I am hoping someone who has been through the Naval Academy can give me some information about it.  I have a son who has good grades, favors math and science, and is also an athlete, and applying here might be a choice of his.  I researched the application process online, but I'd like to hear from those who experienced it.  How many are selected each year?  What is the experience really like?  Can you speak of your active duty experience and how good of an experience it is prior to private industry?  Thanks in advance.

You need a Congressional recommendation.  Each Congress critter gets four appointments, which works out to one a year.  That's the toughest part.

Unfortunately, our district is one of the largest and most competitive in Michigan.  My daughter would be competing with ~120 students for the one spot.  Obviously a Senate or Executive recommendation/endorsement is even harder.

ETA: My daughter is applying to Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell, among others.  She has a better chance of getting into any of those schools (including Harvard) than she does of getting into Annapolis, West Point or CO Springs.

http://www.uscga.edu/admissions/

There are other options to earn a degree and serve, for this one you won't need to contact your elected representatives.

It is highly competitive as well only taking just over 250 a year.

On the Academy side, the best recommendation is that you apply to all five and if you have a choice at the end of the day, well fantastic.

There are also other good options, to include NUPOC.

In many ways, its the most expensive "free" school you'll apply to, so hopefully you and son have done the cost/benefit analysis of military service.

I personally know several older gentleman who have gone through West Point . Not sure how much was the type of gentleman they were to begin with or if it was the result of their time there but they speak highly of their experience and they have both been very sucesfull in industry after the military

i have two cousins, theyre both brothers that went to the naval academy.

both went marine corps post graduation, one transitioned to civilian life and the other is still currently serving.

Theyre both doing very well in life, both inside and outside the service.

thats all i have to offer, sorry.

Now is an extremely bad time to join the military. He is better off going to Community College and flipping burgers.

Time for a refill?  

I'm just a lowly enlisted man but I have a few friends and folks I served with who went to the West Point and the Air Force Academy.  They all said it was very difficult but worth it.  I preferred serving under academy grads versus OCS/ROTC.  By far they were far better officers than the latter.  

The one bit of advice I was given but didn't pay heed to was if a high school kid wants to go to a service academy was everything starts at the 10th grade.  They want a well rounded, intelligent, physically fit, community minded and above all, a potential leader.  What that means is a kid who is involved in sports, student government, volunteer projects, shows the percerverance to hit the books and get good grades.  When the boards at the academies get the prospective applicants file they will sit in a room and look at each one.  The murder board will literally pick apart every aspect of the aspirants life as shown in the file.  The reject pile gets pretty big.  Then whats left is let in and the true work of making another generation of leaders begins.  Then one day after that guy has punched his ticket and did his time, they almost always do quite well after the military.  

Lol

D

Yeah I said it, the Air Force Academy grads I worked for were damned good officers.  They were smarter, more mature, and better leaders than other officers I worked for.  The ROTC ones seemed to have a chip on their shoulders and the prior service officers were micro-managers.  The quality was quite apparent.  I don't know how others see it but that was my experience.

Thanks for all your replies, I haven't checked this in a few weeks.  My son is in 10th grade, an athlete, works a summer job and gets good grades (multiple accelerated courses.). We are going to tour the Naval Academy in the next few months.

The way I see it, too many college graduates have a difficult time finding entry level jobs in their fields, and resort to something less.  5 years of guaranteed leadership experience in the best Navy in the world seems like a win/win in this tough job market.

I'm a USAF Academy grad. All the service academies are generally the same, just minor differences. The application/selection process is the same. Though I was selected to the USAFA, I was also selected as an alternate to the US Naval Academy. Feel free to send me some IMs if you want to ask more specific questions.

I am an Air Force Academy grad as well. I saw you mentioned that the USNA "might be a choice of his".  In my opinion, success (i.e. Graduation) at a service academy requires more conviction than an attitude of "gee, that sounds cool, I'll give it a try."  It's a long four years, and nearly impossibly long if it is not the place that your son knows he belongs. Several hundred kids quit from each class because it's not what they expected, or not what they were cut out for.

Additionally, keep in mind that there are alternative routes to each of the academies other than straight out of high school. Specifically, I was denied an appointment on my first application attempt, but was offered the opportunity to attend a prep school for a year with the promise of an appointment upon completion of that year of prep school. In hindsight, it was a great decision.

Feel free to PM me with any questions, though I am about 14 years removed from the application process.

Well we drove down to Annapolis and saw some excellent Patriot League championship swimming last night.  We are going on a tour of the Academy today, and this should be able to help my son know if this is a commitment he wants to shoot for or not.

Very few 18 year olds know exactly what they want to do. Plenty graduate from the academies without the fully committed cult member mentality.  

Make sure they receive the drug use affidavit so you don't get screwed like I did.  My liason officer said they had received it.  They told me I could try again in a year.  Took an ROTC scholarship and destroyed my knee sophomore year of college.  Best of luck to you.

At this point graduating with a full time job, great benefits and an exit at year five to the second or third rung on the corporate ladder is a pretty big deal.

I called the CFO of a large developer the other day. He offered me an internship on the spot because we both served.

Sure, plenty do graduate. But I'm not sure what you mean by the cult mentality. All I'm saying is that attrition rates are between 1/4 and 1/3 of each class. And the reason most kids quit is because they just don't like being there.

I'm just recommending that the OP's kid make sure that Annapolis is where he really wants to go to school, as opposed to giving it a shot because it sounds kind of neat.

1/3 is nothing.

The on time graduation rate nationwide is 30%.

After the tour, the video, and the admissions briefing, I could tell my son was definitely interested.  even if his application is denied, its good to have a tough goal to stay focused on.  I'm sure if he has to do Plan B, he can get into a decent college.  He wanted to take a shirt home from the gift shop, of course I was going to buy him one if he wanted it.

Most of the Academies also have some type of summer experience program for those HS students that are considering the services.  

Click here for more info on this program:
http://www.cga.edu/AIM/

Disclaimer:  I was the Weapons Officer at USCGA from 2008-2015.  There are six supported varsity and club shooting sports to participate in.  They now have a full time Varsity coach in addition to the Weapon Section staff and the volunteers.

Update:
My son has started volunteering/doing community service with the local V.F.W.  We just dropped him off at the Naval Academy for a week of their "Elite Swim Camp".  We are looking forward to applying for next year's Summer Seminar.

The swim camp was his birthday present.

USNA '96 checking in.  Sounds like you're doing the right things so far.  I wanted to go to USNA since about 7th grade, and my Dad and I took a trip there every year during the summer to take a tour and watch the Plebe Summer activities.  We visited the admission office every year, and my father introduced me to every officer we crossed paths with.  Having USNA as a goal definitely helped me focus in school; if I went through grade school and HS these days, I'd probably be diagnosed as ADHD and put on meds.





My biggest advice is to have your son prep for and take the SAT/ACT at the end of his junior year and apply as early as possible.  I got accepted to USNA in October of my senior year after completing my application over the summer before my senior year.  I'll never forget walking into the kitchen after getting home from football practice; my parents had already opened the letter and were so excited to tell me I had gotten accepted.  I had not even completed the nomination process with my congressman and senators at that point, but I was admitted with a Superintendent's nomination.  My Blue and Gold officer (an alumni rep for your area) had never even heard of such a thing.  The Superintendent only gets like 20 nominations.  So, the admissions office asked me to complete the nomination process anyway, I eventually got a nomination from my congressmen, and then the Sup took his nomination back to reuse it.





So, don't get too hung up on the nomination process.  It's similar to but separate from the application process, but it's kind of like having to apply to another college (essays, interviews, etc, depending on the member's office).  If your son continues to do the right things academically and with his extracurricular activities, and writes good essays, he will be competitive.  Also, find out who your local Blue and Gold officer is and reach out to him / her.  PM me if you can't find out who it is.





Good luck to your son.  If / when he gets admitted, my follow-on advice is for him to set goals and give it his all when he is there.  Don't let him get jaded and become a dirt bag / skater.  It's an incredible opportunity, and I always had disdain for the Midshipmen who were dirtbags and did the minimum to get through and graduate.  What a waste.



ETA:  Each congressman / senator can have up to (5) nominees each at the service academies at any given time.  When they have an opening, they can nominate up to (10) candidates for admission.

My dad was a small country prosecutor in KS for 24 years.  The only officers he ever had to convict were both USMA grads.

I taught at the Engineer Officer Basic Course for 3 years.  The biggest problem I had with West Pointers was that they were burned out, tired of training and ready to get to the "real" Army.  Only a few ever said they wished they had gone another route to get commissioned though.  

Honestly, I would only want about 1/2 of them based on their attitude and performance at EBOLC.

Having been on the enlisted and officer side myself I can say some academy grads are really great officers. Same goes for ROTC, and prior enlisted. All 3 produce shitty officers too. What I've seen from academy grads though is the feeling they are superior to everyone because they went to the academy. They're called ring-knockers. Many think their academy time counts as active duty time- for example I've had 2ndLts tell me they have 5 years in the military.
Often they learn little to no real leadership, though their academic schooling was very grueling.

Some are great, but unfortunately it seems very often they are not, and I can guarantee you your opinion is in the minority.


ETA- sorry I just realized this thread is sorta old. My bad.

I am a youngster at USNA and would be happy to take any questions you or your son has.

In short, everyone has summed it up pretty well and I have NO regrets about my choice.

Go NROTC and profit!

Graduated in '08. Served 6 years, Marine Corps. Got a killer job leaving active duty, largely in part to my alma mater.

I hated my time there. However I don't regret it for a second. I made lifelong friends and developed skills that will make me successful for a lifetime. When I say I hated it, it was tough. 20+ credits in 7 of my 8 semesters, military obligations, strict rules, I was a Div I athlete, etc. They put a lot on your plate for a reason. Best advice I can tell you is to get in touch with your local blue and gold officer. They are a grad who lives in your area and assigned in order to prepare and scren future midshipmen.

Shoot me a message, happy to talk more at length with you or him.

@TJGreg

What's up, dude!  '06 Marine option here.  I'll shoot you a PM, but I'm IVO Houston.

OP:  What the man says is true.  It's a tough row to hoe.  Set it as a goal, and then do everything you can to drive towards it.

The Good:  No college loans.  You'll repay what you borrowed in time, effort, sweat, and asspain.
The Bad:  No "real college" experience.  If you go something like PLC, you'll make out monetarily in some ways.  Attrition rate is very high, comparatively.  

Re:  Academy grads vs ROTC.  It's been my experience that you will notice the difference in a few areas.  Academy grads tend to be more laid back.  Of course, this pendulum swings back and forth, depending on their experiences at their service academy.  Academy grads tend to be more intelligent than others.  Even one of my best friends, an '08 grad who majored in history (and graduated very low) was far brighter than the other officers that I worked with.  I have never seen a "ring-knocker".  Most barely wear the thing.  The USNA grads in the Corps that I hung out with would put them on about once a year, normally for Army week, and we'd be obnoxious about it to some extent.  Then it went away and was forgotten about.  You'll find more chips on shoulders of A&M, Norwich, Shitadel, and VMI grads than anywhere else.  I enjoyed pretending that I never heard of any other college when I was in.  "Texas A&M?  Is that a community college?  Never heard of it."  It's kind of like interservice rivalries.  Your individual personality has far more to do with it than anything else.

The long and short of it is do it.  If you graduate from there, the world is open to you simply by name recognition.  For as much as it sucked while I was there, I said up until the day I graduated, that I'd start over from Induction Day again if I had to.

My son (college sophomore) was recruited by the Naval and Air Force academies to play baseball.  I tried everything I could to get him to go to the Naval academy, but he would not even consider it.  I respect his choice, but damn I wish he would have gone.

USNA will probably get close to 40% females in this year's incoming class. Good luck. I have a nephew there. And a son at USMA. 

Crush the ACT/SAT and be a leader-scholar-athlete. 

Service Academy Forum is the Arfcom of the service academy admission process. 

Apply for ROTC as a backup. 

Haven't checked out this thread in a while, thanks for all the replies!  My son continues to work hard, and is taking/ has taken two AP courses a year.  He is attending Navy's Summer Seminar and Boys State this summer.  He struggled a bit this year but I hope to see a strong finish in his grades on his final report card.  He has taken the SAT a few times, and is consistently in the 1400-1440 range (out of 1600.)  He took the ACT this morning and we will know the results in two weeks.  He has kept up his fitness training even off season, so he can score well on their Candidate Fitness Assessment.  He has an acquaintance who just finished his Plebe year and another who is just starting.
    Can you tell I'm proud as heck of this guy?  Sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging on him, but any Dad out there probably understands.  Some of his "Plan B" applications are going to be to IVY League schools.  How many push ups do you have to do to get into Harvard? lol

Have him open his portals for ALL of the service academies. Competition is a good thing.

I'm an Air Force grad, the application process and what they look for is essentially the same.  PM me if youd like to ask me questions.  I'd also be willing to talk to your son if asked.

USNA '91 here.  30th Company.    




My knowledge might be a tad dated though.

My little bro passed on the Naval and Air Force academies because he wanted to get married.
He went to a 4 year college as a ROTC and graduated with a mechanical engineer degree.
He retired from the USAF a couple years ago as a Col.
He has zero regrets of not going to an academy.

Both of my brothers and one of my sisters went to USNA.

I had a buddy growing up who went to regular college and was a total slacker. He failed out after his first year. He enlisted in the USMC as a avionics tech for F/A-18's. This was right around 9/11. He excelled as an enlisted Marine, and later applied for and received one of the few fleet appointments to the USNA.

He did well in the Academy, and was commissioned as a USMC officer. I believe he graduated from USNA in '08.

That's probably one of the more rare appointment tracks out there... but where there's a will, there's a way.

Good luck to your son!

Interview with B&G officer tomorrow!  

Summer seminar and Boys State went really well!  We have visited a few colleges this summer (plan b) one we really liked, a few others, not so much.  My son is planning on taking the SAT subject tests and the ACT again (30 the first time around).  As far as my son's sport, he's no blue chip, but I do believe he can compete at D1 level.  He works hard and has a competitive spirit.

Thanks for all the kind words and support.

Attached File

One of my biggest regrets was not going to an academy or ROTC.  I didn't have the grades for an academy though.

My classmate just was made commandant of midshipmen.  If you want me to send him a letter of recommendation directly to him.  IM me.

As a Former NCO I can honestly say that during my time as a in general the best officers were USMA grads followed by OCS then ROTC.
Dunno how things are like now.

I once saw a video that said that 1 in 30 candidates are accepted and about 1 in 3 don't graduate.
How accurate those numbers are today I'll leave up to somebody else.

40% women will make the zodiac run around hospital point extra fun.  I will never forgey holding a back side up by myself due to the females in my squad not beong tall enough to reach it.

Interviews for nominations this week.  One with congressman, one with a senator.

Wish him good luck on the interviews

Thanks Doc!

Best of luck!

Nomination received. One more step towards the end of the beginning.