<p>which of the 3 main service academies is the toughest to get in overall? Be honest.</p>
<p>Based on last year's numbers, the Naval Academy was the toughest of the big three to get into. The following percentages are based on the ratio of cadets/midshipmen that accepted an offer of admission to the number of applicants:
UAFA- 14.34%
USMA- 11.61%
USNA- 10.84%</p>
<p>I got into USMA in October, USAFA in December, and USNA in March...if that means anything...</p>
<p>the percentage of admitted students is a terrible method to guage how selective an academy is. All that means is that x % of applicants that applied were granted admission... because the applicant pools are different for each academy, the percentages are not even comparable. For example: U Illinois Chicago admits 58% of applicants, while U Illinois Urbana Champaign admits 75%. UIUC is definitely a way better school, and the applicant pool is more desireable than UIC's applicant pool, who can only get 58% of themselves admitted. </p>
<p>imatnavy, your post reminds me of somebody who came into the UIUC forum and announced that he was going to go to UIC over UIUC because it took UIUC 2 weeks to admit him while it took UIC a couple of months. He figured that because it took them so long, they must have been pondering a difficult decision for him all that time while UIUC was despirite for him. </p>
<p>I think the real answer is that it depends on your district. only 1 person applied to navy from my district while 7 applied to west point this year. word must be out.</p>
<p>I agree that it is largely based on your district and simply how many from a particular district want to go to which school that year. My congressman said that when evaluating the candidates for each academy, the ones he chooses for USNA are almost always has the "best" in terms of SATs, class ranking, varsity athletes, and school leadership positions.</p>
<p>uiuc forum? lol im sorry.</p>
<p>I think that some of the numbers should be able to be used for comparing's sake, because many many of the applicants from the academies applied to all of them.</p>
<p>I believe that, in this case, the selection percentages are the best measure simply because the applicant nummbers are independent of each other (just because a candidate applied to all three doesn't change the fact that each academy got an application).</p>
<p>So, comparing how many were accepted vs. how many applied works, especially since the numbers are similar for both applications and acceptances.</p>
<p>I think it would be interesting to post this question on each of the service academy forums. See what everyone says. Will anyone from a different academy admit that the other academies are tougher to get into??? Hmmm.... maybe... maybe not.</p>
<p>Who cares really? If your going for the glory or "difficult to get in" factor...stay away.</p>
<p>"my congressman said that when evaluating the candidates for each academy, the ones he chooses for USNA are almost always has the "best""</p>
<p>nevermind, i thought you lived in san diego. i have heard that texas is heavily competitive for usma while san diego is insanely competitive for navy.</p>
<p>"uiuc forum?"</p>
<p>general rule: if you dont get an abbreviation, scroll up to where it was referenced not in abbreviation form.</p>
<p>Zaphod, no.</p>
<p>Didn't you guys see Annapolis? "the toughest military academy in America" "50 000 apply". If the other academies were half as good they'd have a major motion picture made about them too. ;) Just kidding don't flame me too bad.</p>
<p>This is a much more civil discussion than last year's on the same topic. Let's at least agree that all SA's are highly competitive during the admissions process. It has been mentioned that USCGA is actually toughest because they do not have to rely on the geographic distribution that is a result of the nomination process. Applicants compete for a spot based on their qualifications. </p>
<p>sandiegodude, I really wonder about a congressman who says that "when evaluating the candidates for each academy, the ones he chooses for USNA are almost always has the "best" in terms of SATs, class ranking, varsity athletes, and school leadership positions". I think he would use the same criteria for each of the nominations to any academy. If he meant that he nominates the strongest to Navy and the weaker(?) candidates to the other academies without regard to their choices, I'd question his methods.</p>
<p>mumford, you beat me to the "50,000 apply" quote. ;) Did you ever see "The Long Gray Line"? Idealistic, wholesome and pretty good movie, by the way.</p>
<p>taffy, you're correct when you say, "i have heard that texas is heavily competitive for usma while san diego is insanely competitive for navy." Some states/districts are just more competitive because of the presence of Army, Navy or Air Force personnel in the area. That's why we have references to living in South Dakota or Montana in some threads. And by the way, Go Illini!</p>
<p>Good luck and thank you for your commitment to all who are still waiting to hear from any of these toughest academies.</p>
<p>I think the congressman's statement is supposed to be a reflection of the qualifications of the candidates for each SA. He implies that those vying for a nomination ot USNA present stronger credentials than those vying for nominations to other SA.</p>
<p>Obviously cannot comment on whether this information is factual or not.
CM</p>
<p>
[quote]
Zaphod, no.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>"No", what?</p>
<p>All the Service Academies had between 10K-12K applicants, and all accepted between 1200 and 1350. That's not a whole lot of difference, really.</p>
<p>"uiuc forum"-i got where it was referenced, taffy, thanks a bunch. i just didn't really see the correlation in difficulty, slash had never heard of either school before in my life.</p>
<p>but thanks for the "general rule".</p>
<p>Dad2B'2010 is spot on. </p>
<p>The question shouldn't be which is the hardest to get into, but what do you want to do.</p>
<p>Let's assume that your first desire is to serve your country. That is after all why they are called service academies.</p>
<p>Do you know you want to be in the Air Force? -- go to USAFA</p>
<p>Do you know you want to be in the Army? -- go to West Point</p>
<p>Do you know you want to be in the Navy, but don't know whether you want to fly or drive subs or be on a surface ship -- Go to USNA.</p>
<p>Do you want to be in the Navy and know you want to be a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) -- then think about USMMA, because you will have spent more time at sea standing watch and managing a large ship than most junior officers in the Navy and you will be way ahead of your USNA counterparts.</p>
<p>Do you want to have the option to do any of the above? go to USMMA.</p>
<p>They are all hard to get into, and even harder to stay in. You have to be a special young American to go to any of them.</p>
<p>What was the point of your question?</p>
<p>I certainly hope that spnmyung's question was just a thought exercise. </p>
<p>I'd bet a dollar to a donut that the percentages given above change every year. Regardless, if the point behind the original question was to determine the EASIEST Service Academy to get into in order to apply there as opposed to the others, then I advise you not to bother. It's akin to asking which is harder to get into, Yale or Harvard? If you have to ask the question as a prerequisite to get into one or the other, then you're probably not qualified for either.</p>
<p>Don't mean to sound harsh, but there it is...</p>
<p>I believe last year Princeton Review says USMA is hardest Academy to recieve admission to.. and the third hardest overall school in USA after MIT and Yale but I believe they ranked it differently this year.</p>
<p>I don't know exactly what my congressman meant by that either, I'm just repeating what he said. I think candidatemom's analysis of it is correct.</p>