<p>Lately I have decided, wholeheartedly, that I wanted- needed- to go to a school that would prepare me for a career in the military. You know what colleges I'm talking about- West Point, Annapolis, USAFA.
I am only a sophmore in high school, but as I understand it, it is by no means early to be looking at colleges. I have looked at both West Point and Annapolis the most. What are the advantages of one versus the other? I am in NJROTC at school and my NSI says that Annapolis is much better than West Point, but I suspect mch more than a little bias in that statement. Their websites are similar in what they offer. Looking up lists of best colleges is a little difficult, as these two Academies are typically not compared against the typical colleges. Forbes magazine ranked West Point higher.
I don't plan to take the the 'five and flight' route as some call it, and I envision a longer military career. I want to major in humanities/ social sciences.
Would it be better to just go to a 'regular' college- Harvard or some such? Academics are not a big worry for me.
Advise and help, please?</p>
<p>If you are looking for a military career, the service academies are probably the best places to go. As for which one to go to, well, which kind of job do you want? If you want infantry, go to West Point (or USMC at USNA). If you want to fly–USAFA. If you want to captain a ship–Navy or Coast Guard.</p>
<p>CC does have an entire sub-forum for the service academies…</p>
<p>You’ve got to decide what service branch you want and go to that academy. In my mind the only toss up could be between Army and USMC (West Point vs. Annapolis). AF and Navy are very different from the ground forces. </p>
<p>I spent a week at USAFA my high school junior-senior summer and was really impressed. I was also surprised that I figured out that going to a service academy would be a huge mistake for me personally. If you haven’t visited, you really really need to.</p>
<p>Ah, thanks. This was my first post, and I hadn’t found the sub-forum yet, sorry. ^.^"</p>
<p>Your chances of getting into ANY of them will mostly be tied to the availability of slots. Your Representative and Senator get a certain number of slots that can be filled at any one time. If they are all encumbered then you MIGHT be offered the prep school for a year to get slot in the next class (or you might not get an appointment at all). It is most advisable to apply for appointments to each of the academies (that’s six separate letters) and see which one you get. I applied for all of them and got an appt to the one I really wanted to attend (USAFA). Since I needed to rely on scholarships to attend school I would have gone to any of the three.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of any Members of Congress dumb enough to give all their slots away at once. Even then, the academies usually have other ways to accept people, if they want them badly enough.</p>