| Ahhh... another one of these... I just can't wait for the flame wars to begin...
So I guess I'll start them...
When you look at any of the academies, you have to know what you want when you graduate...
do you want to be an AF officer? go USAFA.
do you want to be an Army officer? go USMA
do you want to be a Coast Guard officer? go USCGA
do you want to be a Navy officer? go USNA
do you want to be competent? go USMMA
seriously though... For the question of USNA or USMMA, its a coin flip. Personally, I choose KP over USNA because I had options. I was sort of sure I wanted to be in the Navy, but I wasn't positive. Kings Point has given me outs if I decide I don't like the unrestricted line Navy, (and a lot of them at that). USMMA also has sea year, which has been probably the best experience of my life... all 20 years of it.
However, Annapolis has its upsides as well, name recognition, larger class size, a variety of liberal arts majors (not that its a liberal arts school, but you can't get a political science or history major at KP).
Plus the mentalities are different. At Annapolis, you have an excessive amount of leadership and honor training, people will get on each others backs about regs and they often will tell clean stories and jokes to each other. At Kings Point, you have people telling sea stories about how many... women of ill-repute... they... encountered... at sea, and have amusing stories about the wonders of Orchard Towers in Singapore. *cough*. Kings Point is also much smaller, and you form tighter personal bonds and are not going to get on someones back about the regulations at the school.
In the end, as I've said many times, Annapolis graduates officers, Kings Point graduates sailors.
I'd like to conclude with a link, but I'm not sure what it is yet, so I'll be back... |