<p>I've applied and been accepted to both West Point and the Air Force Academy and I have to decide by Friday which one I will be attending. Have any of you had to face this issue, and what helped you decide?</p>
<p>What do you want to do? Fly, or lead people?</p>
<p>sit in a chair or kill people?
sleep in a marriot or sleep in the cold?</p>
<p>Dude, hate to be a hater, but how many times has this question been asked? I think every forum on the subject says something like "If you want to be a leader of men go Army, machines go AF."</p>
<p>Actually that makes me come off as a jerk. All things equal, I would say West Point, simply because it has 200 years + of tradition behind it and has prestige that USAFA has yet to build.</p>
<p>Did you visit both academies? What were your thoughts? If not, is there any way for you to defer your decision for another week, visit quickly, then decide? Even if classes are not in session, you can pick up some flavor. Have you talked to current cadets at both academies? How about alumni?</p>
<p>Then, of course, the main question you have to ask yourself is: "What do I want to do in my military career?"</p>
<p>In the Army you will truly have wider/more options of what field to go into upon graduation. In the Air Force, there is less choice and a little more force into certain areas. I'm not making it up, as I have friends good friends that in the AF and lived in a AF community at my last duty station. It really does come down to what you think you might like to do upon graduation--there really are more direct leadership positions available within the Army. Jobs that LTs hold in the Army are held by CPTs in the AF, and Army CPT jobs are held by MAJs in the AF. Also, are you academically more inclined towards heavy engineering or more a wide variety? Both have a good variety, but AFA will be more engineering/technical based than USMA because their follow on careers are much technical than many of ours. From cadets that did the exchange program between both USMA and USAFA, both sides said USMA had some more discipline and teamwork because of the heavy people focus in the Army vs. the engineer/systems focus of the AF.</p>
<p>a few main reasons i chose army over air force is because:</p>
<p>-the Air Force is downsizing its manpower and trying to maintain its older airplanes instead of buying new ones. I read an article over the winter about how the air force is cutting down on the number of new cargo planes its purchasing and i heard the bit about the decrease in manpower from an Air Force Major and USAFA graduate. as he said, the air force is losing funding and would "rather keep its toys".</p>
<p>-in the Air Force, you can be a pilot IF QUALIFIED or work as a dentist, basically. they do have ground forces like the army but much fewer and it takes longer to advance in rank. </p>
<p>-rank advancement in the army is second quickest in the armed forces next to coast guard (i don't know about merchant marines)</p>
<p>-West Point is THE premiere institute when i comes to learning how to lead, as many others said. the other academies focus on learning how to work machines rather than how to work with other people.</p>
<p>-it seems to me, from my limited knowledge, that the chance to see action is much greater in the army than in any other branch...if you like that sort of thing.</p>
<p>-Because we had Patton. I think that says it all.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. Of course I wouldn't suggest using these reasons as the final word. You've gotta pick what you want and what you know will motivate you, not what will look best on resumes to law firms or what will get you the most cash.</p>
<p>GO ARMY...SINK NAVY...BEAT AIR FORCE</p>
<p>Nothing screams finer than United States Military Academy....West Point.</p>
<p>smrterthnutink---Have you decided which you academy you will attend?</p>
<p>I'm going to West Point</p>
<p>Most definitely a "smarter than you think" decision. :D</p>
<p>Good decision. Congratulations!</p>
<p>Congrats - now get out there and start running - and doing situps and pushups - and slogging around in the mud . . . .</p>
<p>Yeah if you chose Air Force...you would have had to start practicing your sitting down for countless hours doing nothing. Haha. Sorry:)</p>
<p>agenda for change FOR THE WIN.</p>