Hello all,
I was wondering about how hard it would be to transfer into Dartmouth form the US Air Force Academy. I will be going there next year, and in the event that I don’t like it I would want to transfer out.
Say I got a 3.7 GPA at the academy and also was on the varsity lacrosse team, would it be possible to transfer into an ivy?
I don’t know the answer but can you so easily simply transfer out of any of the academies without serving some time in uniform? You might want to know that answer – like yesterday.
http://www.academyadmissions.com/commitment/ :
“Fourth- and Third-Class cadets (freshman and sophomore) who are separated by the Academy, or whose resignations are accepted, will ordinarily be completely relieved from all military duty active or reserve.”
“A cadet who submits a request to resign must state a specific reason for the action. The cadet will be counseled to determine if the problem can be resolved prior to action being taken to process the resignation.”
You cannot just decide to leave.
Edit: The above does not apply until you sign in.
Just call the Dartmouth admissions office. They are very helpful and can answer your question quickly
According to your other thread you are a Native American junior in HS thinking about applying to D.
Why don’t you just tell the truth: that way you are more likely to get good advice.
The academies are TOUGH. You should not be applying unless you are all-in. (And, IMO, applying while at the same time considering Plan B is not all-in.)
From a practical matter, LAX is a spring sport, so you either quit before the season, or you miss the transfer deadline (Mar 1).
That being said, a good friend’s son, left the AFA in the spring of his first year. They don’t want to make it easy to 'quit, but once the decision was made, dad just drove up, and picked up his stuff and they drove home.
fwiw: he was a recruited FB player.
My take is a little different. You can do a full two years (before showing up for classes your junior year) and leave any time during that period without taking on any kind of regular military commitment. As for being “all in,” my experience was that life at USAFA is so foreign to anything you’ve ever done before that no-one can be sure – particularly as a 17 or 18 year-old. My advice is to go with a firm commitment to finish at least one full year and preferably two. Then transfer if you’re still not happy. I would just add that a 3.7 at USAFA would be very challenging. It can be done, but the academies somewhat de-emphasize grades because you have so many other equally important commitments (mainly military but also intramural). A 3.0 is considered very good (Dean’s List) and most cadets hover around that number. That makes transferring into an Ivy a bit more challenging.