<p>"The academies are for those whose career choice is officer in the armed forces.</p>
<p>If you are not sure about that, then they may be the wrong choice for you (although if you are considering that but are not sure, see if your other college choices have the appropriate ROTC units available)."</p>
<p>Totally agree. I’m sitting across the couch from my USAFA grad husband, while I went to a “regular” college. We both majored in engineering, we both ended up in exactly the same place. I had a completely different college experience. I had freedom, choices, I could sleep in, I could skip class, and I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But he got his education completely, 100% for free, plus a stipend. He had an amazing, demanding experience, with camaraderie that I never saw in college. I got the last three years of college for free, with a stipend, paid for by a ROTC scholarship. You might think money is not an issue, but if you are looking at 250K+ for Cornell, and FREE for USAFA, unless your parents have a massive net worth, it’s probably an issue of some sort.</p>
<p>Cornell and USAFA will be a completely different experience. First, I don’t think that Cornell has astronautical engineering, they have Aerospace Engineering. You will work your butt off intensely at Cornell. At the USAFA, you will work incredibly hard, but in a different way. The truth is, there are so many demands at the USAFA, athletic, officer training, that you won’t really have time to delve into your major as much as at Cornell. You can’t study till your hearts content, there is too much to do, then you do eventually have to sleep. But Cornell is intense in a completely different way.</p>
<p>You don’t go to the USAFA to get a degree that will get you a job on the outside, as the main priority. At least you don’t dare talk about it while you’re there. We went for my husbands 20 year reunion and unexpectedly he was requested to speak in front of a large room full of cadets. Uh…surprise…so he talked about life after the AF, and said that if anyone wanted to talk about becoming an airline pilot, he’d be happy to talk to them afterwards. It was like he’d mentioned an untouchable subject, the gasps and the nervous giggles…and all the cadets who wanted to talk to him afterwards. Really funny. But my point is, you go to the USAFA to become an officer, and they darn well put you where they want to, no guarantees. I personally loved my time in the AF, till I got married, had a baby, and all of a sudden getting deployed to a war zone didn’t seem like much fun any more.</p>
<p>I advise you visit both schools and ask a lot of questions. With the USAFA you will probably come back with strong feelings one way or another. You really must visit.</p>