USCGA try to Select Candidates from all US States?

laforge

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Hi I was wondering if the USCGA is like other universities where they aim to select candidates from each US state for regional diversity?
Do we know if this is part of the admissions process.....to consider pulling from all states?
 
It's a consideration, but hardly a leading one. They fall short of 50 states in classes all the time. There was no one from RI in the class of 25, for example, and it's not because RI doesn't know about the academy 40 minutes away. While Admissions tries for many kinds of diversity (geographical, racial, socioeconomic, first gen college, military families, athlete, artist, scholar, etc) most standards are drawn in broad strokes and do not come into play on an app-by-app basis. So while being from Montana might be a tie-breaker between you and the 14th kid from Texas, it might not be if there are already four others from Wyoming and the Texan is first generation college (or whatever.) They are painting a picture with the palette of candidates that are good enough to be accepted, and sometimes RI is close enough to CT that we don't need to force one in if we've already got the other and we need the spot someplace else. It's art not science.
 
That is a stated objective, but in having spent some time there I would estimate, USCGA is a mostly New England area school with increasingly small representation from states west of the Mississippi. The student body is overwhelming from New England.

The USCGA policies even favor New England area cadets over others. Let me give a couple of examples:

1. Cars are not allowed until senior 1/c year, except for local cadets who may route and receive approval for a POV as an underclassman. This is a significant benefit for New England cadets.

2. Cadets are dismissed after their final exam to return home. However, unlike almost all other colleges who publish the final exam schedule at the beginning of the semester and include the dates in the class syllabus, , USCGA does not set the final exam schedule until approximately 4 weeks before finals. Which if you live in New England does not really matter, as your parents can pick you up by POV or you can Amtrak, etc., basically more options. But for west coast cadets, Hawaii and Alaska or really anyone again west of the Mississippi, it severely penalizes them as the late notice makes obtaining economical air fare home very difficult. USCGA is served by small airports and not being able to book Christmas break travel months in advance results in worse flight times, extra connections, and increased fares. USCGA cannot change their location, but putting out the finals schedule early and allowing distant cadets to shop travel well in advance would save each cadet hundreds of dollars per year.

Since the Academy staff and instructors are all local to the area, they don't feel the impact of these policy examples.
I'm not sure I agree with that characterization as "overwhelmingly from New England."

A class breakdown from College Factual (not certain what year but it looks fairly representative) shows a lot more diversity than that. Florida and California were #3 and #4 that year with Texas tied for #7 and Georgia, Washington and Idaho in #11-13. It would more accurate to say that states with larger Coast Guard presence have greater levels of interest. I think there were two or three from Alaska in the class of 2025 which bucks the population and geography odds but reflects how aware high schoolers are of the academy in that state.

 
Not sure where Haveaniceday's post went, but the late scheduling of exams is a service academy thing...not just CGA. My daughter at USNA doesn't know her final exam schedule until later in the semester, either. We are from Florida and it is easier for my USNA daughter to get home. My CGA daughter can't get home on a direct flight, but we make it work!
Also, there are 3 female cadets, class of 2026, from our county, in Florida...2 from the same high school!
 
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I agree that their are definitely advantages if your family is local or within an easy driving distance.
However, as @StPaulDad stated, it is not correct that most cadets are from New England. I'm not sure what the date is on the link @StPaulDad shared was, but in addition to the students who accepted their appointments, there is even more diversity among those who were offered appointments. There are also frequently students living overseas who apply as well.

Admissions attempts to get the word out about the Coast Guard Academy to as many states as possible. They do recruitment/outreach events at various locations throughout the US. But they aren't going to accept an applicant just to get representation from a particular state.
 
A very large percentage of cadets are also from the Mid-Atlantic (Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey). From my home county alone in MD, there are 6 cadets from class of 2024. As a cadet, I would argue that CGA sees most of its applicants and cadets from coastal states and states with an overall large military presence. Maybe a cadet's parents were not in the Coast Guard, but they were in a different military service. I have heard from many retired officers in the Navy and Air Force that if they could do it again (either fly or be on a boat), they would have gone Coast Guard. For the most part, the Mid-West/landlocked states are not especially well represented.
 
From my understanding there is an attempt to have regional diversity but that doesn't necessarily mean someone from every state.
 
A very large percentage of cadets are also from the Mid-Atlantic (Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey). From my home county alone in MD, there are 6 cadets from class of 2024. As a cadet, I would argue that CGA sees most of its applicants and cadets from coastal states and states with an overall large military presence. Maybe a cadet's parents were not in the Coast Guard, but they were in a different military service. I have heard from many retired officers in the Navy and Air Force that if they could do it again (either fly or be on a boat), they would have gone Coast Guard. For the most part, the Mid-West/landlocked states are not especially well represented.
When I tell people who have served that I’m going to the Coast Guard Academy a lot of them tell me they would have gone Coast Guard regardless of the service they were in.
 
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