A service academy is a very tough way to get through college. Regardless of which one, cadets/mids all say that their academy is a great place to be from, but a tough place to be. ChoatieCPT and his wife are currently living in the Annapolis area, and I have to say that USNA is much more beautiful post in a livelier town than USMA. It would have been a better all-round experience than the gray prison IMO, though our son remembers it fondly now that Stockholm Syndrome has set in.
My dad graduated from USNA in 1966. My son had a little anecdote in one of his essays about my dad looking back on his academy days with fondness- even after all these years my dad had him change it to say “with pride and appreciation”
Been lots of good back and forth recently on Service Academy Forum on Kings Point vs Annapolis. Two nuggets to consider. 1 - if you want to fly, USMMA is a great cheat code. Learned that from a USMMA grad on my congressman’s nominations panel. Extra opportunities there vs. USNA plus you can choose to fly for USCG as well. 2 - there’s a huge difference in the money in USMMA’s favor. The compensation for a third mate from one of the big shipping companies far exceeds O-1 level pay. Poke around over there.
Senator McCain’s panel awarded ChoatieKid the principal nomination to USMMA even though he did not apply for it — no one did that year. Because he had no interest in being in the air or on the sea, he turned it down. We learned at the All Academies Ball his Plebe year, that it went unused* which was surprising because @HazeGrey’s comments about USMMA are accurate. Here is the link to the USNA vs. USMMA thread on the SA forum for anyone interested.
(*Unused by anyone from AZ that year. Unfilled noms are available to an academy to secure candidates they want who did not win any of their congressional slates, so a candidate from CO, say, could be charged to an available AZ nom, another complexity of the process that makes it impossible to chance anyone.)
Let’s get back on track here. The bar is open. It’s a little early for that Chocolate Martini, but perhaps a Cranbrook Mimosa for brunch and a little Madeira after dinner?
(from Salisbury NC, not the school, but fits the topic hopefully)
I meandered over to this thread while waiting for RD decisions for my C25 and researching boarding schools for our younger kiddos. Delighted to find it!
