Regular Admission

Congrats to Riverdale's DS! We are still anxiously awaiting our DD decision from USCGA. Luigi, if it's helpful in our case, our DD's 1st and only choice is USCGA! ... :)
 
suzief70 said:
Congrats to Riverdale's DS! We are still anxiously awaiting our DD decision from USCGA. Luigi, if it's helpful in our case, our DD's 1st and only choice is USCGA! ... :)
Click to expand...

Suzief70, I think you meant your kind Congrats to rsewald... Oh how I wish we had heard something and your congrats could be for DS! Best of luck to you and your DD! (DS only choice is USCGA also:smile:)
 
DD received the BFE from Coast Guard yesterday! Almost missed it because it was not in the mailbox, it was on our front porch which we don't use very much. Totally unexpected! She is waiting for the BFE from USAFA but after reading the brochures, she is very excited about the Coast Guard. Now we need to visit it before she accepts. We know all about USAFA because we live within an hour's drive from there. We virtually know nothing about Coast Guard.
 
lsredmond -- Congratulations! What a wonderful surprise!!
bigg8tr and long island sound -- make room for me!!:bang::bang::bang:
 
Thank you, and good luck to your DD. She must be an outstanding young lady. A campus visit is a fantastic idea. The AE experience is an awesome program; I can not recommend highly enough. (see my previous post)
 
bigg8tr said:
Thank you, and good luck to your DD. She must be an outstanding young lady. A campus visit is a fantastic idea. The AE experience is an awesome program; I can not recommend highly enough. (see my previous post)
Click to expand...

My son would concur, bigg8tr. He especially enjoyed opening a jar of peanut butter with his forehead. :yllol:
 
:bang:I am going through the same thing on the civilian side with DD #2. We keep hearing rumors that one of her schools is sending out decisions by email sometime today. So I join the club. :bang:

However, back to CGA. My son heard on March 29(2005) so hang in there.:thumb:
 
:bang::bang::bang::bang:

we're still mailman stalking!

not too much longer of a wait though! April 15 is getting pretty close! So here's hoping! :thumb:
 
lsredmond said:
DD received the BFE from Coast Guard yesterday! Almost missed it because it was not in the mailbox, it was on our front porch which we don't use very much. Totally unexpected! She is waiting for the BFE from USAFA but after reading the brochures, she is very excited about the Coast Guard. Now we need to visit it before she accepts. We know all about USAFA because we live within an hour's drive from there. We virtually know nothing about Coast Guard.
Click to expand...

If you'd like her to talk to a graduate, feel free to call me. I can provide a number in a private message if you'd like. I don't "sell" CGA. I'm not going to sugar coat or dress it up. I will say, I didn't like it, hated parts of it, and was often miserable.....BUT.....

I would do it all over again, in a second. My best friends were my classmates. They saw me through some of my worst times and supported me. I tried to do the same for them. I don't think you can find a better friend than one who has seen you break, and then stood there and said "man, don't worry, we'll get through this and I'll help you." For me, that was a guy named Brendan, and I think he knows that. I've told him, and I told my swabs when I was a cadre (only I called him Mr. sjdnsjdns). My best man for my future wedding was my best friend at CGA. After graduation he went to Kodiak, AK and I went to Cape May, NJ. After our first tours I went to CGHQ and he went to grad school and then Miami. We hadn't seen each other in 3 years, but when he came to DC for the Marine Corps Marathon, it was like nothing had ever changed.

The Coast Guard is a very VERY small community, with even smaller communities in it. If you don't know someone, you know someone who does.

I knew very little about the Coast Guard when I started looking at CGA...and here's what I can tell you, after going to CGA and serving as an officer, I personally find this to be true.

The Coast Guard gets very little respect, especially from sister services. You get thick skin. There's pride, but it's not loud. Coasties like what they do, and have lost interest in forcing everyone around them to understand what that is. Who knows what the Coast Guard does? Coasties. That's it. Not anyone else in uniform. So if you want to know what they do, don't ask a sailor, soldier, Marine or airman. They have no idea.

The Coast Guard not only has a number of missions, but they've very diverse. That allows for identity issues now and then. Is search and rescue or aids to navigation very military? No. Is a 378' cutter patrolling the North Arabian Gulf very domestic? No. A 418' cutter may feel very military while a small boat station may come off very "federal law enforcement". Within the Coast Guard it's not that hard to figure out. Conveying that identity to the rest of the world, no so easy.

The Coast Guard Academy is not fun. As a high school student, a blue and gold officer from the Naval Academy visited my school. As I talked to him we walked over to midshipman (or were they cadets? Can't remember now), and he asked them "which academy is the hardest, or most regimented"

Their answer "the Coast Guard Academy". There's no getting lost in the numbers. There are less cadets at CGA than a single class at USMA, USNA, or USAFA. If you mess up, there's a good chance people will know. No one there is riding a D1 "scholarship" with hopes of making the NFL.

It's 4 years. It's in a less than impressive town. You'll get a sick feeling in your stomach as you drive over Gold Star Bridge from PVD every year...but then after those 4 years you'll have some fond memories, and that sick feeling will go away. Sure, you'll get a rush of images as that familiar Chase Hall scent returns or you enter the old or new quad. You may get a smile on your face when you try to explain to your grad school classmates why your college experience was so "messed up", but....you know who you'll never explain it to? The guys and gals, men and women, who did it do. Who "hit the bulk head" on either side of you, who sweat in that hot Connecticut summer, who saw you break and broke in front of you, who experienced everything you experienced, and who will never have to explain to you why their college experience was so "messed up".

I recommend CGA, but I'm a little biased.
 
:bang::bang::bang::bang: X 2 Since this is the second time my DD has applied, she was on the wait list until the very end last year hoping for a better outcome this year!
 
LineInTheSand said:
If you'd like her to talk to a graduate, feel free to call me. I can provide a number in a private message if you'd like. I don't "sell" CGA. I'm not going to sugar coat or dress it up. I will say, I didn't like it, hated parts of it, and was often miserable.....BUT.....

I would do it all over again, in a second. My best friends were my classmates. They saw me through some of my worst times and supported me. I tried to do the same for them. I don't think you can find a better friend than one who has seen you break, and then stood there and said "man, don't worry, we'll get through this and I'll help you." For me, that was a guy named Brendan, and I think he knows that. I've told him, and I told my swabs when I was a cadre (only I called him Mr. sjdnsjdns). My best man for my future wedding was my best friend at CGA. After graduation he went to Kodiak, AK and I went to Cape May, NJ. After our first tours I went to CGHQ and he went to grad school and then Miami. We hadn't seen each other in 3 years, but when he came to DC for the Marine Corps Marathon, it was like nothing had ever changed.

The Coast Guard is a very VERY small community, with even smaller communities in it. If you don't know someone, you know someone who does.

I knew very little about the Coast Guard when I started looking at CGA...and here's what I can tell you, after going to CGA and serving as an officer, I personally find this to be true.

The Coast Guard gets very little respect, especially from sister services. You get thick skin. There's pride, but it's not loud. Coasties like what they do, and have lost interest in forcing everyone around them to understand what that is. Who knows what the Coast Guard does? Coasties. That's it. Not anyone else in uniform. So if you want to know what they do, don't ask a sailor, soldier, Marine or airman. They have no idea.

The Coast Guard not only has a number of missions, but they've very diverse. That allows for identity issues now and then. Is search and rescue or aids to navigation very military? No. Is a 378' cutter patrolling the North Arabian Gulf very domestic? No. A 418' cutter may feel very military while a small boat station may come off very "federal law enforcement". Within the Coast Guard it's not that hard to figure out. Conveying that identity to the rest of the world, no so easy.

The Coast Guard Academy is not fun. As a high school student, a blue and gold officer from the Naval Academy visited my school. As I talked to him we walked over to midshipman (or were they cadets? Can't remember now), and he asked them "which academy is the hardest, or most regimented"

Their answer "the Coast Guard Academy". There's no getting lost in the numbers. There are less cadets at CGA than a single class at USMA, USNA, or USAFA. If you mess up, there's a good chance people will know. No one there is riding a D1 "scholarship" with hopes of making the NFL.

It's 4 years. It's in a less than impressive town. You'll get a sick feeling in your stomach as you drive over Gold Star Bridge from PVD every year...but then after those 4 years you'll have some fond memories, and that sick feeling will go away. Sure, you'll get a rush of images as that familiar Chase Hall scent returns or you enter the old or new quad. You may get a smile on your face when you try to explain to your grad school classmates why your college experience was so "messed up", but....you know who you'll never explain it to? The guys and gals, men and women, who did it do. Who "hit the bulk head" on either side of you, who sweat in that hot Connecticut summer, who saw you break and broke in front of you, who experienced everything you experienced, and who will never have to explain to you why their college experience was so "messed up".

I recommend CGA, but I'm a little biased.
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this! :thumb:
 
Great post LITS!:thumb:

I smiled at a lot of the things you said. Familiar smells and flashes of memories are all things I have even now although I have only been here for almost 8 months (10 if you count last summer). What LITS said is true. I got that sick feeling coming back from winter leave and just recently had it coming back from spring leave. As swabs you'll hear "the easiest part was getting in." And that's true. There are times when I want to bang my head up against a wall because of a crazy amount of homework or scream because they revised the calendar and now I have an extra training. But, like LITS said, I wouldn't change a thing. I have great friends, awesome memories, and am going to awesome places this summer. If your daughter lsredmond, or anyone else on this forum, would like to ask any questions about swab summer or 4/c year, PM me and I will gladly give you my email.
 
DS starts Spring break tomorrow. West Point is his first choice and he will probably go there. His Spring break starts tomorrow, and he will make his final choice and send in letters declining other offers right away. I love Coast Guard, and would love to convince him, but it is ultimately his choice. We know many will appreciate him deciding quickly, so he will. Thank you all for the support.
 
rsewald said:
DS starts Spring break tomorrow. West Point is his first choice and he will probably go there. His Spring break starts tomorrow, and he will make his final choice and send in letters declining other offers right away. I love Coast Guard, and would love to convince him, but it is ultimately his choice. We know many will appreciate him deciding quickly, so he will. Thank you all for the support.
Click to expand...

They're all great institutions. Nothing wrong with West Point. It's a great position to be in, to decline other service academies.
 
Has anyone received a final TWE informing them that they are no longer being considered for an appointment? Do they generally send any of those out early, or do they send them all together on or near April 15?
 
suzief70 said:
:bang::bang::bang::bang:

we're still mailman stalking!

not too much longer of a wait though! April 15 is getting pretty close! So here's hoping! :thumb:
Click to expand...




:bang::bang::hammer::bang:

I hear ALL of you guys!! This waiting process is harder than it seems. Keep the faith, though; April 15th is quickly coming!
 
Hi LineInTheSand,

That was a wonderful post. My daughter is at a track meet this morning (Saturday) but I will give her your information. Thank you for posting. Next week is spring break and we are flying to DC and driving down to UVA so she can shadow AFROTC for a day. She received a type 2, 4-year scholarship so she wants to see what it is all about. Since making those plans, she received the BFE so now we have extended our stay on the east coast and will drive up to New London to visit the campus of the US Coast Guard Academy on Thursday, March 24. This has become one amazing ride!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top