Some additional thoughts:
- There will be much greater exposure to Regular Army officers & NCO's at USMA. It's an active post, many of the profs are officers, etc. That exposure grows if the cadet chooses to seek out leadership roles beyond the minimal required.
- There are some fantastic leadership development opportunities available at USMA that are difficult to duplicate in a traditional ROTC environment. Some of these will required regular interaction with BTD, USCC, and other Officers/NCO's. I know cadets who routinely brief a room full of Majors & COL's, others who have have to brief the Sup or Com on a regular basis. Many slots available which will require working under direct MAJ or COL supervision. Even just having to deal with crusty NCO's outside of BTD yields important learnings. Net-net: Opportunities exist to lead beyond the typical squad leader roles for sure, and far more than forwarding emails.
- An environment which is 100% cadets will be a very different experience, and USMA is probably at the extreme end of the 100% cadet schools (along with 1-2 others). Having direct visibility to both USMA & SMC cadets, you start to see a difference fairly early. It's mostly intangibles, polish, bearing, communication with adults/superiors, etc. We can argue whether these will make them better officers or not.
- You'll probably exit with a clear understanding of how the Regular Army "Staff" model works, as it is used at all 4 levels in the cadet ranks, as well as for the major training events. Yes, for some of levels don't do more than forward emails, and some functions you have to squint to see the relation to the real world. But it is an opportunity to learn, and better than no exposure at all. And you'll see politics, inequities, as well as differences in professionalism at work, just like you would in the real world.
- Probably better chance at training slots and scheduling after graduation. This can vary, but is still a bit of an advantage at USMA.
- You'll never be challenged/critiqued/insulted by a classmate, much less a professor for choosing the military path. This is not the case at regular schools, and especially the Ivy's. Yeah, toughen up, you can handle it, etc. Easy to say, harder to deal with when a prof treats you unfairly because of your haircut, etc. Hopefully less common now than it used to be, but just be aware that it happens. Sidenote: DS has friends at Harvard. Occasionally goes to visit them on long weekends when he can't head home. Many stories, just recognize it's a radically different world at most Ivy's.
- There will also need to make hard decisions that would not be as much of an issue at a civvy school. Roommate or buddy doing something that is an honor violation, but you know cannot be tolerated. Or as a leader, having to make a call on a performance issue that you know will derail someone's summer, yet has to be done for the good of the squad/platoon/company. Yes, some of that exists in ROTC, but you'll be surrounded by it at USMA. Will not be able to escape it, and will ultimately have to make those hard decisions. I do not know a single USMA cadet personally who has not had to deal with something like this at least once in their time there.
There are dozens of tradeoffs positive and negative to the choices, and like others have mentioned, it's a great situation to be in. Again, these are just differences in the programs/experiences I've observed... The candidate needs to decision if they are important to them. And we can let the serving/served officers comment on whether they are important or not. There is no exact formula for leaders, and good (and bad) ones appear to come from all commissioning sources.
DS and a couple of other cadets I know with similar choices decided based on expected career path. After learning more, I would tend to agree with them. If you are planning to "5 and dive", then the Princeton degree might have some advantage depending on field and major. If you plan to go career officer, it seems like USMA might have an edge. But exceptions abound for both!
If the candidate has not done an overnight, I would strongly suggest doing so. Don't just hang with plebes, seek out a chat with Company commander, or higher. Or someone who was Commander or deputy for CFT or CLDT. Or is in one of the key Brigade positions during the AY. It's not the opportunity to wear bars that is important, it's the learnings that got you to those slots, and ones while you are there. Not that all the Upperclassmen leaders are good examples, it varies. But many are. Ask your plebe host who they respect, and have a chat with them.
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