My son has appointments to both USMA and USNA. Over the Fall we did a day visit to West Point and a few weeks ago he did a CVW at Navy. His observation was that the Mids seemed happier -- is there any evidence of this?
I think this may be because his observations were different. During a day tour at West Point, he only "hung out" with the plebe who escorted him and had limited interactions with others at classes and lunch.
The CVW seems to do a better job at selling candidates on the school. For one, by organizing around specific weekends, rules are relaxed a bit for everyone. Also, the visit lasts through Friday night -- as the weekend begins for upperclassmen after class/6pm on Friday, it may have been a more relaxed atmosphere. Also, being Friday, guys played some board games after class and before dinner, dinner Friday was cafeteria style. Friday night there were different activities -- Semi-finals of the brigade boxing and Spamalot was being performed. Saturday morning, breakfast was eggs cooked to order.
Certainly it was a longer view of student life and being a Thursday/ Friday/ Saturday weekend, there was an opportunity to view student life without the pressure of studying and so forth.
So, is there any evidence that mids are happier than cadets?
I think this may be because his observations were different. During a day tour at West Point, he only "hung out" with the plebe who escorted him and had limited interactions with others at classes and lunch.
The CVW seems to do a better job at selling candidates on the school. For one, by organizing around specific weekends, rules are relaxed a bit for everyone. Also, the visit lasts through Friday night -- as the weekend begins for upperclassmen after class/6pm on Friday, it may have been a more relaxed atmosphere. Also, being Friday, guys played some board games after class and before dinner, dinner Friday was cafeteria style. Friday night there were different activities -- Semi-finals of the brigade boxing and Spamalot was being performed. Saturday morning, breakfast was eggs cooked to order.
Certainly it was a longer view of student life and being a Thursday/ Friday/ Saturday weekend, there was an opportunity to view student life without the pressure of studying and so forth.
So, is there any evidence that mids are happier than cadets?