<p>West Point wife did.</p>
<p>Holy matrimony LFWP dad, you really suck your foot in it didn't you. Luckly we've got your back. Those "party school" kids won't know what hit'em when we're through with them.</p>
<p>got your back, buddy!</p>
<p>i don't understand your point...i thought this was about stressful ACADEMICS? not overall difficulty?</p>
<p>Academics can be a bit less stressful when you have the time to work on them. Academy students have to budget and juggle their time to an extent that would blow the minds of students at civilian colleges. The avg cadet or mid isn't struggling with the time honored choice of "do I stay here and study" or do i "go party with my friends" (or go home for the weekend, or go to the beach, or can I schedule all my classes on tues and thurs so I can have mon-wed-fri-sat-sun off?) Call it stress, call it difficulty, call it whatever you want. The quality of education at a service academy is beyond question, its just so much more that people don't see.</p>
<p>that makes sense</p>
<p>Do students at service academies have parties ever?</p>
<p>Stressful academics and overall difficulty go hand in hand; besides they picked the fight; sort of. Really it was LFWB's "party school" comment that started it, but hey, that's cool...</p>
<p>Students at the service academies party "all the time". That's how they handle the incredible stress. By "all the time" I mean all the spare time they have.</p>
<p>Dang shogun, you're always a couple of keystrokes ahead of me here too!</p>
<p>well i was asking a serious question, i do believe you guys when you say that life in the academies is the most stressful. how much spare time DO kids in the academies get? sorry, i'm ign'ant</p>
<p>My son's just starting, so hopefully others with more experience will reply, but I think it's safe to say cadets have far less spare time than students from other colleges. It's partially becasue of the rigorous program of study, but it's also because every student is expected to be an athlete and quite a chunk of what would be spare time for others will be devoted to sports.</p>
<p>In addition, spare time isn't necessarily time you can go anywhere you would like. Typically you're allowed to visit the surrounding town, but that's the limit. You need a pass to go beyond town and they're granted on a limited basis, expecially if you're in your first year or two.</p>
<p>That's not to say the students don't have fun, because based on the few letters I've gotten from my son they live for fun, but it's definately a different experience and you need to know what you're getting into before you decide on a service academy.</p>
<p>i'm just curious because i have several friends who go to MIT and they barely have any time to party. the p-sets (problem sets) are infamous!</p>
<p>i see what you mean, though. the MIT students I know dont have to spend time on sports, it's all math/science work...gess it depends if you consider sports more stressful than advanced physics or something</p>
<p>It's not that sports are more stressful than advanced physics, it's that at MIT you won't be required to take a sport and you'll never have to pass a physical fitness test twice a year. At West Point you will take advanced physics and you will be involved in sports; failing your physical fitness test could lead to your dismissal. So think of West Point like MIT, but add required sports and physicals, and you have the picture.</p>
<p>Thanks gang!</p>
<p>I am amazed at the Mids and Cadets. And their parents, of course.</p>
<p>Do they party? More as they get more freedom and I'm not sure what constitutes partying anymore, (Gawd, I’m old!) but they do get to blow of steam every once in a while. S was a plebe last year so unless there was overnight liberty, he had to be back at Kings Point by midnight and if someone wasn't back on time the whole company or sometimes the class was stuck and liberty was out the window. You get more freedom as you progress.</p>
<p>With NYC a 20 minute ride on the LIRR there is more to do when you get liberty at USMMA than at the other academies. But as plebes you have to wear your uniform everywhere. I know he went to some parties at Columbia with a couple of buddies from HS, but it wasn't anything like what he heard from some of his HS buddies.</p>
<p>Now I know why they gave us our own SA discussion area; it's so we wouldn't upset the civilians.</p>
<p>^^^So true!<br>
Look at parent's cafe today!
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=223212%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=223212</a></p>
<p>Hot bed topic I guess. </p>
<p>This statement kinda threw me:
"If their experience at the miltary academy is more extreme than their expectations, how much more extreme is actual military life going to vary from expectations for those who don't have much real knowledge of it?"</p>
<p>I had to say "HUH?" because I would hope that a military academy would exceed my expectations & by God it had better be to the extreme. My son's life might depend on what he learns there, along with others. He'd better learn it & learn it well & hard. Kids at service academies are going to be officers. Kids that go to academies don't do so blindly. Most going enlisted, don't just join up blindly either unless they have been living in a cave these days & times. </p>
<p>Sure didn't realize academy life was being pushed. I thought just the opposite. Not many kids can do what our kids do nor are some the caliber who would want to do something larger than themselves.</p>
<p>I'm done. :)</p>
<p>Jamzmom: When my son wrote about how extreem West Point was he definately wasn't disappointed and ment it in a good way (except perhaps being smoked 24/7). My wife talked to him after his march back from Buckner and I don't think the entire Annapolis class could pry him out of West Point.</p>