Currently a Cow at West Point. Ask me Anything

alo235 said:
Can you talk a little bit about computer science/cyber at west point and if you know anything about what cyber officers do? I am interested in following the same route. Thanks
Click to expand...
Honestly I don't know a ton about what cyber officers do (or really what any officers do in specific). I know that might sound surprising considering I'm a cadet, but actually most cadets don't have a very good understanding of what officers actually do. Your time as a cadet is do develop your various skills as a person, and then that gets specifically applied to your job as an officer when you go to BOLC.

The computer science program here is pretty good in my opinion. I've learned a ton and been challenged in many classes I've taken so far. There are two cyber teams here, the cadet competitive cyber team (C3T) and Cyber Tech. C3T is a competitive team with a limited number of slots and authos, and Cyber Tech is a non-competitive team without authos and is open to anyone. Both teams are great ways to improve your understanding of cyber science and hacking outside of class.
 
Onlychild said:
Thank you for your willingness to share your experiences. My DD has received a Letter of Assurance from West Point and offered the NROTC scholarship. We are a navy family and knows very little about the army. However, she is very interested in West Point. Her LOA condition is submitting CFA scores. Although she runs track, she's not a distance runner. She is training for the CFA, but struggling with the pull-up and flex arm hang. Do you have any suggestions in regards to pull-ups and a reasonable target score she should aim to achieve? Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Click to expand...
For a female, any number of complete pull ups is good. I'm serious, I think the average is like 1 pullup. When I was training for the pullups, I just bought a pullup bar and would try doing as many pullups as I could each day. It only takes like 5-10 minutes a day to significantly improve in pullups, so as long as you consistently train you will improve dramatically. I went from being able to do 1 pullup to being able to do 10 in about 2 months.

If your DD cannot complete one pullup, then train negatives. So get a stool and stand up to the pullup bar, and slowly, slowly lower yourself down. This basically trains the same muscles as a pullup when you can't complete one rep, and back when I could only do one pullup I would often do negatives to continue to train when I was too tired to do another rep.

I am totally confident that your DD can get a pullup - and doing a single pullup gets more points than maxing the flexed arm hang! So please encourage her to stay diligent in her practice. Once you can get one pullup, then it becomes easier to train pullups because you can actually complete the rep - so once you get one pullup, in a week you'll probably get 2, and so forth. If she starts now and has a few months I'm sure she can get a few pullups on the CFA.
 
Perspective said:
For a female, any number of complete pull ups is good. I'm serious, I think the average is like 1 pullup. When I was training for the pullups, I just bought a pullup bar and would try doing as many pullups as I could each day. It only takes like 5-10 minutes a day to significantly improve in pullups, so as long as you consistently train you will improve dramatically. I went from being able to do 1 pullup to being able to do 10 in about 2 months.

If your DD cannot complete one pullup, then train negatives. So get a stool and stand up to the pullup bar, and slowly, slowly lower yourself down. This basically trains the same muscles as a pullup when you can't complete one rep, and back when I could only do one pullup I would often do negatives to continue to train when I was too tired to do another rep.

I am totally confident that your DD can get a pullup - and doing a single pullup gets more points than maxing the flexed arm hang! So please encourage her to stay diligent in her practice. Once you can get one pullup, then it becomes easier to train pullups because you can actually complete the rep - so once you get one pullup, in a week you'll probably get 2, and so forth. If she starts now and has a few months I'm sure she can get a few pullups on the CFA.
Click to expand...
@Perspective, thank you so much. We will begin those today and train daily. Her LOA expires on 11 January. I will keep you posted on her progress.
 
Fiona1124 said:
My DD also struggled with pullups. Cross Fit helped her with this alot! She's currently a plebe.
Click to expand...
Thank you, Fiona1124, that's encouraging. These are very stressful times. Prayerfully, I will be on this forum next year giving back.
 
USNAhopeful2025 said:
my DD is interested in getting into cross fit - do you think that it made a big difference for her plebe summer?
Click to expand...
It actually made a huge difference. She was able to complete pullups for the CFA and increased her strength significantly. It also helped her cardio. It was a win/win for her.
 
Fiona1124 said:
It actually made a huge difference. She was able to complete pullups for the CFA and increased her strength significantly. It also helped her cardio. It was a win/win for her.
Click to expand...
thank you so much! I will encourage her to move forward with her plan of adding it. mine did pull ups for her CFA but she really wants to get stronger!
 
lmmcc said:
That is wonderful to hear, I never considered that. Having both a background in skiing and SAR, being a Patroller would be of great interest to me.
Click to expand...
In addition to ski patrol and ski instructor there is also a competitive ski team. Last year they did not have much snow so they went to less competitions but still were able to have a season. I'm not sure how covid will impact this years competitions but most club sports have not been having competitions so far this year.
 
Once you're at the USMA, what is the grading like? Since it's not like high school with AP classes, etc., what is considered a good GPA?
 
DDmom said:
In addition to ski patrol and ski instructor there is also a competitive ski team. Last year they did not have much snow so they went to less competitions but still were able to have a season. I'm not sure how covid will impact this years competitions but most club sports have not been having competitions so far this year.
Click to expand...
Very interesting to hear as well, thank you.
 
Peter98053 said:
Once you're at the USMA, what is the grading like? Since it's not like high school with AP classes, etc., what is considered a good GPA?
Click to expand...

The best you can do that keeps you at the Academy and helps your class rank to make you competitive for branching what you want...

Less flippant answer would be that I’d say that a GPA where you are a “Star man” where your GPA is above a 3.6 (earning the dean’s cadet award) you’re doing great.
“2.0 and go” is a saying alive and well for a reason. Grade inflation doesn’t really exist at the Academy; you’ll earn your marks. Academics are difficult at the Academy and then you load a bunch of extra curricular activities on top of that. You might be a stud academically but not great at time management and your GPA will suffer. Doing the best you can and getting help where you’re not doing as well as you want early is key. That said, graduate programs generally recognize the unique demand and skill sets that an Academy grad brings so even if you graduate with a lesser GPA than some of your civilian counterparts, you may still be competitive in some very highly competitive program.
 
Peter98053 said:
Once you're at the USMA, what is the grading like? Since it's not like high school with AP classes, etc., what is considered a good GPA?
Click to expand...
Well, it's harder than high school, I can say that much. A lot of what makes it hard (in my personal experience) are group projects which require coordination with other cadets, and the general time management aspect. In high school I never had a problem with getting all of my work done to a standard that I was proud with, but here I find that I have to compromise on certain assignments in order to do well on others.

The average GPA here is roughly a 3.0. A 3.5 is pretty good, and generally people who have 3.5's did well academically in high school. A 4.0 is phenomenal, and people who have about a 4.0 here are extremely diligent and academically gifted. You can technically achieve above a 4.0, since an A is weighted as 4.0 and an A+ is weighed as a 4.33. The very highest academic performers in the class (top 1% academically) have about a 4.15-4.2.

Like Casey said, there is an award with stars that you can get for high academic performance. More specifically, It's a 3.67 GPA for two consecutive semesters, and it's known as the "distinguished cadet award". There is also a Dean's list/award, which is given for having a 3.0 or above, so most people will probably get it at some point.
 
Last edited:
RunninFlorida said:
In order to get a slot in either air assault or airborne school, what can you do to stand out and receive a spot? Also, I would be interested in doing something like the jiu jitsu club, does that count as an sport?
Click to expand...

Try out for the National Championship Judo Team...that counts as a sport.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top