Visit to West Point

Thank you for Thayer suggestions above. I have it booked now (and almost considered the Presidential room to sell it even more ha ha!) We are retired military so not sure how much more we can get around since we have military ID cards. DD did not apply to Navy even though her dad are USNA grads. I am a long time BGO for Navy (and her sister is a USNA 2023 midshipman) so that is how I am informed about their current visit status. So DD has been to the Naval Academy a ton but is only interested in being an Army officer. Older brother is a current Army ROTC scholarship cadet and loves it. I will let others know what we can get around and see with a DOD ID and without one when we visit next week.
 
@usna90 - I'll be interested to see what you report. DS and I are heading out the following week, hopeful that a college friend of mine who is a professor can get us on Post
 
Told DD about the conversation here on this thread. We are visiting naptown on April 2, she is writing email to USMA if she can visit on April 3. Do not know if this will be allowed, but worth the try as we are flying from Tx.
 
Hello everyone! I have received an appointment for the USMA class of 2025. As of right now I have a “tour” scheduled for the first week in April. I did this through the candidate portal. I know it is unclear if it will be possible for me to walk around campus. Is there anything I can do right now to increase my chances of being able to see the campus. Should I contact my admissions officer? Should I book a room at the Thayer Hotel? Being able to actually see campus is very important to me. Thanks for the help! :)
 
tmjolly1170 said:
Hello everyone! I have received an appointment for the USMA class of 2025. As of right now I have a “tour” scheduled for the first week in April. I did this through the candidate portal. I know it is unclear if it will be possible for me to walk around campus. Is there anything I can do right now to increase my chances of being able to see the campus. Should I contact my admissions officer? Should I book a room at the Thayer Hotel? Being able to actually see campus is very important to me. Thanks for the help! :)
Click to expand...

Please forgive me, as I am unclear on the issue here. If you scheduled a 'tour' through your candidate portal (so I'm assuming admissions) what would you be touring but the 'campus'? I am not privy to what your portal says, so I'm just asking the logical question. Congrats on the appointment! I do hope your visit happens!
 
parentalunit2 said:
Please forgive me, as I am unclear on the issue here. If you scheduled a 'tour' through your candidate portal (so I'm assuming admissions) what would you be touring but the 'campus'? I am not privy to what your portal says, so I'm just asking the logical question. Congrats on the appointment! I do hope your visit happens!
Click to expand...
Windshield tour .. I guess same as USAFA’s.
 
parentalunit2 said:
Please forgive me, as I am unclear on the issue here. If you scheduled a 'tour' through your candidate portal (so I'm assuming admissions) what would you be touring but the 'campus'? I am not privy to what your portal says, so I'm just asking the logical question. Congrats on the appointment! I do hope your visit happens!
Click to expand...
My apologies. I should have stated that the day tour I scheduled is only going to take place at the visitors center.
 
tmjolly1170 said:
My apologies. I should have stated that the day tour I scheduled is only going to take place at the visitors center.
Click to expand...

Ok, now your questions make more sense to me. Am I to understand that WP admissions is having accepted candidates fly to NY for essentially a ‘virtual tour’ that doesn’t even allow you on post? Not allow you beyond the gates, just keeping you in Highland Falls? May as well stay home and watch YouTube videos of WP, unless there is some additional component to these visits that I am not aware of. I’m not questioning you tmjolly, this is just the first I’ve heard of these visits. That just seems really strange.
 
parentalunit2 said:
Ok, now your questions make more sense to me. Am I to understand that WP admissions is having accepted candidates fly to NY for essentially a ‘virtual tour’ that doesn’t even allow you on post? Not allow you beyond the gates, just keeping you in Highland Falls? May as well stay home and watch YouTube videos of WP, unless there is some additional component to these visits that I am not aware of. I’m not questioning you tmjolly, this is just the first I’ve heard of these visits. That just seems really strange.
Click to expand...
When I went up there a few years ago with DS the tour was not that comprehensive. We did the visitor center, the museum then took the bus onto the post. We only got off the bus 2 times once to tour the Cemetary and the other time to tour Trophy Point and see the Plain.
 
parentalunit2 said:
Ok, now your questions make more sense to me. Am I to understand that WP admissions is having accepted candidates fly to NY for essentially a ‘virtual tour’ that doesn’t even allow you on post? Not allow you beyond the gates, just keeping you in Highland Falls? May as well stay home and watch YouTube videos of WP, unless there is some additional component to these visits that I am not aware of. I’m not questioning you tmjolly, this is just the first I’ve heard of these visits. That just seems really strange.
Click to expand...
You are correct that it is just a visitor center fly by tour. I am hoping with staying at the Thayer, and having a DOD Id, we can drive around and observe a bit more, and we are not flying in to do all this either. This is of course a huge disappointment, especially when many of these candidates, including mine, were offered over night visits early on until cancelled due to Covid. I know with having a current midshipmen, there should be zero interaction with the cadets, but I sure wish West Point would make some effort to do a bit better with appointees (like Navy.....) I have to wonder if the number of admitted students on the 2025 Appointed thread who have Undecided on their list, is much higher than previous years. I have not gone back to look at previous years though to compare.
 
tmjolly1170 said:
Hello everyone! I have received an appointment for the USMA class of 2025. As of right now I have a “tour” scheduled for the first week in April. I did this through the candidate portal. I know it is unclear if it will be possible for me to walk around campus. Is there anything I can do right now to increase my chances of being able to see the campus. Should I contact my admissions officer? Should I book a room at the Thayer Hotel? Being able to actually see campus is very important to me. Thanks for the help! :)
Click to expand...
If you can let us all know how the tour ends up. My DS booked tour mid April and driving up from NC, not expecting much. Hoping someone can give feedback.
 
UHBlackhawk said:
Drive up Stoney Lonesome past Michie Stadium to the PX area.
Click to expand...
If you have DoD IDs (Current or Retired Military), just inside the Stoney Lonesome gate are the Commissary and Exchange which are pretty nice. Good place to pick up snacks for while you're driving the Windshield tour.

Once done with the USMA tour, as short as it might be, on the other side of Highland Falls is the town of Fort Montgomery and the ruins of
the Fort that it is named for is worth a visit.
 
If the West Point Museum is open I would also recommend it. It is by the visitor's center.
Zulu Time Lounge at the Thayer is pricey but has a nice view. It opens 23 April. You probably will need reservations pretty far out due to COVID.
 
I am sorry I am late with feedback from our West Point visit last Friday. It was a very good visit given their Covid restrictions and definitely exceeded my expectations and my appointee's as well. We had an awesome Regional Coordinator who was with us for the full 3 hours. Started with a short video in the Visitor Center, then headed out on a small bus to tour the West Point post grounds. The RC, who is a Major that graduated in 2010 from WP) gave us lots of information on the tour, answered many questions from parents and candidates. He was excellent. We were allowed out once on the tour near the overlook to the Hudson and the parade field. It was a lengthy driving tour. Then we returned to the Visitor's Center where a civilian employee joined our small group (6 candidates/appointees plus some family members.) Both the visitor center guide and the Major walked us through the excellent Visitor Center tour, answering questions along the way. My DD definitely nailed down that she will either accept WP offer or her ARTOC scholarship offer and wants to commission into the Army. Certainly would help if she could have had some cadet interaction but others have reached out now to set her up on some facetime calls with current cadets this week. I thank the members on here who reached out to help us this past weekend. You are greatly appreciated!! Now her parents wait patiently as she decides which offer.....
 
usna90 said:
I am sorry I am late with feedback from our West Point visit last Friday. It was a very good visit given their Covid restrictions and definitely exceeded my expectations and my appointee's as well. We had an awesome Regional Coordinator who was with us for the full 3 hours. Started with a short video in the Visitor Center, then headed out on a small bus to tour the West Point post grounds. The RC, who is a Major that graduated in 2010 from WP) gave us lots of information on the tour, answered many questions from parents and candidates. He was excellent. We were allowed out once on the tour near the overlook to the Hudson and the parade field. It was a lengthy driving tour. Then we returned to the Visitor's Center where a civilian employee joined our small group (6 candidates/appointees plus some family members.) Both the visitor center guide and the Major walked us through the excellent Visitor Center tour, answering questions along the way. My DD definitely nailed down that she will either accept WP offer or her ARTOC scholarship offer and wants to commission into the Army. Certainly would help if she could have had some cadet interaction but others have reached out now to set her up on some facetime calls with current cadets this week. I thank the members on here who reached out to help us this past weekend. You are greatly appreciated!! Now her parents wait patiently as she decides which offer.....
Click to expand...
Thank you so much. When DS signed up it said only one parent may accompany him. Can you tell me if this is still the case? Also did you need to do anything before hand for clearance? We were wondering if we had to have vaccines before coming?
 
Warning: Consider my handle on here that I never changed. My son was AF JROTC and visited USAFA first. Then he did his summer session at West Point and there was nowhere else he wanted to be. It happens...
 
Ncwp2025 said:
Thank you so much. When DS signed up it said only one parent may accompany him. Can you tell me if this is still the case? Also did you need to do anything before hand for clearance? We were wondering if we had to have vaccines before coming?
Click to expand...
There were two parents with three of the groups and a few siblings there too. There was plenty of room on the bus to still spread out with only 5 candidates (6th one arrived after bus tour.) I would think it would be fine to have more than one parent but if they had more candidates, some family could possibly be asked to wait behind in visitor center. It is very nice in the Visitor's Center and also food places are walking distance right across the street (including an awesome bakery - Bear Mountain Bakery - find them on Facebook and they also deliver monthly treat boxes to cadets!) No vaccine was needed to be there. We got asked simple Covid exposure questions at the gate when bus went through. I did not get asked any Covid questions when I went through with my DOD id card twice. Feel free to ask anything else!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top