@ChoatieMom It really is a shame your son didn’t go to college. =)) (Not sure I chose the right emoji; I’m on my phone and can’t see the darn thing, meant to be ROTFL but can’t verify that the little yellow person is actually doing that.)
I ran into a staff person from our LPS at the grocery store this week. She asked where CameoKid is these days, and when I told her, she was clearly disappointed by my response. “Wow… I always thought she was a really good student… I’m so surprised to hear that she went to a technical school instead of college. Did she even apply to any colleges?” OMG. @-)
Good Lord @ChoatieMom how do you keep your composure when people ask you such ignorant questions?? I think my head would explode if people did not recognize the caliber of our military academies! Ugh.
As for the BS comments, I guess I am used to it by now. I graduated from BS 25 years ago and have been fielding similar questions and comments since 1993.
I usually say, “Crazy, right? I have no idea what he was thinking. Let’s have another martini.”
Oh all right, ChoatieDad, I guess I did leave out a bit of info. When people ask me where our son is, I say, “He up and joined the freakin’ army. He’s just stationed at West Point right now.”
You’d be surprised how many people really don’t know much or anything about the service academies and I’m not about to fill them in when there are so many more pleasant things to talk about.
My coworkers daughter just got accepted to West Point and we are all so proud of her. 
I have the same challenge of people thinking I’m sending my babies away and not understanding how I could do such a thing. I also work with regional K-12 public education institutions, and was previously a middle school teacher. Kentucky is going through some terrible education-related stuff and while I wholeheartedly support public education the right choice for my two youngest is BS. The timing, though, is really hard because of the political/social/etc. climate right now. It’s hard for me to share much publicly about my kids going away to BS while at the same time publicly supporting public education and educators in my state. I know the supporting public education while sending my kids off to private BS can both be true and valid at the same time, but I don’t have the energy or desire to explain our choices to people. I was actually a little relieved (sorry) to hear that others have some similar frustrations.
I am a faculty member at a community college, so I am surrounded by people who do not understand or believe in private school education. I have a select few work friends who know that my kids have attended private school since Pre-K. Most people I work with will probably never even know that my oldest is on his way to BS. The thought of spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on high school is preposterous to most people I work with.
Although I will give my fellow faculty credit in that I am quite sure most, if not all, of them know that West Point and the other military academies are prestigious public universities.
When I was a Captain in the army, most folks had heard of West Point, but you use the correct term USMA --US Military Academy (at West Point) and it throws them for a loop.
And funny to hear the cadets pronounce it “OoosMa” or refer to it as the South Hudson Institute of Technology.
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^ next boat over, @KentuckyMomma. (See, that’s me waving :-h )
Some boarding schools embrace the military: think it’s fair to say most don’t. Three that do I’m familiar with are Phillips Academy Andover, whose Andover and the Military Committee has nearly 1,000 Alumni members, Tabor Academy, Marion, MA. Tabor is one of only a few Naval Honors Schools, and Culver Military Academy. NHS can directly nominate three candidates per year to each of the Service Academies. Such nomination is considered a high honor and they sometimes give none. It should be noted as well that General Mark Miley, Army Chief of Staff, is a graduate of Belmont Hill, Belmont, MA.
Most Americans don’t know anyone in the military, including Service Academies. This was a concern when the all-volunteer force came into being. Senior military officers are not typically in favor of bringing back the draft, though many of them, along with veterans, believe some sort of “National Service” draft would be beneficial.
Many colleges have ROTC programs and this is the primary commissioning source for the Army. If you have a child with interest in a military career, even for as little as four years, ROTC Scholarships can be a valuable option. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Milley are ROTC grads; the Commandant of the USMC went to Officer’s Candidate School; and the Chiefs of the Air Force and Navy are Service Academy graduates.
@Garandman daddy was career army and his last stint was Professor if Mikitary Science. Both brothers were career army through same ROTC program dad taught. Once dad retired (at 42), he taught high school ROTC for 23 years. At SMS, they had a military intelligence guy come in for career day. DS is super interested in pursuing that and contemplating a service academy. We shall see.
"Most Americans don’t know anyone in the military, including Service Academies. "
I could see this being true for the Service Academies but is it really true overall? With around 2 million Americans serving between active duty and reserves, I would imagine that the majority would have a friend, family member, or at least an acquaintance in the military.
@doschicos I think @Garandman is probably right. 2 million is less than 1% of the US population. I know no one IRL that is currently in the military in any capacity - and I live less than an hour from West Point.
Well, it would be a little more than .5% and if you consider people who are vets, too, and given we all know hundreds of people, I would still find that surprising. Don’t you know people who have served in the military at some point in their lives? I easily know dozens. I know a handful currently in service academies alone.
It’s very regional.
@doschicos The original post referenced knowing people currently in the military. The only vets I know are of my father’s generation and they were required to enlist. I agree with @sunnyschool - it’s very regional.
When I was at Walter Reed, the cadets were always cadets from Youssmah. Many of the interns and residents from my class were students who had come from USMA and went to USUHS (YOU-SHOES) Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences–the military medical school. I interviewed there, but chose another med school and went through on a health professions scholarship from Army.
What region do you feel it is more prevalent in? I live in New England in a fairly affluent area. I also know many vets in their 30s/40s/50s both socially and through business and political party (liberal) connections. I personally know several doctors who got their MDs through military service as well (good, affordable way to do it). The more I sit here thinking about it, the more people I’m remembering who serve/have served.
@dramakid2 “The thought of spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on high school is preposterous to most people I work with.”
Yes, that is in fact true. But they don’t get to make your decisions for you. It was a very hard decision for us as a family. What it came down to was opportunity cost. Sending kiddo#1 to BS meant big changes( including a possible move). At the same time, if it didn’t happen what would be the opportunity lost because we didn’t want to spend money on education. Money spent on education in our lives has ALWAYS paid off handsomely. So we bit the bullet. I’m glad we did. Sometimes tough decisions are really hard to make. I know it will work out. I just could not leave kiddo in the classroom for another year staring at the wall waiting for other kids to “get it”.
Explaining decisions to friends and neighbors requires a lot of tongue biting and fake smiles. What brought it around for me was my own education. My Dad once took on a lot of overtime to pay for private school. It costs 5K. But as a % of income it was more than BS for us. Crazy. I used to say I’d never spend tens of thousands on private school, yet, here we are. Yes, we could save it and buy a second house but really can we ever get back the opportunity of a great education. We answered the question for our family. Those folks in the grocery store have to answer their own questions.
And thanks to all those who serve and attend the military academies. We are so lucky to have them. They are our best and brightest.