<p>I know they're all great schools, but which is considered to be the best? Thanks.</p>
<p>Depends upon who you ask. Ask a West Point grad and they will say West Point, ask a Navy grad and they will say the Naval Academy, etc.</p>
<p>I’ll make it easy for you–</p>
<p>WEST POINT</p>
<p>IMO,</p>
<p>Sports: USNA>USAFA>USMA
Military: USMA>USNA>USAFA
Academics: USAFA>USNA=USMA
Reputation: USNA=USMA=USAFA</p>
<p>I only included the Big Three b/c I don’t know much about other academies.</p>
<p>Heh heh heh,
Having had multiple conversations with a certain young person who has actually attended 2 of the 3 as part of the academy exchange program I wouldn’t have rated it quite like that. 
but its all good fun anyway.</p>
<p>Aw Come on Shogun! How would you rate it?</p>
<p>Seriously - don’t think of it in terms of academic rigor, although WP has the rest beat.
Look at the total curriuculum and all the requirements, plus all of the other demands on a cadet.</p>
<p>I think USMA has the most comprehensive liberal arts/engineering requirements of all the service academies.
They require the MOST from liberal arts and engineering.<br>
West Point also has the widest variety of majors from which to choose. </p>
<p>In any case, if you don’t want to be in the Army don’t go to West Point. If you want to major in Aeronautics go to AF or Navy.</p>
<p>Lets put it this way–
If your primary purpose for a college education is the toughest academics then don’t go to any military academy. If Einstein had gone to USXA and taken a basic math course, they would have found him in his barracks room curled up in the fetal position within a few weeks of cadet/mid life. The bottom line is the academics can be as easy or as tough as YOU want to make them—the real challenege is can you do the academics AND the military, AND the physical challenges as well. Thats why most people who go to Harvard, Yale, or any other Ivy League school couldnt even get in to a Military Academy, much less survive there. My cadet thought 2nd year spanish was a “killer” at Air Force but the other courses weren’t much different than what she found at Army. I think it depends on what courses you are taking and how much you put into them more than anything else. All three I believe are very competitive when it comes to things like Rhodes scholarships, but the primary mission of the academies is NOT to produce “academics” but military officers.</p>
<p>I would rate academics for all three as pretty “even” in difficulty, just not the same–the missions are just too different from each other to compare on anything but a basic level.</p>
<p>I would rate USMA as #1 in leadership development and military training</p>
<p>I would rate USMA as #1 in physical difficulty. </p>
<p>Just my humble opinion of course and it is not worth a cup of warm spit on either the stock market or a garage sale.</p>
<p>shogun wrote: “If your primary purpose for a college education is the toughest academics then don’t go to any military academy.”</p>
<p>My primary purpose for a college education is to get a great one and not leave college in debt. Unlike some people on this site who have parents who would buy them anything, I have to pay for college myself.<br>
Great, why don’t I just apply for finaid?<br>
Well, my family isn’t poor, so most colleges won’t give me need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Hoishia - you need to understand that if you go to West Point you will be in the Army. You will also be REQUIRED to serve a number of years on Active Duty as an officer in the Army after you graduate.
You will be schooled in a MILITARY environment which is quite different from a civilian school. Shogun is right - there are a lot of very bright people who would crumble at West Point.</p>
<p>That said, a fantastic education at West Point can be had, it just won’t come easy.</p>
<p>JustAMomOf4-This may sound overly-confident, but I don’t think I would “crumble” at West Point. I run varsity track for a large public school. My SAT scores are in the 1500s. I’m used to pushing myself physically and mentally. I realize that there are physical and military challenges at all of the academies, but I don’t know what the academic standards are for each.</p>
<p>As for service in the military, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t want to go to college just to get a piece of paper so I can get a job. I want to learn.</p>
<p>The mission of West Point is to produce leaders of character to serve as officers in the United States Army. If your primary desire in life is to be an Army Officer, then go for it. If it is to get “a free education” it could be a rocky road for ya. Always make sure you go for the right reasons. There’s nothing “free” about the service academies. Payment WILL be made. Good Luck with your decision!</p>
<p>The environment you are in at West Point will break you at some point. No matter how smart you are, there is going to be something at West Point you struggle at; it’s how you work with others that gets you through, “cooperate and graduate” as they say. I know you’re not trying to sound overconfident or anything, but plenty of kids get into the academy every year with your stats or better and do not make it, meanwhile, plenty of cadets who scored 1200 or lower on the SAT excell there (I was one of them). Everyone has their weakness, for the vast majority, it will be found at West Point.</p>
<p>As for not being able to pay for school, I hear you, I was in the same boat when I applied in 2001, but I’m telling you, if you’re dedicated to serving as an officer in the Army, at least for the minimum five years, you’re wasting your time. You will deploy, chances are, bad things will happen to you or your friends. This is not the easiest job to wake up for in the morning; the burden of responsibility that will be placed on you, not only as a platoon leader, but in any officer job, will overwhelm you at times because, no matter how great you are, you or your unit will fail at tasks and it will be solely your responsibility, no matter how many ‘bad breaks’ you had, to accept that failure.</p>
<p>Bottom line, West Point’s education is top notch, but its about leadership development and officer preparation, not academic achievement.</p>
<p><em>correction</em> if you’re <em>NOT</em> dedicated to serving as an officer in the Army, at least for the minimum five years, you’re wasting your time.</p>
<p>if you talk to people that have done the academy exchanges, you’ll see a trend that the Air Force Academy is probably the most difficult. but it really all depends on course selection</p>
<p>^
well I have heard from West Point cadets that their gpa goes up when they do a semester at either AF or Navy. Isn’t necessarily a measure of “rigor” though.</p>
<p>Hoishia - I suggest you go here:
[USMA</a> Admissions: Home](<a href=“http://admissions.usma.edu/default.cfm]USMA”>http://admissions.usma.edu/default.cfm)
thoroughly read through the entire admissions website including reading the prospectus.
If you feel that West Point is for you and you have questions, bring them back here.</p>
<p>USNWR (US News and World Report) ranks service academies as national LACs (Liberal Arts Colleges).</p>
<p>Ranking Annapolis lower than, for example, Davidson is problematic, particuliarly if you want a naval career. LOL </p>
<p>These rankings do give some basis for comparison.</p>
<p>The differing missions, deployment conditions, and culture of the various services should be considered by aspirants to service academies.
IMO these factors are more important than relative ranking.</p>
<p>Don’t ask your congressman to just plug you in wherver he has an appointment left.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you all are getting this weak-academically idea about West Point, but you are mistaken.</p>
<p>If you don’t believe me, check out some of the projects that are being finished right now by Firsties in the EECS department, or the design work done by cadets in C&ME, or the profound research completed by History and Social Sciences students on term papers, the SOSH paper, etc.</p>
<p>West Point is a great place for free academic thought because it is a requirement of our future profession: stuff’s gotta work.</p>
<p>That applies to leadership training, military tactics, academic research, and physical development – there’s a job that needs to get done, and we’re the ones that are going to do it. The academic front is the foundation to that building and, as such, is the most important part.</p>
<p>I don’t know about you guys but I would think that any academy that requires its students to finish a four year academic load in three years would be the hardest.</p>
<p>There is only one that requires this…USMMA.</p>
<p>hah hah… your joking right??</p>
<p>dude, don’t decide which service academy to go to based on academics. decide based on which branch you want to serve in.</p>