Parents are not convinced

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Navy2030

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Mar 31, 2025
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Hi, I am new to both this forum and to Service Academies, and I am a Junior. I didn't know what a service academy was back in December. But then, I met with a B&GO at my school and started doing more research over my winter break. My interest kept growing and growing. I applied for USNA's SS on the third day of its opening, and ever since my acceptance in February, I have felt as if it's the place I want to go to. I've watched and read almost every video and article there is on the academy, and there is not one tab in the USNA website I haven't read. I want to be a dentist when I grow up, and I know the setbacks that going to the academy can pose, but I believe that I could make it through to be one of the select few. My only problem is that my parents are not sold. They're afraid that I might be sending my life back by a whole decade. I think they don't understand how much I want to attend USNA. Does anyone have any advice on how to convince them? Thanks.
 
Get them in touch with the various parent groups locally. Have them talk to those parents and they will hopefully get a different perspective on things. And/or, have them read this forum for some insights.

Bottom line is that going to a SA is a great way to give your life a purpose and achieve a ton of goals. A service academy is not a great place to BE (various reasons - physical, academic, psychological), but they are a great place to be FROM. You can almost write your own ticket if you graduate and serve.
 
The first and most important thing is to make sure you're educated and convinced about the path you seek. It's not simply a four-year experience at USNA, but a minimum nine-year commitment to serve as both a midshipman and an active-duty officer in the Navy or Marine Corps. (Great that you aspire to be a dentist, but for rare exceptions, that will come after you fulfill your service obligation.)

If you're educated and convinced about that part, then you'll be better positioned to educate and convince your parents. Start by hearing them out and striving to understand their objections. Then address those objections directly. Your parents may be wrong or misinformed about their objections. Or their objections may be perfectly legitimate. In either case, knowing where they're coming from will help you better counter their points of view. I'm sure that you'll soon hear from our savvy SAF veterans about how to make your case.
 
Navy2030 said:
I want to be a dentist when I grow up, and I know the setbacks that going to the academy can pose, but I believe that I could make it through to be one of the select few
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> You are looking at this wrong if you think going to any Service Academy is a setback, and this isn't about wanting to be one of the "select few." A Service Academy really isn't the right place for you unless you have a desire to serve as a Navy /USMC officer first. You don't have to commit to a full career, but serving the best you can for your initial service obligation should be your goal.

Navy2030 said:
They're afraid that I might be sending my life back by a whole decade.
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This is a very narrow short sighted view of life. If you decide to get out after your initial service obligation and become a dentist, you have at least 30 years of working ahead of you. There are several grads on this Forum who left active service and went on to successful professional careers. In fact, there is some advantage to doing something else for a while after undergrad before going into a professional career. Who really wants to see a Dentist that is 28 years old ? (My Dentist did time in the Army before going into private practice).
 
Another path to research.

The majority of Navy dentists comes directly from civilian undergrad and dental schools. Many use the military health professional scholarship. Once they leave military service, they have no problem finding a place in private practice, whether leaving after their initial service obligation or a full career.

There is a tiny, narrow path to Navy Dental Corps directly from USNA, but any midshipman trying for that path has to be ready to embrace any other warfare specialty path out of USNA. It is highly selective. The links says “Medical Corps” but Dental Corps is addressed.

www.usna.edu

Navy Medical Corps

Navy Medical Corps page for Chemistry Department at USNA.edu. Updated Tue Feb 04 08:54:07 EST 2025.
www.usna.edu


Or, as noted above, serve enough time to earn your generous VA educational benefits and go to dental school after you complete required service obligations.

 
If you were accepted to Summer Seminar hopefully your parents will drop you off and/or pick you up so they can tour the Yard and learn more from one of the parent briefings. That might go a long way for them to get comfortable with USNA and service obligation, but the dentist part might still be another hurdle.
 
Navy2030 said:
Thank you Capt MJ. I was wondering if I could also have your advice on how I could convince my parents at the same time of USNA. Thank you much.
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Additionally, during recent BGO training, Admissions told BGOs to let candidates,that want to be MDs or DDS, know that USNA is a very narrow path to obtain that. If you really want to be a Navy dentist, seek an alternative path. Attending USNA is no guarantee that you will get the service selection or advanced degree path that you desire-the needs of the Navy can be a significant factor.
 
How would you be setting your life back a decade? lets say ur a SWO for 5 years AD, after that you can attend a civilian dental school and you're chilling. Most people take gap years between education anyways.
 
The key for me was to give them lots of time and educate myself to a point where I could confidently refute any counterargument. The silver lining is that after the 6-month rigmarole, I knew for a fact that the service academies were something I was 100% invested in pursuing. If you have been fortunate to have parents that have supported pretty much anything you've chosen up until this point, it will be harder, it will get rough.
 
It’s not a setback. It’s forward momentum. You will skip oodles of other applicants when (if) you enter the civilian world.

In 5yr AD payback, you will be managing people (your sailors/crew), multi million dollar equipment (your ship/plane/etc), making decisions and choices that you will be held accountable for, extend your worldly outlook through international travels, operate/repair warships/planes etc, manage international transport ops, become an expert in writing and reporting, manage supply chains, and on and on and on.

Ask you parents: who else is at this point in their resume at the 5 yr mark, post education point in their lives?

IOW, the experience you will put into yourself will catapult you beyond others in their careers when/if you decide to join the civilian world. There is no better well rounded, exceptional training out there.

Let alone the alumni support network. You will be sought out.

You will be slotted into a higher level than your peers bc of your experience. And you will deserve it.

Have your parents listen to an admissions briefing. In person, in Annapolis.

In the end, you don’t have to convince them. It’s your life. But I am certain they will come around. They just aren’t familiar with this path.
 
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justdoit19 said:
Ask you parents: who else is at this point in their resume at the 5 yr mark, post education point in their lives?
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As I used to say to DW when she’d occasionally voice doubts about our kids’ choices: Name another job where you have fresh grads leading dozens of personnel and managing millions of dollars of materiel.

That’s not a “setback.” That’s a launching pad for one heck of a career.
 
We know several people who have graduated from the Academies. EVERY SINGLE ONE is well beyond their peers when they enter the civilian world and can basically write their own paycheck. Some have done the 5 year AD and gotten out in their late 20s while others made the military a career and retired in their 40s before pursuing a civilian job.

Grad schools and employers know how hard it is to get into USNA. Grad school and employers know what it takes to graduate, and they know that the (minimum) 5 years of leadership experience as a junior officer provides experience that can't be taught in a classroom. One of our USNA alum friends says he's basically never interviewed because as soon as they see USNA on his resume . . . he's hired.

I'm a mom whose son is pursing USMA on his own volition and as soon as he mentioned it to us we were 100% on board because we know the experiences of our friends and we know it's at least (if not bigger) than having a school like Harvard on your resume.
 
All you have to do is look a the the Israeli army to see that postponing 3-4 years isn't going to harm you. All Israeli citizens after they finish high school are supposed to go into the army. Males serve around 3 years with many of them taking a gap year after service to travel the world. Only then do they attend college. The experience in the military gives them a maturity that American college students dont have. Obviously, If all attend the military (which they don't), then no one is advantaged or disadvantaged by it. That isn't true for the US where the super majority don't serve. But in the long run, those 4 years wont make much of a difference Its like attending Harvard compared to some other quality school, 20-30 years form now, where you went to school wont probably make a big difference how your career turned out.
 
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