<p>I am a sophomore in college right now and I have realized that the path I am going down may not be what I thought I wanted. At the end of the last academic year I became slightly interested in West Point but figured it was already too late for me to leave my current school and go to West Point. (This is all under the assumption I would be accepted)</p>
<p>Now I am really considering speaking to my parents about this because up until now I've kept it to myself. Being the end of September already, is it too late to even apply to West Point? It says to start the application at the end of your Junior year which I guess for me would have been the spring semester 2010. </p>
<p>I do believe I would have a shot at being accepted. In high school I had a 1980 SAT with 730 math and I got a 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam. So far in college I have held a cumulative gpa of 3.75 and have active involvement in extracurricular programs on campus. </p>
<p>BTW - I understand that they do not accept transfer students and that if I went I would go in as a Freshman in the class of 2015.</p>
<p>It’s not too late but you need to move fast. Go online and open a file.
Find your US Senators’ and Representative’s website and see what you need to do to apply to them for a Nomination.
Good Luck!</p>
<p>Also, contact your local MALO-Military Academy Liaison Officer. If your college doesn’t have one then go to the local high school guidance counselor and ask. They should be able to give you a phone #/ e-mail address. The MALO’s are quite helpful.</p>
<p>You will find that the USMA application process is very efficient and straight forward but don’t hesitate to come back here for help. </p>
<p>What exactly is the point of going through all this? You would have to start all over again. There is no point in that if you just wanted to become an officer.</p>
<p>Honestly, you’re better off just enlisting with the Army National Guard and going through Basic + AIT. Then join ROTC at your college (if it offers it) and move directly to MSIII - you skip the first two years of ROTC. Then you’ll commission right on time as your regular graduation date and you’ll have some enlisted experience to show for as well.</p>
<p>If you went to WP at this stage in the game, you’re going to delay your commission by at least 2 years. Essentially, instead of being a CPT at a certain period of time, you would still be a 2LT. If it was me, F that.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that WP isn’t a worthy experience. On active duty, perhaps people will respect the WP legacy more. That helps you slightly in promotion in relation to “below the zone” or “in the zone” timeframes. But at most WP gives you maybe a 1 year advantage at each rank above CPT. But you’ve just spent an extra 3 years for that! I just don’t think it’s worth 3 years of opportunity cost in terms of promotion. That’s just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>If any West Pointers are dumb enough to suggest him to do this, let me know how West Point is teaching you fellows to “get the overall picture”.</p>
<p>Polo, the experience and education can not be matched. That’s not the only thing that can’t be matched-It’s the brotherhood and sisterhood that you get with your classmates-a lifetime found at the Service Academies and in other situations in military experience.</p>
<p>cga82, right you are but Polo, I think has a good point. The OP should know about other ways to commission besides West Point.
Knowledge is power and it’s always best to be fully informed about the pros and cons when making a life changing decision.</p>
<p>One more point - let’s say the OP is 20 now, he will be 24/25 when he graduates. At which time he will be an O-1 with one year in service.
If he follows Polo’s suggestion, his years in service would begin when he went to boot camp. He would graduate at 22 (or so) with 2 years in service and a bump in pay.</p>
<p>Either way, going to West Point after two years in college has been done - successfully and not so successfully.</p>
I agree with you if and only if the OP figured out this was the path that he might pursue mid-way through his first semester of his freshman year.
Unfortunately, that time has already passed and there are really no solid concrete and quantifiable reasons for going back to the start line when he’s halfway to the finish line already.
The experience, sure, cannot be matched. But all Army commissioning sources have 1 goal: to produce competent leaders that will lead Soldiers. The real test of such a task isn’t tested in an academic environment, it’s tested when you are a PL. So yes, you’re right, the experience may not be able to be matched, but is the experience **necessary<a href=“especially%20when%20you%20factor%20in%20opportunity%20costs%20which%20I%20have%20described%20in%20my%20previous%20post”>/B</a>?
Your scenario is at best a breakeven at 20 years in service. What happens if after 3 years (for ROTC) or 5 years (for WP) he decides that the Army isn’t for him? If he went to ROTC he could leave at 25 as a CPT, but if he went to WP he would leave the Army as a CPT at almost 30 years of age! In the end, rank is very important. No one who wants a career in the Army and comes from West Point wants to retire as just a LTC. Likewise, no one wants to be working for someone who is the same age but 1 rank higher for his/her career. That’s the situation that the OP would put himself into if he went to WP at this point. Any officer that stays out of trouble and has a heartbeat will make LTC in a 20 year career. Promotion to a higher rank at a younger age trumps the “where you came from” card in this case.
The Army doesn’t need cheerleaders of any sort as officers. We want officers who are cool, calm, and collected; those who can quickly assess a situation, quantify its risks and benefits (your job as an officer is essentially risk management) quickly and accurately, and execute. You’ll see when you get to your unit: Soldiers respect a talented officer who is only giving his job 75% over an Army cheerleader who is all “Hooah” by giving it his 100% and still performs worse than the former.</p>
<p>I have done a bit of research and discovered that I can get almost all the results I would have seen through West Point by joining the ROTC program at my school. I have contacted the person in charge of the program at my school and on their website it shows that they offer 2,3, and 4 year scholarships. </p>
<p>This is great news if I can get a 2 year scholarship for my last two years. If this is the case, I can attend the Leader’s Training Course over the summer of 2011 to catch up on what I missed of the first two years and then finish the last two years of the program during my junior and senior year. In this instance I will be commissioned as a 2LT without having to leave my current school and start all over again. </p>
<p>Thank you for all the input and I will keep you posted on what I do.</p>
<p>It all depends on what you want to do. I went to west point knowing that I didnt want a career in the Army. I decided that west point would be the best option to build my civilian resume. I have 5 years in the Army so far and 3 left (doing an extra 3 for 9/11 gi bill). I would suggest the west point route if you are not sure about the army b/c a degree from west point holds a lot more weight than from your run of the mill univeristy. I would suggest that you figure out where you want to be in 10 years. Do you want to babysit 20 year olds b/c they had terrible parents or do you want a 9-5 job where you actually get to spend time with your wife and kids?</p>
<p>“Do you want to babysit 20 year olds b/c they had terrible parents or do you want a 9-5 job where you actually get to spend time with your wife and kids?”</p>
<p>You obviously havent spent time in the civilian business world yet—heh heh :)</p>
<p>I have no intention of going into business or any job that judges it self by how much money they can make. At least in the “real world” I dont have to pick up 19 year old kids who get DUIs or explain why you cant beat hit your wife while in walmart. What I was getting at in my previous post is that west point will prepare you to lead a platoon on mission in afghan or iraq. However, what you dont learn or told is that you have to become a parent figure for most of your soldiers because they come from broken homes. I have found that part of my job to be the worst and is one of the reasons I plan on getting out. Crazygolfer, just make sure when you sign your life away, that you can at least deal with this sort of crap for your given amount of time</p>
<p>"I have no intention of going into business or any job that judges it self by how much money they can make. "
Just wondering, why not? What would be the purpose of going into business then?</p>
<p>Yep, we heard all about some of those duties from our Lieutenant. Funny thing is, in the civilian world its the same stuff, just a different twist. Your employees (subordinates) and trust me, everyone managing any responsibility in the civilian world has them, bring all sorts of baggage with them to work that has to be dealt with sooner or later in one form or another. I would expect a platoon leader to have to deal with their troops at a much more personal level, after all, they must depend on each other to stay alive. Im sure its a leadership role West Point tries to prepare cadets for, but wont be successful in every case. I would still advise anyone applying to West Point to remember the academy’s mission which is to train career officers. Perhaps deciding that you werent going career even as you applied and entered USMA affected your outlook towards “the babysitting?” </p>
<p>"“To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.”</p>
<p>Thats not to say you cant enter, serve, and then decide to leave based on one’s experience, but I would advise potential candidates that the purpose of this “free ride on the taxpayers dime” institution is not to create an easier career path in the civilian world --(thats just an unintentional by-product), but to cultivate and train competent career army officers .</p>
<p>Shogun,
I believe my pessimistic view of the Army thus far is a result of the back to back deployments for the past 5 years and the scope of a leader’s responibility for his Soldiers outside of the work place. My feelings about the deployments are pretty straightforward, however my second reason contributed greatly to my decision to leave the Army. Examples of this are when my weekend is cut short b/c a Soldier on his own time gets a DUI or gets in a fight. I never heard or seen another organization outside of the military or paramilitary organziation (police) where leaders are responible for their subordinates’ actions outside of the work place. Yes I understand that to develop the level of trust between Soldiers that is required to succeed in combat, more personal involvement in required by leaders. Is there any reason why this can not be accomplished from 9-5, instead of 24/7? If the maturity level of Soldiers was held to a higher standard perhaps my family time would not suffer due to the actions of others. In short, my hope is that future cadets understand that being an Army Officer is not just leading Soldiers in the field. But it also includes being a parent (yes, babysitter is a good choice of words) to many of the younger Soldiers.</p>
I’ve read that the career retention rates are higher for ROTC than USMA. If that is the case, maybe we need to reconsider increasing the obligatory service time for USMA graduates to justify the cost of its expenditures.
Regardless, this thread was answered already to the satisfaction of the OP. There is no need in continuing it especially if it is not directly pertinent to the original question.</p>