<p>Yeah, West Point is free, except for the four years of forgone earning potential while you are commanding a squad in Iraq and are the target of every jihadi sniper in a two mile radius</p>
<p>4 years? </p>
<p>Last time they told me it was 7 for West point, with reserve status after that.</p>
<p>Military dulls your creativity. Then again, so do a lot of the Ivy League schools, but oh well.</p>
<p>Make that five years of earning potential.</p>
<p>I'm not entirely sure that the military dulls your creativity. I would think that aviators and pilots are reasonably creative. Same for engineers.</p>
<p>On the other hand, enlisted personnel in all branches probably have their creativity crushed since they're basically an officers you-know-what. </p>
<p>For officers, the service academy probably is four years of creativity crushing, but for the five years after as a squad leader you probably have to be somewhat creative in keeping yourself alive. A nice mix of discipline and creativity I would think...</p>