Are Mids Happier?

[Memphis9489]

One thing I always tell candidates who are weighing the pro's and con's between multiple service academies:

1. They are all good choices. You really can't go wrong either way.

2. The Naval Academy offers more diversified and viable career options. For instance, in the Air Force, you're either a pilot or you're not. If you're not a pilot, the long term career opportunities are more challenging to rise through the ranks because of the notion that non-pilots are second class citizens in the Air Force. It's a bias that certainly does exist although I'm sure somebody will chime in and deny it. But it's true.

If you want to get dirty like a grunt, you can do that through the Naval Academy. Become a Marine!

If you want to fly, you can do that through the Naval Academy, as well.

You can easily rise through the ranks and have a great career in the Navy whether you opt to go into the Marine Corps, aviation, the surface Navy or submarines.

Are special forces your thing? There's SEALs and EOD.

Personally, I think the Navy has more to offer with a wider range of communities than is offered at the other academies.

Does that lead to happiness? I'm not sure. Perhaps it does because there is almost always something available that "fits".

 

[futuremid2018]

USMA has much more academic opportunity, that is just a fact;

Really?

USMA has way more majors than USNA. I believe you can find that info on their academic websites. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am nearly certain of that. USNA and USMA both have extensive and among the top ranked engineering programs in the nation, but USMA has tons of other majors that are non-STEM

I also know from current cadets that there are an enormous amount of internships and summer academic opportunities that, as far as I know, are not available to mids. This is due to the increased academic diversity at USMA. I know of one cadet who spent 3 weeks in California for his CS major. Another who spent 3 weeks in Tel Aviv, Israel for his IR major. I know of current plebes who are trying to get into SOCOM summer training. I have not heard of these opportunities from the USNA. I want to go there for the reasons Memphis stated. There are pros and cons to both. To me, career selection is more important than increased academic opportunity.

 

[LineInTheSand]

The Naval Academy is less regimented than West Point. The closer you get to "normal college" the happier you are. Thus, midshipmen are happier, followed, or maybe lead, by Air Force Academy cadets.

 

[kinnem]

USMA is not upstate NY It is forty miles north of New York City. It is isolated but not considered up state. Ask the 10th at Fort Drum.

Upstate is a direction, not a destination. If you're in NYC, then USMA is upstate. If you're in Albany, then USMA is downstate. At some point north and west of Albany it does turn into a destination... somewhere outside the confines of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys.

 

[LineInTheSand]

Upstate is a direction, not a destination. If you're in NYC, then USMA is upstate. If you're in Albany, then USMA is downstate. At some point north and west of Albany it does turn into a destination... somewhere outside the confines of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys.

I believe "Upstate" capitalized is a location, while upstate, lowercase is a direction...

Having lived in Rochester, NY.... West Point is not Upstate. But NYCers don't realize there's anything north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

 

[nuensis]

I also know from current cadets that there are an enormous amount of internships and summer academic opportunities that, as far as I know, are not available to mids. This is due to the increased academic diversity at USMA. I know of one cadet who spent 3 weeks in California for his CS major. Another who spent 3 weeks in Tel Aviv, Israel for his IR major. I know of current plebes who are trying to get into SOCOM summer training. I have not heard of these opportunities from the USNA.

You don't know of them, so they don't exist. Bold assumption.

I bet USMA doesn't get internships at NRO or NSA because they don't have a Cyber Operations major.

 

[futuremid2018]

You don't know of them, so they don't exist. Bold assumption.

I bet USMA doesn't get internships at NRO or NSA because they don't have a Cyber Operations major.

I could ask some cadets I know; I do know that there are a mother load of summer internships. A firstie I know got his top secret clearance with the NSA actually..

I am not saying that USNA doesn't have opportunities like that, I am just saying that with the comparatively larger number of academic fields at USMA, they have more academic programs and internships all over the world than I have heard of at any other school.

 

[COmom]

I believe "Upstate" capitalized is a location, while upstate, lowercase is a direction...

Having lived in Rochester, NY.... West Point is not Upstate. But NYCers don't realize there's anything north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

^^^So true. Raised in "Upstate" (foothills of Catskills), school in Troy and Rochester. But people in the Adirondacks believe they are the ones who are really Upstate. Fun to see several of you who get the NY State culture.

 

[Memphis9489]

I also know from current cadets that there are an enormous amount of internships and summer academic opportunities that, as far as I know, are not available to mids. This is due to the increased academic diversity at USMA

I had twins go into the Medical Corps from USNA. They did summer internships at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD and assisted in medical research at Wright Patterson Medical Center in Dayton, OH - both of which were completely funded by the Naval Academy.

 

[futuremid2018]

I didn't intend to step on any toes or to convey a generalized statement... I never said that USNA didn't have opportunities. I just said that USMA has a lot more variety and, from what I'm told, more opportunities....

Guess I'll find out when I get to Navy.

 

[AF6872]

NYCers don't recognize anything west of the Hudson or north of the Tappan Zee. They are starting to build a new one at Tappan Zee. That should be fun. Try twenty below at Lake Placid. But my son did get his name announced over the loudspeaker at the Herb Brooks Arena in the penalty box.