I think it’s humorous that the “data point” that you claim matters most is one that’s not publicly available
I honestly don't know what is publicly available and what isn't but when a large number of KP graduates every year make zero effort to go active duty so including them in the data set does not really seem accurate. Reading you post again I am not sure if you are trying to determine the odds a KP M/N has in getting flight, or are you saying that KP should be on the same level as the military academies?
When you consider graduation statistics I have to wonder why if an applicant got denied to every academy except usmma and didn’t want to be a merchant marine but rather wanted to commission to another service why wouldn’t they self prep for a year and reapply to the other academies.
I think this is essentially the decision that everyone faces multiple times throughout their lives. When Plan A doesn't work do I go to Plan B, C, D, Etc. now, or come back an try plan A again later. This is one of my pet peeves with society right now. Kids today at 18-22 are being sold a story that they have to keep up and if you don't go to college right out of high school and don't graduate in four years then you are failing. I am a big believer in the gap year concept. "Society" pushes kids in to college right away telling them they need a degree to succeed. How many study things they have no interest in just to finish? How many take on massive debt to accomplish it? How many come out of college with a degree they don't have interest in with no more direction in life than when they started? Yet "society" holds them up as though they achieved something when many just achieved conformity.
I knew exactly what I wanted and I didn't deviate from it, it took me multiple tries to get my Plan A but for me, Plan A in a couple years was more important than Plan B now. Many kids feel rushed into anything so they take any route now vs the right route later.
I would say though that everything I have seen and heard suggests the success rate of getting Naval Aviation from KP far exceeds the 37.5% of billets available at USNA. When I lived near DC (a highly, highly, highly competitive area for service academies) I had a neighbor who was applying to USNA and wanted flight. I told him he should move to N. Dakota and apply to KP, his chances of getting flight that way were significantly better.
I ll still contend all the publicly available data suggests usmma lags in a lot of important areas and unless you want to be a merchant marine go elsewhere.
I cannot really disagree with you there. I would suggest though, that when looking at the service academies and how they interact with the Active Duty services, including USMMA on an equal footing does not offer the best statistical analysis because 1. going AD in the military is optional and not required and 2. Supporting AD manning is only part of the mission, not the entire mission.
But I know a lot of KP alumni who love to be loud and proud that conditions sucked, they had little to no academic assistance and hated it a lot of it but it all ended up ok
That is most of us. It is exactly our shared experience of crappy food, piss-poor leadership, borderline useless professors, and our graduation despite them, but because of each other that binds us together and makes the alumni network what it is. Back in the day we got next to no assistance from the "system" but plenty from each other. That's why someone sitting on a pony was considered a betrayal because they put themselves ahead of their peers?