Civilian college vs smc for reapplication

talltrees

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Feb 23, 2019
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Right now I’m choosing between Alabama/ Texas a&m vs Citadel/VMI. My plan is to reapply to West Point. In all of your personal opinion which is better?
 
Best advice is choose the school where you believe you will do your best and be involved for 4 years. Reason is your probability of transfering to WP is very small, either because you like the school and friends you are making, or get passed over again by WP. Are you a Texas resident or O/S? If you are O/S and academically competitive for WP, it is likely both will offer you substantial tuition discounts. TAMU I believe can offer O/S students in-state tuition if the student has earned ar least $4,000 in academic merit grant from any source.
 
I posted this a while ago but I believe it's still applicable.

My DS had a similar choice. He was offered a 4 year AROTC scholarship to VMI, VT or El Cid and got an appointment to USMMA. He chose VMI because all students are in the corps, closer to home (5 hour drive), much cooler temperature for doing PT (which you'll be doing often) and he prefers the mountains to the beach. If you love the idea of a small, charming town in the mountains while attending a top-notch, difficult military school, go to VMI, if you want to live in an awesome city (Charleston is one of my favorites, and I've been to a lot of places) go to the beach on your rare day off while attending a difficult military school go to the Citadel. Both schools are rated highly and both will serve you well if you want to be a military officer.

This is a neat website in terms of career earnings divided by state or otherwise.
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-state/bachelors/new-york
Check out all of your plan B schools.
VMI is number two in Virginia, behind Washington and Lee, which borders VMI and the Citadel is number one in South Carolina. It's relevant to divide them by state due to cost of living adjustments geographically speaking. Good luck in your search, that senior year is probably more stressful than it needs to be. Things will work out and everything happens for a reason.

My son is now halfway through his second year and it's been an incredible experience. Difficult but rewarding.

One thing to consider is do you want to do a Knob year at the Citadel or the Rat Line at VMI and then be a plebe at WP if you get accepted the next year? That's a lot of difficult days to endure.

My son has thrived at VMI. It's a great school. If you get an ROTC scholarship it is almost as good a deal as WP. There are local scholarships that can pay room and board if you're qualified.
 
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