Branch Night at West Point

The above chart shows the total allocation number (before branch detail) for each branch.
 
Have heard mostly positive feedback about branch selection so far - still haven't seen any charts.

Some not happy with involuntary branch detail surprises - little transparency in the process.
 
Have heard mostly positive feedback about branch selection so far - still haven't seen any charts.

Some not happy with involuntary branch detail surprises - little transparency in the process.

I don't agree with the idea there is little transparency. Cadets know exactly how this works. Career fields that require fewer lieutenants and more field grade officers generate the requirement. They know this. MI branch best illustrates the reality. Spend a few years leading a combat arms platoon, then off to advanced training in MI.
 
Have heard mostly positive feedback about branch selection so far - still haven't seen any charts.

Some not happy with involuntary branch detail surprises - little transparency in the process.

I don't agree with the idea there is little transparency. Cadets know exactly how this works. Career fields that require fewer lieutenants and more field grade officers generate the requirement. They know this. MI branch best illustrates the reality. Spend a few years leading a combat arms platoon, then off to advanced training in MI.
The lack of transparency is not in the fact that branch detail exists - all are aware of the possibility.

The process of selecting who gets detailed and who doesn't is opaque. It is conducted with little input from the cadets and with little insight into the criteria. Unless a cadet volunteers for branch detail they are essentially rolling the dice.
 
It's no surprise these days that so many of the firsties get one of their top 2 branches, as they are given so much feedback from the branches over the course of the year leading up to the decision. If a cadet dreams of being aviation, for example, but all along the branch has told them multiple times, that they will not get it, then the cadet would be crazy to have put it down as their top choice. So they come to the realization of which branch(s) want them and then that becomes their new top choice(s) by the time branching comes in. Recently they were all given a briefing of the new numbers of slots for each branch, with emphasis on combat arms, and theye were allowed to change their list and remove the BRADSO option if they had previously chosen it. So, yea, many got their top choice, even if it REALLY wasn't their top choice, as they knew they wouldn't get what they really wanted.
 
The numbers do get skewed - my understanding is cadets are not told they will not get a branch. They are given a list of the top five branches USMA thinks are the best fit. Thus they know that if they put one of those 1 or 2 they will likely get it.

Aviation, Cyber, Medical school are exceptions - they have specific academic or physical requirements in order to be allowed to select.

Numbers also skewed by branch detail. If they get #1 choice and then get branch detailed to #8, #1 is still recorded in the statistics. As a measure of satisfaction, not likely that the detailed cadet would agree with the methodology.
 
The numbers do get skewed - my understanding is cadets are not told they will not get a branch. They are given a list of the top five branches USMA thinks are the best fit. Thus they know that if they put one of those 1 or 2 they will likely get it.

Aviation, Cyber, Medical school are exceptions - they have specific academic or physical requirements in order to be allowed to select.

Numbers also skewed by branch detail. If they get #1 choice and then get branch detailed to #8, #1 is still recorded in the statistics. As a measure of satisfaction, not likely that the detailed cadet would agree with the methodology.

This year, they were given a report and every single branch gave them a rating of: "must select", "indifferent" and "do not select." Even if they passed the aviation physical and the aviation aptitude test (I'm not sure of the name of this), cadets were told "do not select" for aviation, which I believe must have been based upon class ranking. (i.e. if they were not in the upper half of class)
 
Some not happy with involuntary branch detail surprises - little transparency in the process.

I guess things have changed- long time ago the branch detail was decided by the cadet. I picked Military Intelligence and branch detailed to Infantry. Suppose if you picked a non-combat arms branch as you had no inclination going combat arms and being told you will be initially combat arms for 4 years ( my days MI to Infantry detail was 4 years). I remember one of the ROTC commissioned 2LTs in my IOBC class that was involuntary branch detailed. He didn’t want to go to the Ranger School.
 
I had never heard of involuntary branch detail before last year - if the goal is to increase retention, it doesn't seem to be the way to go about it.

In the past cadets did get force branched by default. If they were near the bottom of the class, they picked from whatever slots remained. But there was complete transparency with Order of Merit. If someone got the slot you wanted, you knew they beat you for it fair and square.
 
The numbers do get skewed - my understanding is cadets are not told they will not get a branch. They are given a list of the top five branches USMA thinks are the best fit. Thus they know that if they put one of those 1 or 2 they will likely get it.


Self selection happens when reality kicks in when you get your class ranking. Very few cadets that I've seen still put something #1 that they knew was completely out of their reach. If you didn't put in the work to rank in the top quarter of your class, don't expect to get your #1 if you're going for something competitive. Its also still the cool part of West Point. Even with the branch feedback and mentorship happening, the majority of the branch selection still lies on you as the cadet. The work you put in is correlated to how much you control your destiny.




Good luck to all the new Army Aviators! Your new branch is a blast!
 
Would anyone expect them to show videos of the unhappy Firsties?
 
The numbers do get skewed - my understanding is cadets are not told they will not get a branch. They are given a list of the top five branches USMA thinks are the best fit. Thus they know that if they put one of those 1 or 2 they will likely get it.


Self selection happens when reality kicks in when you get your class ranking. Very few cadets that I've seen still put something #1 that they knew was completely out of their reach. If you didn't put in the work to rank in the top quarter of your class, don't expect to get your #1 if you're going for something competitive. Its also still the cool part of West Point. Even with the branch feedback and mentorship happening, the majority of the branch selection still lies on you as the cadet. The work you put in is correlated to how much you control your destiny.




Good luck to all the new Army Aviators! Your new branch is a blast!
You are referring to when class rank was the predominant factor in branch selection.
 
Words like selfless service, the needs of the Army, want vs need, consequences, and etc comes to mind. I would argued that the branch selection is driven by the cadet. If a cadet doesn’t get the branch he or she wants, he or she should look inward first. I am reasonably sure any cadet with decent grades, physically fit, and appropriate major got the branch they want. 47 months of great education and leadership experience, while getting paid, do come with some strings attached. Your grade is not good enough, no medical school. Don’t pass your flight physical, no aviation. Don’t pass commissioning physical, no commission. With fixed slots, there has to be some sort of OML to fill those slots.

Life takes you on a journey and you can’t second guess yourself. No way for me to tell how my personal life and military career would have turned out if I didn’t branch detailed.
 
Would anyone expect them to show videos of the unhappy Firsties?

You think the videos I am referring to were captured by COMCAM or officially sanctioned source? The videos I have seen are captured by Cadets, and cover the entire auditorium. You think videos of unhappy Firsties would not hit the interwebs? Let me know if you find one...
 
Would anyone expect them to show videos of the unhappy Firsties?

You think the videos I am referring to were captured by COMCAM or officially sanctioned source? The videos I have seen are captured by Cadets, and cover the entire auditorium. You think videos of unhappy Firsties would not hit the interwebs? Let me know if you find one...
Two years ago, if memory serves correct. A happy video inadvertently captured a cadet in the background - holding the just opened envelope and clearly not celebrating. Didn't go viral and was quickly removed from social media; Cadets do not revel in the disappointment of their comrades and certainly do not deliberately publicize it.

As I stated before, most cadets are happy with the outcome. Some are not. The only point I have made is that the new system, particularly involuntary branch detail, leads to some big surprises on Branch Night that rarely occurred under the Order of Merit system.

I knew many a cadet that wished they had a higher class rank, but none that were surprised on Branch Night. Disappointed maybe, but not surprised.
 
Congratulations on another aviator! Many happy cadets, some of whom probably got pleasant surprises. All thrilled that the wait is over.

I know of only of two cadets that got a negative surprise this year (likely a couple more I don't know). Pretty good results out of 1,000 cadets.
 
The real question and we wont know this for several years, is how many people who got their first choices wound up actually liking what they got and how many of those who were disappointed, wound up liking what they got? Sometimes reality doesnt match our expectations. Having said that, I have to imagine getting what you want is better most of time compared to not getting what you want, at least initially.
 
The numbers do get skewed - my understanding is cadets are not told they will not get a branch. They are given a list of the top five branches USMA thinks are the best fit. Thus they know that if they put one of those 1 or 2 they will likely get it.


Self selection happens when reality kicks in when you get your class ranking. Very few cadets that I've seen still put something #1 that they knew was completely out of their reach. If you didn't put in the work to rank in the top quarter of your class, don't expect to get your #1 if you're going for something competitive. Its also still the cool part of West Point. Even with the branch feedback and mentorship happening, the majority of the branch selection still lies on you as the cadet. The work you put in is correlated to how much you control your destiny.




Good luck to all the new Army Aviators! Your new branch is a blast!
You are referring to when class rank was the predominant factor in branch selection.

It still is. Yes, the aptitude tests and refences from officers play a role now but majority of the selection at school still relies on the individual cadet's class rank.
 
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