<p>Branching Night took place last night. This is the opportunity for Firsties, based on their cadet class rank, to choose the branch of service for their active duty obligation.</p>
<p>It's interesting to note that a total of 878 cadets were branched last night out of the original class of 1197 cadets - about a 25% attrition overall.</p>
<p>85% of men and 74% of women got their first choice. Infantry, armor and aviation continue to be the top branches- at least for the men since women are precluded from infantry, armor, field artil, and combat roles in aviation. Adj. General and Finance were exclusively selected by female cadets. </p>
<p>9 cadets switched service branches via the inter-service transfer program.</p>
<p>Showing only 9 switched branches speaks volumes I think. There are many questions that have been posted here relating to how difficult it is to switch. The numbers suggest its extremely difficult. Interesting to see these numbers. Branch night is a big deal to these guys and gals. When not obtaining their first choice, can they put in for it at a later date? Say someone wanted in aviation and got placed in armor. How do they get from point A to point B? You know these Army things are fuzzy to me. Feel like I need to learn all I can about all branches. Its a USMMA thing. :) Never know where a kid will end up when they go there.</p>
<p>Jamzmom: Last year USMA added a new "Branch for Service Program" that, in return for an extra active duty commitment, a cadet can get into a branch that he/she missed out on. Cadet bids 1-3 extra years for better chance at desired branch. Aviation branch is not included in the program. Looking at the lowest cadet ranking in each branch, it appears that all the cadets in the top 65% of their class got their first choice.</p>
<p>The choice of cadets for the Inter-service transfer program is based on a number of criteria, not just the cadet ranking that is used for branch selection. A cadet requesting to change service branches must fill out a bunch more paperwork and make their case why the transfer is desirable for all parties concerned. </p>
<p>Bossf51: Last year the Class of 2005 had 943 cadets at Branch Night but only 911 ended up graduating in June. Class of 2006 is currently at 878 so attrition rate may increase a bit before graduation. While overall attrition rate is about 25% right now, it is higher for the women at 33% ( 133 out of original 198 remain).</p>
<p>One way to put the attrition rate in perspective is to examine what percentage of students in a civilian college graduate in less than four years.
I suspect it is less than 80%.
Furthermore, here in Texas, there is currently some news about how few students EVER graduate from the state schools.</p>