Branch Night is next Wednesday (11/14). The branches are listed here, but Cyber is missing as it was just added recently:
@ChoatieMom - A “Ring Knocker” meant something different to us on active duty back in the day. It was a USMA grad who attempted to use their USMA affiliation to advance their career. We had one officer in our Squadron who earned the unofficial call sign, “Career 6,” for this practice. Unfortunately for him his superiors up the chain of command were only interested in mission performance. He retired as a Colonel after years of office work in the Pentagon.
Roughly 80% of Army officers are commissioned through ROTC, 10% OCS and 10% USMA. General Mark Milley, Current Army Chief of Staff, is a graduate of Belmont Hill (an ISL all-male day school in the near-Boston suburb of Belmont) and commissioned via Princeton ROTC. Princeton never dropped ROTC during or after the Vietnam War.
When I went to Cavalry Basic Course, we had the #1 graduate and some others very much farther down the list. Branching is based on the needs of the service, which can change even year-to-year.
FWIW if you have younger kids, Tabor Academy is one of the sole remaining Naval Honors Schools. As such they are allowed to directly appoint up to three students to each of the five service academies per year. While Tabor, as the “School By The Sea” sees most go to USNA and USCGA, they’ve nominated students to USAFA and USMA as well.
@Garandman: Your understanding of “ring knockers” and mine are the same. Always a pejorative.
I posted on the Bragging thread, and I’ll share here, too: He got it! He got it! He got it! ChoatieLT got one of the 25 Cyber slots at West Point Branch Night tonight. He will commission as a Cyber Officer upon graduation. He is over the moon and happy in his soul. And we are so, so relieved to have all the tension and stress of the past few weeks melt away. We are happy for him and can’t wait for that first joyful Thanksgiving hug. It’s all downhill from here. Just counting the days to graduation. Unbelievable.
Great news, @ChoatieMom! Your son seems so smart, I’m not surprised. Enjoy your time together at Thanksgiving.
Congrats, @ChoatieMom!
CONGRATULATIONS to CyberChoatieLT and @ChoatieMom !
Thanks all. We slept well last night for the first time in many, many nights. For anyone interested, you can click on the video tab of the WestPointUSMA FB page (I guess CC won’t let me list a FB url) and start around 25:25 on that first video in the All Videos list to see the critical part of the ceremony. 41 months of hard work lead up to these few seconds where each cadet learns where they will serve in the Army. No one was breathing in that room. I hope I don’t feel that kind of tension again as long as I live.
Good luck to all of your 2019 students. Waiting for decisions is brutal. I understand and send hugs to every one of you in this limbo.
Congratulations @ChoatieMom!
We, S19 and P4family, will wait and hold till December 14-16-February-March-thingy whenever that big fat envelope comes.
Oh, btw S19 already has a few of very good options so no worries.
Thanks for the link instructions. That’s intense! Glad it worked out the way you were al hoping for! And thank CyberChoatieLt for his commitment and (future? Not sure if the wording here) service!
So cool choatiefamily!
Fantastic news @ChoatieMom! You must be so proud (and relieved).
Affter vascillating between 3 similar schools, SmallFry finally settled on an ED school which ended up being the school that we both had the best gut feeling about when we visited. Definitely a real reach so fingers crossed. SmallFry’s fall term grades are trickling in and it looks like it will be SmallFry’s best term ever so we are hoping the grades will be taken into account by the EA and ED schools. I’m also hoping that if SmallFry goes to the RD round there are no more new essays to write!
How’s everyone doing? This thread is so quiet! We are going to start hearing about SmallFry’s schools this week. Some of SmallFry’s friends have already started to hear so we are getting anxious.
Hello @Frydaddy !
We are also waiting on ED and a few EA apps.
Good luck to everyone next few days! [-O< [-O< [-O<
To all of you waiting for ED and EA decisions, keep the faith! Hoping it’s good news!
Also waiting on results this week. Definitely see the stress rising for our daughter and her classmates. This week can’t go fast enough. While they all say they know life will go on if the news isn’t good- it’s the waiting that is killing them.
Thinking of all of you waiting on ED and EA!
Good luck!!
Results are in and it looks like Christmas break will be filled with finishing up more applications as she was deferred. The world didn’t end and she was In good company as all of her close friends were deferred from their dream schools as well. I’m sure they will all end up where they are supposed to be ultimately.
Many more deferrals and rejections than acceptances as usual.
DS’s best friends are rejected in ED, so it is difficult to be celebrating his acceptance. They are genuinely happy and proud for DS, and that is very heartwarming.
Hope the new year brings many good news to everyone!
Ugh. Sorry for all of you with deferrals. That was DS several years ago too.
While it worked out perfectly in the end for him - and I suspect it will for all of you too --, it was a letdown, a frustration, a scramble, stressful, etc.
Sending warm fuzzy thoughts to all of you.