<p>Itlstallion422, you are 100% correct.</p>
<p>The Academy is faced with two issues for unsuccessful candidates, those who they offer prep programs and basically a ‘guarantee’ of admittance and those who will strike out on their own for the extra year. Let’s first deal with those not offered a prep program at all. They were unsuccessful for a multitude of reasons. Since the Academy has not made them a ‘guarantee’, their advice must be compatible with a ‘get on with your life’ scenario. Hence the good college and take plebe-like courses. A sink-or-swim program. “Prove you can be a plebe and, if everything else is satisfactory, we will let you be one”. A nice non-committal proposal on their part. </p>
<p>Now let’s examine the NAPS/Foundation program candidate. An outstanding package, someone who the Admissions Board feels will make an outstanding officer, but cannot prove to them that they can survive the academics, especially the technical end. Of course, they could be subsidized at civilian colleges, NAPS could teach a college-level curriculum. Someplace where the students could receive college credit. Why don’t they? College credit should be the least concern of someone truly committed to the Academy. Someone who wants to make the Navy a career. Someone who has been ‘guaranteed’ an opening, pending successful completion of the prep program. What should these candidates be wanting? The best possible preparation for success at the Academy. Shoring up their basics. Making them competent to handle anything USNA academics can throw at them. How is this accomplished? By giving placement test as, of course, NAPS does and also the larger foundation programs such as MMI and NMMI. By placing the student in an environment of like-minded individuals, where they can shore up the basics on which they are weak, proceeding at their own pace, moving between groups as necessary. Instead of asking a plebe or a recent grad of Greystone, ask the people who designed and continue to support the prep programs. They see the long-term results.</p>
<p>Lastly, military vs civilian prep. Military school is not about folding laundry, marching, getting yelled at, etc. It is about trying to fit 28 hrs into a 24 hr day. The extra hours filled with seemingly inane but required taskings. An environment which will be mirrored once they reach USNA. The 1400 SAT, top 10% class ranking, with ECs a mile long, have proved they can excel in this environment… The typical prepster has not. This extra year of learning how to prioritize and organize will definitely prove beneficial in the long run.</p>
<p>Therefore, I cannot imagine why anyone would turn down NAPS, basically a fifth year at the Academy, with like-minded contemporaries and with a faculty with sole mission and a proven track record of getting students to succeed at USNA. In my opinion, to pass up this opportunity in order to not get yelled at and to gain 36 hours of college credits definitely shows misplaced priorities. To attend a sink-or-swim college calculus class at a third tier college, probably with a bunch of business majors taking their only required college math class in an unproven program simply does not stand up against a program with a historical 85% USNA graduation rate.</p>
<p>Probably two thirds of those offered prep programs in lieu of direct entry don’t think they need it and initially must be persuaded. Probably two thirds of these two thirds will eventually avow that it was the best thing to ever happen to them. However, the point is that USNA has a multitude of collected data over the years that shows every one of those offered the prep programs do, in fact, need them.</p>