<p>I started the ball rolling regarding attendance at West Point (Annapolis also) as a route into an engineering career and I totally agree with Comicfish that you have to be a US citizen (at least a GreenCard Permanent resident) to be accepted into West Point or Annapolis, both of which require nomination by a member of congress and are extremely competitive. Academically, they are no harder to get into than any other respectable engineering school (SAT 1160-1380 M-CR). Every student at West Point/Annapolis receives a free education/ free room and board plus a small salary, but they do have a five-year service after graduation. Granted students have to give up certain behaviors and have to live under strict conditions for their 9 years, but that is not bad for a free education and a strong networking source</p>
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John Shalikashvili was born a Georgian refuge in Poland, emigrated to the US at 16, became a US citizen at 22, was drafted a couple of months later, and became an officer the following year. He was a naturalized US citizen for the entire duration of his military career.</p>
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Green Card holders need not apply - the only non-US-citizens accepted to the service academies are members of friendly foreign militaries admitted to further diplomatic and military ties between nations. These individuals are prohibited from certain activities and do not incur a service obligation.</p>
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It is the athletic and social requirements that make the academies so difficult to enter.</p>
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Strict does not begin to spell it out. The academies are in many ways run more strictly than the military itself, and while attendance is free the onus is too high to be worth the education. You really need to want a military career for this to be a worthwhile choice. Coming from a Navy family, I had seriously considered Annapolis at one point, but after talking to a few grads I am thoroughly glad that I did not even waste time applying.</p>
<p>Well the an Academy and Officer program are out of the question. However, you should still get a degree even if you want to enlist. Many of these people will tell you it isn’t worth it, however I know many people who by the time they get to E-7 have at least a B.A./B.S. if not a Masters. I just had an interview with the Navy Construction Battalion (CBs) who do all the engineer work for the Marines out here in Afghanistan. I was dumbfounded by the amount of work they said they didn’t do. A lot of the projects are drawn up by civilians and then supervised by a lead civilian with the Officers acting as liaisons. They didn’t even go out to build new defensive positions senior enlisted personnel acted as construction managers. Even state-side all they said they did was liaison and do paper work for projects, all designing and engineering was done by contractors. The Army Corps of engineers do the same thing using service members as liaisons. Someone can tell you ‘on no that’s not how it was when I was in, or that’s not how it is here at ____’, but overall that is what I was told. I used to be very interested in going to college and then rejoining as an officer. Then I learned the Marines don’t even use engineers as engineers they use the Navy to do their work.</p>