<p>My son attended a summer leadership seminar at the USAFA & his roommate was a highly intelligent football recruit. My son decided to attend Northwestern University, but his roommate is at the Air Force Academy. Do not assume that you will be selected for law school or medical school (although we only investigated law school options-so I am not certain about med school) as that is a possibility, not a guarantee especially with the USAFA. Law school is more likely for USMA-West Point grads. We know since my son was recruited by the USAFA as “pilot qualified” & wants to attend law school. He also attended the summer leaders programs at West Point & at the USNA-Annapolis.
As an added note: My best friend from high school went to medical school courtesy of the Air Force ROTC program & he is now a very successful dept. head at a major hospital after sitting for years in North Dakota, followed by a university medical school teaching stint. The negative aspect of allowing the Air Force to pay for medical school is that you can be assigned to an isolated location with outdated medical equipment for years.</p>
<p>IMHO, he should only go to the USAFA if he actually WANTS to be in the air force. Not just as a pilot, but as whatever they end up deciding he should do and wherever they end up deciding he should do it. Because if he goes and stays, he will be theirs for a good long time. </p>
<p>I would not make a calculation based on medical or law school four or more years from now. Things change.</p>
<p>It would be one thing if you could not afford to send him to college any other way. But that’s not the case.</p>
<p>Rumor has it that the AFA has a different philosophy on retention than the other academies, i.e., they drill hard to get kids to quit on purpose. Second, friend was a football recruit (but not a star) and became the personal project of his Senior CO (not sure of exact title) who just assumed that a football recruit was not worthy of being a cadet since he was “obviously just there to play…” CO’s goal was to drive this “unworthy” kid out.</p>
<p>Obviously, anecdotes mean little and there are two sides to every story, but I’d check it out thoroughly before signing on the dotted line.</p>
<p>In the end, it is indeed up to him. Air Force kind of ****ed me off today saying he was
offered but they had no more “official” visits left…yeah right.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is looking better and better, expenses aside.</p>
<p>He’s going to play football at both, right?</p>
<p>If he wants medical school paid for, there is another military scholarship for that (that’s how I got through medical school). I thoroughly enjoyed my three years in the AF as a physician. Physicians with longer commitments than that tend to chafe, increasingly so with each passing year. AF + Medical school would be a very long commitment.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is a really nice school, in a different league altogether than AFA. Check out the 25-75% SAT’s; Dartmouth’s 25% > AFA’s 75%. Graduating from Dartmouth in four years will provide your son with vast fields of opportunity, be it graduate school, or business, or even serving in the AF if he wanted (which he won’t). AFA will proscribe his choices. </p>
<p>AFA is “free” for all, not just football, and still Dartmouth is much more selective. His medical ambitions and football are distractions. Dartmouth is the much more desirable school, and he should be all over it.</p>
<p>I have nothing but respect for the cadets at AFA. We all need them and I encourage anyone with the interest to look into that route. But I do agree you need to like the military lifestyle and not dread the commitment.</p>
<p>As for football. Air Force is heads and shoulders above Dartmouth so the level of competition would be much higher there.</p>
<p>(I do know some IVY league grads who are not set for life btw. I don’t think any college can guarantee that)</p>
<p>you also need to factor in the ability to earn A’s as an undergrad, if med school is a real consideration. The premed competition at Dartmouth for those A’s in organic chem will be a whole different level than attending school in KY or FSU.</p>
<p>A good question brought up by several posters: how good of a student is DS? As someone who went to Penn in the dark ages and always thought of the mid tier ivies as having a range of students, I have to admit being surprised by just how top most students at Dartmouth are now.</p>
<p>DS has friends who are pre med and I assumed to be math/science kids. Yet many of these pre meds were in the first year seminars Fall term which required a 770CR score. Then there’s the stat that tells us of those ranked for the class of 2012, 40% were top two in their high school class.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how to mesh the above with the very high median scores for classes which you can see on the D website. Hard to find a class where the median grade is not at least a B+. Yet DS, who had a great first term saying it was about like his competitive HS, reports several friends struggled. </p>
<p>Assuming the football commitment is pretty big, I do wonder what makes most sense for a pre med.</p>
<p>Look carefully at the academic support offered for athletes at Dartmouth. It can be the make-or-break bit for an athlete who needs a little support through all the sciences when gunning for med school. </p>
<p>I don’t know what it is … my son is elsewhere … but the academic support is critical for athletes and generally part of the package. That would be the package with no athletic scholarships!</p>
<p>I know that football recruitment is a different animal, but I also simply have to ask has Op’s son been given a likely letter? Unless he has one, everything is just talk and there is no choice to be made until the RD decisions come out and he is actually accepted.</p>
<p>How much support will he be given by Teevens?
Another one asking how academically strong is the student because at the end of the day admissions is going to make the final decision.</p>
<p>OP mentioned on other thread that this weekend’s visit to Dartmouth resulted in an “offer”. Good point to clarify did it mean a spot on the team or a “likely letter” in hand from admissions… I know there are huge financial implications here for you as the father, but there are also huge implications regarding life choices here for your son. Taking the $ out of the equation for a minute, what does your son’s gut tell him? A friend/athlete has always dreamed of West Point. With each official visit at other schools, he became more convinced that West Point was the right choice for him. Is your son really interested in a career in the airforce? Has it been a life’s dream? If so, try to pursue a visit (official or unofficial )to see it with your own eyes. If not, during 4 years of undergrad, kids change majors many times. Many who enter with dreams of med/law school realize they’re not cut out for it or are no longer interested. I think your son will have a clear cut preference in his gut after visiting both places.</p>