Female cadet open for questions about life at the academy (or how it is so far)

hiiperson11

5-Year Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
14
Congrats to the 2018ers for getting accepted and only having a few more days at home till bct starts!

If anyone (not just girls) has questions about BCT (I'm a 2017er), academic year, recognition, summer programs etc feel free to ask.


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Hi. Thanks. Do you recommend bringing foot powder or baby powder to BCT? I thought it might help with moisture and blisters.
 
Hey,

So I would bring that just in case, I know a lot (and when I mean a lot I mean a ton of us) got blisters because of the shoes they issued us. I would buy something that can try to avoid blisters. Also as for shoes, if you need some type of heel or sole support, get one! The shoes are a killer to wear.


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personally, I would try to pack as lightly as possible on I day because you have to carry it around all day and it's not like you can carry your backpack on your back. Also, they issue you a million and a half things that you also have to carry around so it gets pretty tricky.

For us, our cadre brought us to the cadet store relatively early on and they'll have a bunch of foot powder stuff right out front. Definitely buy it. It really does help out a lot with the blisters.


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Will they allow nylon socks to wear under boot socks? I've heard that helps with blisters, too.
 
I'm sure they'll allow it. I just wore the issued socks and really had no problem when it came to blisters, and I was easily able to adjust to the boots.


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What would you say to those that claim that the class of 2017's BCT was too easy compared to years past and that this years BEAST will be way tougher?
 
Here's the deal-every class hears that they're the absolute worst in USAFA history and their training wasn't hard. Unfortunately for 2017, there were some changes to the BCT training philosophy that upperclass cadets could actually point to as making our training softer. The difficulty of your basic and freshman training will be extremely squadron dependent, and just because you make it through something harder or easier than someone else really doesn't say anything about how good of a cadet you are or how well you have actually been trained.

As a quick anecdotal point though, the 2016 cadets in my squadron gave my classmates the hardest time about how easy our basic was, even though none of them were cadre. However, they pretty much uniformly told us that our recognition was difficult, even though, in my opinion, it was proportionally difficult to our basic (if that makes sense.) Things look different from the other side.

Bottom line: You have absolutely no control over the difficulty of your training or how others perceive that difficulty. All you can control is how well you perform.
 
Having only one basic quit Jacks for last year's class would probably be the reason why? I wonder if that's the lowest rate of attrition to date or maybe all the basics deserved to be recognized?
The better indicator would be the number of incoming basics versus how many actually graduate, get commissioned and serve.
 
Having only one basic quit Jacks for last year's class would probably be the reason why? I wonder if that's the lowest rate of attrition to date or maybe all the basics deserved to be recognized?
The better indicator would be the number of incoming basics versus how many actually graduate, get commissioned and serve.

Right, again, going back to it being squadron dependent though-my flight lost 4 basics during BCT and 3 more during the academic year. I'd argue that we have one of the higher attrition rates in the wing. I don't necessarily think my squadron was the hardest in the wing and I don't know if I agree with using attrition as a measure of a successful/unsuccessful BCT...encouraging retention can be problematic, but so can looking at how many people quit as a way to determine how effective training is.

Of course, I've only experienced my own basic training, so I'm not going to claim I can accurately compare it to anything else. I still stand by my comment that there's no point getting caught up in the hard/easy basic discussion as a basic/C4C because you have absolutely no control over it.
 
Of course you wouldn't want to be associated with a class that's labeled weak and that's understandable. The playful banter of which class is better or inferior is petty and I would put more emphasis on those that are truly committed, graduate, commission and get the job done.
Most that frequent this forum seek information on how to get in yet every time someone who has gotten in quits or changes their mind for whatever reason, it makes me wonder if after all the effort put into applying and getting an appointment was for the wrong reasons or claim they are clueless to what they signed up for or maybe decide it's just not a good fit afterwards? At any rate, each incoming class brings hope that America's best and brightest are willingly volunteering to become future officers to serve and protect our nation.
 
No one knows the minimums. We do know the averages. We also know that if you DO bust a minimum, then that's an automatic disqualification.

From personal experience, I'm no runner. There was a time when I thought I'd never get below 8:00 on the mile. I got a 7:37 on the CFA, and I'm here, and I do OK on the AFT, which you will be taking.

You can improve that time. You have the time to do so. Get out and run.
 
I asked this question in the introduction thread *palm to face*, so hopefully asking a specific person will help.

I am going to the USAFA in 3 days (my adrenaline shot way up just typing that), and I was wondering if I would be allowed to pack spandex compression shorts to wear under my ABU's. I originally though that would fall under the "civilian clothing" category, but an upperclassmen on a "USAFA Class of 2018" FB page suggested we bring compression shorts. Also, did I just set myself up for failure (well, more than before) by joining a FB page that has lots of upperclassmen on it? Thanks in advanced for your help and insight.
 
Yes, you should bring compression shorts. There's a lot of discussion about what colors are appropriate, but you're probably safe with black. Check out some other threads to find more opinions on that exactly.

As far as the upperclassman thing goes, you've already been FB stalked by cadre. If you haven't said anything embarrassing or stupid (basic will be easy, I LOVE Justin Bieber, I'm bringing my teddy bear to BCT, etc), you're probably okay. If all they can find from your membership in a USAFA 2018 group is that you are coming to USAFA... well, they knew that anyway.
 
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