Clubs at West Point

Stormtrooper30

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High School student researching colleges here.

I have a few questions about the plethora of clubs offered at West Point. Below is a list of clubs that I am interested in and some comments from me:


Law Enforcement Tacticts Club- If I do attend West Point, I am thinking about branching Millitary Police. This club would provide invaluable training beyond what I would learn in regular classes at West Point. The various police units that they train with would be very interesting.
Trap/Skeet Team- I am currently on the Trap team at my high school and am improving with every match. It is a lot of fun and I would love to continue with it at the college level.
Combat Weapons Team- I love shooting different types of weapons, but this club would actually teach me how to use these different weapons in practical situations. I heard that this club was very tough to get into.
Skiing Club- I've only skiied a few times (I live in Memphis), but it is one of my favorite things to do. I guess that I want to become better at skiing.
Pistol Team- I love shooting, and shooting in a competitive enviroment just makes it that much better.
Paintball Team- I play paintball as a hobby, being on a real team would be great.
Infantry Tactics Club- I've read that a lot of people join this club and value the experience. It seems to be a very practicle club.


Now these are just some that I am interested in. I've got some general questions about them if anyone has any input:

-How competitve are these clubs to get into (I heard that the CWT and Paintball team are difficult to get into)?
-How much time will I have to actually partake in clubs at West Point? With the rigorous academic and physical training schedules, how much free time do you have to participate in clubs?
-What are the ski slopes like at West Point? Can you go to the mountain and ski on the weekends? Can you rent equipment?
-I play high school baseball. If I make the baseball team, how will that fit into life at West Point?


I apologize for the lengthy and dry post. I hope that someone here has some experience with at least one of these clubs and can give me a little bit of input. Thanks in adance for any responses.
 
This link provides a plethora of information about the various clubs at USMA:

http://www.usma.edu/uscc/dca/clubs/index.htm

While a plebe you are allowed to join only one club that travels.

Some clubs are very competitive and others are very open. After Beast, there is an evening devoted to clubs where the members come and try and "recruit" new members.
Everyone has time to participate in at least one club.
The ski slope is small but open to cadets - I do believe you can rent equipment.

D-1 athletes are called Corps Squaders. If you make a D-1 team that will take a lot of time. Many cadets even practice during the summer. For baseball you will eat with the team (not your company), be exempt from drill and possibly miss some summer military training. There is a trade off and if you are really interested in military type clubs you probably won't be able to play baseball as well.
 
Thanks for the link.

The DCA list shows all of the websites of the clubs at West Point, but a lot of the descriptions are limited and short. Some of the websites are really good though; the CWT has a great website.
If anyone has any experience with any of these clubs, really any clubs at West Point, I would really like to hear your impressions.

So the sports teams eat with their team instead of their company? That sounds like it could be both good and bad. But I guess I would see enough of the company during training and such that I wouldn't miss them.

Thanks for the reply, Just a Mom.
 
My son is in Infantry Tactics Club. He enjoys being in the field and hopes to branch infantry, so this club is perfect for him. If my memory serves, ITC meets once a week on Tuesday evenings. They usually have field exercises (FTX) on weekends, but not every weekend and not when there is something else going on. For example, in the fall they will not schedule an FTX on a home football weekend. You do not have to attend every FTX, so if you have a conflict with another club or a sport, you can still be in ITC.
 
The Competitive Club sports will have tryouts for each season. Some teams are tough to get on and others are pretty easy. You don't necessarily have to have played the sport before. If you play a Competitive Club sport then you won't participate in company athletics. Some also have authos (good).

Some clubs you have to tryout for as well like parachute, glee club etc.
For Sandhurst each company fields a team and there must be one female on each team.

Clubs are basically run by the cadets. The OIC is just an advisor. The web pages are run by the club members and vary depending on if anyone in the club will spend the time on it.
Also - if there is a club you would like to have - you can start it.
 
My son is in Infantry Tactics Club. He enjoys being in the field and hopes to branch infantry, so this club is perfect for him. If my memory serves, ITC meets once a week on Tuesday evenings. They usually have field exercises (FTX) on weekends, but not every weekend and not when there is something else going on. For example, in the fall they will not schedule an FTX on a home football weekend. You do not have to attend every FTX, so if you have a conflict with another club or a sport, you can still be in ITC.

If I do get into the Academy, then I am thinking about maybe branching Military Police (but, it's way to early to pick a branch right now). I'm interested in the combat branches, but not really the infantry as much as the others. However, this clubs sounds really fun and seems like a great oppurtunity. Knowing infantry tactics would be useful no matter what I branch.


For Sandhurst each company fields a team and there must be one female on each team.

What exactly is Sandhurst? I heard that it was some sort of competition between military schools accross the world?
 
"At its core, Sandhurst is an inter-company competition for USMA. However, West Point teams now compete, not only amongst themselves, but against teams from their fellow United States Service Academies, 8 select University ROTC teams, the United States Military Academy Preparatory School team, and international teams from Britain's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), Canada's Royal Military College (RMC) , Afghanistan's National Military Academy and, for the first time in 2009, The Chilean Military School.

Each USMA Cadet Company and Visiting Team selects a 9-member Squad (at least one member must be female) with two alternates. This squad is required to perform a series of challenging military tasks during a rapid, non-tactical move along a partly-prescribed 7 mile route."

For more see: http://www.usma.edu/dmi/sandhurst_competition.htm
 
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