Nurse here. Back in the day we had to do head to toe checkoffs on each other including breast exams. Now students in some schools can’t even do blood pressures on each other. (We need to find a middle ground of consent and personal safety).
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They might have once upon a time, but they haven’t recently. They do still have a PE requirement, but not a swim test like Columbia, Cornell and MIT do.
Not a “screw” at all. The academies understand that this path is not for everyone and provide ample opportunity for cadets/mids to make the right personal decision without repercussion. Learning that our son had two years to freely walk away was what made his decision to join the military easier for us to take. By the time he took that oath, we knew that he fully understood what he was signing up for, that his was an informed adult decision, and that he was voluntarily all in. Conversely, those who choose to separate are making an equally well-informed and respectable decision, win-win on all sides.
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Interesting! I see it as a requirement back in 2010 from google so maybe they discontinued it not long after. We put it off as long as possible and then it ended up being no big deal.
UCSD added a course on climate change as an undergrad graduation requirement. Students can pick from ~40 courses in a variety of disciplines.
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Back in the day at USNA, the biggie was the “abandon ship” portion of the swim test.
With a modern swim facility that opened in 1982 (Lejeune Hall) that has a conventional 10 meter Olympic dive platform, it became a lot easier. Just walk up to the edge of the platform, take a step, cross your legs and don’t look down.
In the olden days, swimming was at McDonough Hall - a turn of the 20th century jewel box gymnasium. There was only one deep pool to do the 35 foot jump. You crept up narrow staircases towards a catwalk at the top of the building. At the edge of the catwalk was an aluminum painters ladder that you had to climb. The ladder wasn’t attached very well and it would move around while people were climbing. You has to count on the guy behind you in line steadying it. At the top of the ladder was a metal plate the size of a cafeteria tray. You had to climb onto the tray from the ladder and stand up into the ready position. You could touch the skylight. Then it was step off and wait to hit the water.
If you had any issues with heights, this routine was a total mind &#$*. Every year, there was at least one Mid in McDonough the morning of graduation trying to get this done.
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Too expensive to keep a retired submarine around to simulate an actual sinking ship to practice abandoning ship from?
Dartmouth did until very recently too. Still has a PE requirement
Many schools used to have the swim requirement. Many no longer do. One of the more awful requirements of many, many, decades past (well before my time) was the dreadful posture pictures Posture and Photographs - Vassar Encyclopedia - Vassar College
A bit of a sordid past, per stories.
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I’ve posted before that our son had to pass survival swimming at West Point. He actually enjoyed this—especially the full-gear, head-down trip down the high-slide tube in total darkness into a pool with simulated battle field effects. Nothing like machine gun fire to ruin a nice swim.
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A requirement for my forestry major was an eight week “summer camp”, consisting of 3 or 4 courses worth 8 credits. It was usually taken between sophomore and junior years. My college had the camp in different locations throughout the country each year, but other forestry schools owned property or had nearby facilities to host their field semesters.
My camp was held in SE Ohio, a very Deliverance* like atmosphere, but the forest was beautiful 
. Aside from one week where we visited several forest product processing facilities, almost every day was spent in the woods, rain or shine. It was a great experience for the most part, but I remember having a meltdown once when a few of the guys got on my nerves. The joys of working and living with the same 20 people for two months.
- My crew was in the woods collecting data on a sample plot way into the woods when a bedraggled man with a rifle came walking right through the middle of our plot without saying a single word even though we said hello to him. Afterwards, one of my crew came out from behind a tree where he’d stowed his backpack, which happened to contain a gun. He’d never told us he had the gun, and it definitely wasn’t allowed, but I was glad that he was prepared in that instance. He was one of the most experienced outdoorsmen in our class and must have heard the man approaching.
Me counting growth rings.
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