junior officer platoon experience on ship land and Air. If you start in Cyber that’s your career. Perhaps you can branch into Intelligence since Intel and Cyber work so closely together. But you cannot go to ship air land jobs to command soldiers airmen and sailors. Because you don’t have the relevant leadership experience in other communities.
In the Air Force, all cyber officers are qualified for command. I don't know about the other services. If you go to USNA, I don't know.what your odds are of going cyber straight out. If you go to USAFA and you put Cyber on your nonrated dream sheet, YOU WILL GET IT. We are in desperate need of more cyber officers. So it really comes down to whether you care more about your major or your job afterwards.
 
C17Hopeful. You make your point categorically wrong and right. Not sure that’s how I would guide the readers on this post. We spoke with a Colonel Commanding one of the larger Detachments in Northeast. We were told that if you want to commission into Cyber Ops directly from college you have the best chance as Comp Sci major. So that’s the only data we have. Now Air Force recruiting office in other parts of the world may have different recruiting into Cyber Ops so you may be right there as well. So neither of us are wrong! Nor the Air Force Colonel!
 
On the point of command, we were told that you will not be able to command other areas outside Cyber Ops if that’s where you spent your junior officer time. However, if you can take command in non cyber related areas during your senior rank then Air Force definitely has more flexible career mobility which is great! But I don’t think you can go Cyber first then to Pilot school or vice versa. And if people do, I think that’s rare.
 
Perspective that’s awesome. Congratulation on your Appointments.

You have a very valid question and an important decision to make very soon. So let me give it a shot answering your question since my DS just went through evaluating Cyber Ops in the Army Navy Air Force and Coast Guard meeting with all services in active duty.

It is very clear that Cyber Ops has become very important to all services. All services are investing in Cyber Ops and expanding capabilities and roles. All services don’t have enough enlisted and officers to fill their demand. The role of officer in Cyber Ops is to analyze the threat, strategize, report intelligence to their commands and share intel within the joint command communities including the NSA and other intelligence organizations and with our allies. This is not a secret. What we learned from this interaction, it is actually the enlisted men/women doing the programming and data analyses. Officers for most part work as strategist, policy analyst, and mission managers. Yes there’s probably Officer Programmers but they are more likely also managing other enlisted programmers.

Among the Academies only Naval Academy offer Cyber Ops as a major today. Other Academies offer Computer Science and Cyber Club as the path to Cyber Ops. So if you are seeking dedicated Cyber Ops as an academic major, it is the Navy. One of few SMCs that offer Cyber Ops as major is Norwich. Norwich is DoD approved for Cyber Ops as a Major.

Non of the Ivies MIT Stanford are DoD certified even though they offer certification courses in the discipline. I looked into this because I am taking grad courses in Cyber Ops now through Stanford. And my DS is auditing the same course.

Today, no Academies offer Cyber Ops as a Major except Navy. And USNA has been designated as the National Cyber Ops Center of Excellence with a major investment with secure modern building, a dedicated facility at USNA. So this major and field will get a lot of DoD funding with career mobility. Same is true in the civilian sector with industry expected to grow to $400 billion by 2028. Perhaps other SAs will adopt Cyber Ops too in few years but there’s no discussion on this yet.

Army has slowly adopted Cyber Ops as a career. In recent years, it has branched from Signals with human capital coming from both Signals and MI to fill the demand. Today, Cyber is a branch on its own. Army does not encourage new butter bars to branch directly into Cyber Ops. In fact, most can’t. Most have branch detail to do their Platoon Leader role in Infantry Armor Artillery then transfer to MI or to Cyber Ops after 3 years. Cyber Ops want Captains! MI is the same way. One of my protege in the Army is a Colonel and Commander of a MI Brigade. He didn’t get to do MI until he became a young Captain. Similar now for Cyber Ops. That’s the Army.

Today, we learned that to go Cyber Ops directly from Air Force, you have to be Comp Sci major. But many don’t do that. Many come from other Air Force and Army jobs before going into Cyber. Most people we met in the Army Air Force and Navy non went directly to Cyber Ops.

Air Force and Navy can branch into Cyber Ops upon graduation. But there’s cost to doing this to your career. If you go directly to Cyber, you will not know the real Air Force nor the real Navy. Why, because you lack the field and junior officer platoon experience on ship land and Air. If you start in Cyber that’s your career. Perhaps you can branch into Intelligence since Intel and Cyber work so closely together. But you cannot go to ship air land jobs to command soldiers airmen and sailors. Because you don’t have the relevant leadership experience in other communities.

Cyber and Intel jobs are better met if you have relevant field experience first. So you don’t have to major in Cyber Ops to go Cyber Ops. You can major in anything you like and go Cyber Ops and each service will send you to school to get the technical skills you need to do your job. That’s the current position in the service.

So in our conclusion, and in our decision, my DS will not pick the Academy or college or service for Cyber Ops or for Cyber Career. You pick the Academy or college because that’s where you feel the most affinity and want to build your fraternity. If you choose the Naval Academy, it is a bonus to go Cyber Ops Major. Although nicer to have, don’t think you will get special privileges during your career in Cyber Ops because you took it as a college major since you will have plenty of opportunities to take grad courses on DoD dime while on the job if needed. It is all about how you perform on the job during your career.

Also no guarantee you will remain in Cyber Ops in the military nor in civilian career. Average college students consider changing their majors 2-3 times during college.

I hope this has been useful for your upcoming consideration choosing your Academy. It has been for us.

Some dated information on Cyber and the Army in this post but that is probably because of the evolving nature of Cyber and the services. I am a non-cyber guy working in cyber but have a pretty good read on the current status of things. So to summarize a few points on the Army and Cyber. There are not branch details now so Cyber officers are basic branch from commissioning. The detail piece is definitely still true for MI and SC though. The board were really only to build the cohort of Captains and above and that pipeline is now about where it will stay from my understanding. As a Cyber lieutenant as of today you will be assigned to either Fort Gordon, GA or Fort Meade, MD after BOLC at Gordon. The branch seems very exciting though very technical. I know several schools are offering cyber fields but not sure how relevant most of those will be. Obviously, you need some technical background but cyber officers are not the network admins for the Army. It really is about defending the network and then conducting offensive operations. As a lieutenant and captain you will rotate positions on teams and then as a major command teams and battalions as a LTC. All four branches are fielding a type of cyber capability. The Air Force is not a full branch yet and still seems more a blend of comms/cyber. The Navy is rotating in and out of crypto guys. I hope this helps.
 
On the point of command, we were told that you will not be able to command other areas outside Cyber Ops if that’s where you spent your junior officer time. However, if you can take command in non cyber related areas during your senior rank then Air Force definitely has more flexible career mobility which is great! But I don’t think you can go Cyber first then to Pilot school or vice versa. And if people do, I think that’s rare.
This is incorrect. While it is true that pilots hold many of the command positons in the Air Force, Cyber Officers are still qualified to command outside of cyber. There are AOCs here who are Cyber Officers. Pilots are simply more numerous.
 
Typically commands are within your career field designated by your core AFSC. However, if you have spent sufficient time in another career field and get released by your career field to compete at the DT (developmental team) for the other career field, you can be picked up for command. Within the 13S community, I’ve known a few non-core 13S people picked up for command of a space squadron, however these are typically acquisitions people who have spent time in space billets. I’m sure it works similarly for cyber. Not sure why this is an important point in helping the OP decide his future, but I thought I’d clarify since I don’t want false info flying around here.
 
I have been offered an appointment to USMA, USNA, and USAFA. I am having a somewhat difficult time deciding which academy to attend.
Any advice? Thank you!

My advice is to not brag about triple appointments on a forum where posters are feeling tremendous stress right now hoping for just one offer. Not cool.

That being said, the above posters make great points.

I was sincerely not trying to brag in any way. I am honestly having a hard time deciding which academy is right for me.

I understand that many people on these forums are stressed about hoping to receive an offer to an academy, and I really do hope that everybody can end up at the academy that they want to.
 
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