Academys vs IVYs

Thank you for the wonderful posts! It is nice to see people having similar concerns. I appreciate your concern Buff1 but I think quote is being over done in my case. I grew up in W.P. household and served 10y. Your absolutely correct on the SAs mission and we emphasize that daily to our son who wants to be an officer. He has wanted the SAs for years but like Big Nick, we have insisted he look at all options. West Point/Navy still ellicits the "wow" factor in my circles but doubts creep in when we here critisms. Now is the time to take a back seat and let him pursue his dreams.
 
I was in your son's shoes many years ago. I was recruited heavily by the academies and Ivies. I took one trip to Princeton and knew within 30 minutes it was not the place for me. It just didn't feel like home. I did not grow up wanting to attend Navy or a SA, but when the basketball teams sent me some recruiting info and I did research it really caught my interest because it was challenging, different and a first rate education. Serving in the military sounded great to me. The minute I stepped foot on The Yard I knew I had found my school. It sounds as if your son wants to serve. Have him visit all the schools on his recruiting trips. If he has attended SLS then he knows the reality, but going on those trips will really help him decide which school is the right fit academically, future service selection options and athletically. Good luck to him!
 
I see Ivy league schools as superior graduate programs. In those grad school programs you're taught by the professors that attract the smartest America (and others) have to offer.

Undergraduate school is another animal. While I don't think anyone here can knock the quality of the students who go to a Harvard, Yale or Princeton, a nice chunk of their educations are taught by teaching assistants.

At an academy, you will be taught by a professor. Some of those professors went to an Ivy league.
 
Good point - I graduated from West Point but got a graduate degree from an Ivy school. The faculty at these schools looks world-class on paper but the VAST majority of the actual undergraduate teaching is NOT DONE by these prestigious people. The highly ranked Professors normally want to do research and write - not teach. When one of these peope do teach a class it is normally a lecture to 200 students with no interaction with the students. That was my experience. I prefere the almost one-on-one approach taken by the West Point teachers.
 
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