We visited USCGA and met a lot of 4/C

coachkarl

coachkarl

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My son goes to the Naval Academy, which has sparked interest in my daughter in applying to the military academies. Toward that end, we took self-guided tours of West Point & USCGA last weekend. At CGA, we met A LOT of 4/C students and, must say, they were incredibly friendly, helpful and more than happy to engage in conversation with my daughter.

Really impressed by these young men and women and so was my daughter. She wasn't really keen on USCGA before the weekend, but the visit put it on the list for sure.

Nicely done, parents!
 
Glad to hear it! I loved conducting tours and information sessions with applicants and their parents when I was a cadet - it was a way to share my experiences and give back some time to the institution that spent so much effort on my personal and professional development.
 
From a parent's perspective: we had the same experience 7 years ago. What you would see as a parent is a very tight knit group of parents. I suspect this will be a very different experience than you will get as a USNA parent. And my DS is pretty close to his classmate's parents now where he is stationed. Each class has a parents FB page, and we keep in touch with what's going on.
 
AuxNoob said:
What you would see as a parent is a very tight knit group of parents. I suspect this will be a very different experience than you will get as a USNA parent.
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@AuxNoob, as a Mid parent, this comment caught me eye. How so?
 
coachkarl said:
My son goes to the Naval Academy, which has sparked interest in my daughter in applying to the military academies. Toward that end, we took self-guided tours of West Point & USCGA last weekend. At CGA, we met A LOT of 4/C students and, must say, they were incredibly friendly, helpful and more than happy to engage in conversation with my daughter.

Really impressed by these young men and women and so was my daughter. She wasn't really keen on USCGA before the weekend, but the visit put it on the list for sure.

Nicely done, parents!
Click to expand...
Sounds like the same thing that happened when my DS (who is one of those 4c cadets) visited USCGA for the first time. He came home knowing where he wanted to go.
 
AuxNoob said:
From a parent's perspective: we had the same experience 7 years ago. What you would see as a parent is a very tight knit group of parents. I suspect this will be a very different experience than you will get as a USNA parent. And my DS is pretty close to his classmate's parents now where he is stationed. Each class has a parents FB page, and we keep in touch with what's going on.
Click to expand...

As a USNA parent, I would beg to differ. I suspect with social media as prevalent as it is, parents of all service academies bond. And are “tight”. I know we are! The saying at USNA “my Mid is your Mid” is very true. I have personally experienced it (and know it’s very different than ‘regular’ college through our two older children’s traditional college experiences). Pretty sure it’s the nature of the service academy beast: bonding. Amongst the ‘students’, as well as their parents.
 
The experience of a school with 1000 cadets versus a school with 4500 mids is just different. 200 classmates or 1000 classmates. Again a different perspective.
 
I could see where the campus feel would be different. And my experience is from our plebe summer, where there were 1,200-ish on campus (not 4K or more). But I don’t think we are any less “tight” as a parent group. Perhaps I misunderstood your point. I think our ability to connect thru social media allows that tight knit group feel (or lack of it if that’s desired). For sure, parent group at USNA is tighter than at our other kids’ traditional colleges, as I already said (and I’m sure there are close parent groups within various communities in their colleges, too. We just we not a part of them).

My point was that I feel it’s the nature of all that surrounds and encompasses an academy experience as being the diving force behind a ‘tight’ parent group. Your point is that it’s the size of the campus. I didn’t get that from your post.
 
Yes, USNA, and it’s parents groups are less tight... if for no other reason, size.

That doesn’t mean USNA/parents aren’t tight, but I’m sure if you cut your group by 3/4, it would get even tighter.
 
I didn't mean to cause any controversy. I completely believe the "my mid is your mid". But rjb has it that the small size of the corps means that I'm likely to know a higher percentage of cadets and cadet's parents . We have a list of parents near airports and major highways who can be called is there are issues. I have met a high percentage of my son's class, and many of their parents. In FB photos (as cadets and as officers) I can identify a third to half my son's class. Even if I don't know them, they know who I am. My son was in the hospital last winter. My wife and I stepped off the elevator and the girl walking by said "Oh, you must be "name"'s parents!" and gave us a hug. Her brother was DS's classmate.
 
Separate but related, at one point I talked to a Navy mid and AFA cadet who were on exchange. The mid said that at USNA is was possible to "slide under the radar" due to the size of the corps. She said "You can't do that here. It's like a family. Everybody knows everybody, and where they're supposed to be, and what they're supposed to be doing." Then the AFA cadet said "Yeah, what she said."
 
I should add that tighter doesn’t mean better.

I was a cadet pre-Facebook and the parents used a list serve. It was very annoying to experience how close our parents were and how good their sources from the rumor mill were.
 
Hmm, yes. There were times we were told to not pass info on to the cadets.
 
AuxNoob said:
But rjb has it that the small size of the corps means that I'm likely to know a higher percentage of cadets and cadet's parents
Click to expand...

My DS had a few friends from HS at Annapolis. I once was at an event where I met two mids from the class of 2017 and neither of them knew my son's friends that were also in the class of 2017. Every kid in my son's class would know my son and most in the year ahead & behind.

And I would agree that I knew a greater percentage of my son's classmates and their parents than I would if his class size were 1200+.

It's just a different experience to a school that is five times the size.
 
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