Free time at West Point

westpointdreamer2004 said:
How much free time do cadets get at West Point? And are they ever allowed to leave campus on the weekends?
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Initial quip for an answer is you get as much free time as your grades allow. Bad grades and your free time will be spent studying and not so free.


More intelligent reply, free time can be a very elusive objective at school, but very doable and necessary for mental health. It just requires time management on your part, and it will depend on what your course load looks like, sports you are involved in, and any other hobbies or duties you are involved with. Don’t expect a lot of it as a plebe, but if you’re good with your time, my friends and I found plenty of time for shenanigans to explore and get ourselves into and out of trouble even as plebes.

Weekend privileges (pre COVID) are dependent on class year. Don’t expect much as a plebe/Yuk. As a plebe, you’re pretty much restricted to walking privileges and have to stay in uniform. Yuks can start to break outside the radius that walking privileges encompasses to go places for day trips outside the immediate area but uniform requirements may stay in place, depending on the flavor of the year from the officer leadership. Cows and firsties will typically have even more freedoms, and as you stay longer at school, you’ll be granted more base passes to stay overnight away from the Academy as an upper class compared to being a plebe/yuk on free weekends. There are also ways for all class years to earn more passes through incentive programs (ie academic or physical performance) but at a certain point, you’ll run out of free weekends to use them before you run out of passes, particularly during football
 
Casey said:
Initial quip for an answer is you get as much free time as your grades allow. Bad grades and your free time will be spent studying and not so free.


More intelligent reply, free time can be a very elusive objective at school, but very doable and necessary for mental health. It just requires time management on your part, and it will depend on what your course load looks like, sports you are involved in, and any other hobbies or duties you are involved with. Don’t expect a lot of it as a plebe, but if you’re good with your time, my friends and I found plenty of time for shenanigans to explore and get ourselves into and out of trouble even as plebes.

Weekend privileges (pre COVID) are dependent on class year. Don’t expect much as a plebe/Yuk. As a plebe, you’re pretty much restricted to walking privileges and have to stay in uniform. Yuks can start to break outside the radius that walking privileges encompasses to go places for day trips outside the immediate area but uniform requirements may stay in place, depending on the flavor of the year from the officer leadership. Cows and firsties will typically have even more freedoms, and as you stay longer at school, you’ll be granted more base passes to stay overnight away from the Academy as an upper class compared to being a plebe/yuk on free weekends. There are also ways for all class years to earn more passes through incentive programs (ie academic or physical performance) but at a certain point, you’ll run out of free weekends to use them before you run out of passes, particularly during football
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stitchhead said:
How much free time do cadets get during their summers; fresh to soph, soph to junior, and junior to senior?
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I am a plebe right now. I can tell you make your own time. So I spent most of my day during the weekend studying, and than I enjoy my nighttime. This allows me to not be too stressed during the weekdays. It all about time management, if you manage your time well, you will be fine. I take naps every day now because I am not in season. Time management is key.
 
Usma23 said:
I am a plebe right now. I can tell you make your own time. So I spent most of my day during the weekend studying, and than I enjoy my nighttime. This allows me to not be too stressed during the weekdays. It all about time management, if you manage your time well, you will be fine. I take naps every day now because I am not in season. Time management is key.
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Thank you. How many days are you expecting to get off in the summers?
 
Usma23 said:
As of right now I do not know. I know that I have summer training from may30-june30, after that I might do air assault, so maybe 2 weeks
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Thank you. Is Airborne school an option for cadets during the summer?
 
stitchhead said:
Thank you. Is Airborne school an option for cadets during the summer?
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You can put it down as a preference, but not many go each year as Airborne has gotten fairly backlogged, especially with Covid halting things for a bit; needs of the bigger Army prevail. Usually there are ~100 slots for cadets, so most end up doing Air Assault and CFT here.
 
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