<p>“My biggest concern about my son attending a service academy has been that he won’t have the true college experience.”</p>
<p>I think that concern is shared by all academy parents, particularly those with their kids at West Point. My wife and I looked at it this way:</p>
<p>Our daughter has chosen the military as her profession. While it would have been more “fun” of course for her to take the civilian college route, we also agreed with her that if her choice is a lifetime with the Army, she was probably better off attending the school that would best prepare her, not for just the technical knowledge she would need but also the school that would get in her face emotionally and physically—to harden her so to speak for the challenges ahead. She knows what she gave up, her older brother spend the last 4 years whooping it up at USC (while they ruled the college football world) in a frat house as he earned his business degree. She also doesn’t miss too many opportunities to complain about something at West Point—but then again, when we ask her about this complaint or that complaint she usually responds, “hey complaining is what cadets are supposed to do”. A different world, preparing our sons and daughters to deal with things most of the rest of us don’t have a clue about.
God bless 'em!</p>