Is it worth a try?

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feartheterp

5-Year Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
20
Hello All,

I am a current sophomore economics major at a well-respected state university. My ultimate goal is to become a military officer. I applied twice to USNA, primarily because it is close to home and I am very familiar with it.

After conducting a few informational interviews and doing some independent research, the Army seems to be a very desirable career path. I am aware of ROTC and OCS programs, but I believe a service academy would best develop my leadership skills and give the tools essential to success as an officer in the Army. I am well within the age requirements (only 19 y/o).

Should I bother applying to USMA? Anyone heard of candidates with 2+ years in college?

Would my application be considered since I already have two years of college, or would they simply tell me to apply to OCS?

I appreciate your feedback!
 
feartheterp said:
Hello All,

I am a current sophomore economics major at a well-respected state university. My ultimate goal is to become a military officer. I applied twice to USNA, primarily because it is close to home and I am very familiar with it.

After conducting a few informational interviews and doing some independent research, the Army seems to be a very desirable career path. I am aware of ROTC and OCS programs, but I believe a service academy would best develop my leadership skills and give the tools essential to success as an officer in the Army. I am well within the age requirements (only 19 y/o).

Should I bother applying to USMA? Anyone heard of candidates with 2+ years in college?

Would my application be considered since I already have two years of college, or would they simply tell me to apply to OCS?

I appreciate your feedback!
Click to expand...

Can't answer your OCS question, but as for West Point, 2+ year of college is not unheard of. A friend of mine finished two years at at miliary college, got his commission as a 2LT, resigned it to attend West Point. Every application will be considered. For your nomination, you should get interviewed so you have to convince the nomination board why West Point after two years.

Assuming you haven't spent too much money paying for college, you can consider your two years as post high school time. Going to USMA at age 21 is not a bad things if we can assume age has some direct relationship to maturity.

My recommendation is to apply and see what happens (with a caveat that your rational for West Point is good) as if you don't get in no big deal and applying to West Point doesn't prevent you from pursuing other options.

If you are a MD resident, PM me. I am a FFR for MD, so I can give you some insights to the competitiveness. For most Congressional districts in MD, West Point is less competitive than Navy.
 
My DS who is in the Class of 2015 at USMA had a firstie in his company last year that completed three years at Rutgers prior to being accepted at West Point.
 
For what its worth, I have two classmates here at CGA who graduated from four year colleges and already had jobs but then decided to apply. Two years ago, the oldest graduate of the class was 26 years old.
 
I did exactly what you are doing, and, finally done with the process and accepted to West Point, I would STRONGLY suggest you do it too. There is nothing more exciting than finally, finally recieving the acceptance, and I believe (though I do not yet know) that our college experience will be incredibly helpful for us in terms of academics and just life skills more generally speaking as we enter the academy. You and I both know that the grass isn't greener on the other side and state schools aren't some magical, heavenly land of partying. Go for it!
 
I know a guy who applied 3 times and was about to be a junior in college, doing ROTC, when he was accepted to USMA; now he's a yuk. I'd say do all the research you can and talk to as many people (cadets, grads, currently serving, non-grads) as you can, and if you believe your vocation's to be an Army officer and you'd rather be at West Point as a cadet than anywhere else, then give it all you've got and best of luck to you! Long as you're in the age range, you've got as good a shot as anyone else.
 
Thank you all for your input.

As for mng249, congratulations on your appointment! It sounds as if your years of hard work have just made the appointment that much sweeter. Be sure to keep your same motivation and determination throughout your years at USMA.

As mng249 mentioned, there is nothing terribly exciting about the civilian college social scene. Sure, there are opportunities to have fun, but the serious students who are genuinely interested in education seldom participate in the stereotypical debauchery. One of my primary reasons for wanting to attend a service academy is to be surrounded with people like myself--students with a desire to serve and a passion for education.
 
feartheterp said:
Sure, there are opportunities to have fun, but the serious students who are genuinely interested in education seldom participate in the stereotypical debauchery. One of my primary reasons for wanting to attend a service academy is to be surrounded with people like myself--students with a desire to serve and a passion for education.
Click to expand...
^^^^^+1 :thumb:
 
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