<p>I too, went through that first “bad” letter. My heart sank when my daughter’s first letter from USMAPS started with I don’t think this place is for me. I really have to think about this. She left behind a boyfriend that she just started to get a little serious with and the comforts of her life as she knew it. I (selfishly) thought “oh no, I don’t want to go through this whole college thing again.” We had turned down a few wonderful colleges with fantastic scholarship opportunities, knowing that she would spend a year at Prep, earning no college credits. I couldn’t see her coming home, and then what? It was too late to go to the colleges she really wanted (besides USMA), and she would have maybe worked locally and taken a few community college classes before we went through the whole application process again!!! So, I reminded her of her dismal options if she came home. I never said it wasn’t an option but she had to know that her friends would all be away at school, she wouldn’t be happy back home and she would be bored. I reminded her of all the reasons she wanted to go to USMA in the first place and although I didn’t personally know what she was going through, I tried to empathize. I also got out all the cheerleaders that I knew (people who had been through military training) and asked them to write letters to share some of their experiences. My father was a good one. Although he was in the Navy back in the late 50’s, early 60’s, he wrote her and told her he was really shocked going through basic and at first didn’t like it, but when he was out there, he really loved it. My husband, who was in National Guards, shared some of his experiences, also. As a matter of fact, they both spent some time at Ft. Dix, NJ, so it all helped. It did get better. There were a lot of ups and downs. She survived Beast so much better because of her Prep time and although I know there will be a lot of ups and downs she truly loves it. She can’t stop smiling and saying “I CAN’T believe I’m here!!!”, “I can’t believe I’m wearing this uniform”. She said all of the encouragement really helped. I hope he makes the right decision.</p>