Posted on 08/07/2009 2:00:43 PM PDT by chargers fan
College senior Raymond Vetter gets up at dawn to fit in a run or a workout. Then, hair shorn neatly and pants pressed, he marches into breakfast, where he sits in an assigned seat. After six hours of instruction in such subjects as Japanese literature and systems engineering, two hours of intramural sports and another family-style meal with underclassmen, Vetter rushes to return to his room by the 11:30 p.m. curfew.
Most college students, we think, do not march to meals. A goodly number of them drink into the wee hours, duck morning classes and fail to hit the gym with any regularity. But Vetter, 21, is a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., where college life is a bit different.
According to students, alumni, faculty and higher education experts, the undergraduate experience at West Point and the other service academies is defined by an intense work ethic and a drive to succeed on all fronts. "We face challenges and obstacles that not every college student has to face, but we are able to be competitive in all the different areas, from sports to academics," Vetter says.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Now, as if by some magical proclamation or conversion, West Point is the best college in the country. Color me nauseous.
Claremont McKenna College, #27 (my alma mater)
West Point has usually done well in the rankings throughout the years. This is just the first time it was no. 1 recently which is why I posted it.
I see the Naval Academy is #30. But at least they kick their asses in football.
I back these military colleges 100%.
They turn out excellent well rounded leaders.
Sadly our universities have become a place to party hearty, and get brainwashed to hate the United States and what it stands for.
Our military colleges compare quite favorably with that.
I am not a big fan of the Rhodes Scholar program. With folks like Carol Quigley teaching there (in the past), consider my support for that nonsense to be non-existent.
Long Grey Line PING!!!
West Point - also known as the "VMI of the North" :0)
Wow. An O-1 starts at $69k these days? That’s awesome.
I’m not exactly sure of the timeline, but at some point in its history, The US Naval Academy started awarding Bachelors’ degrees in subjects other than purely engineering. The Military Academy is an engineering school.
GO NAVY... BEAT ARMY!!!
LC
That’s not strictly true.
Base pay for a brand-new O-1 is about $32000 a year. It would take a lot of housing allowance, subsistence allowance, hazardous duty pay etc. to double that.
That's what I thought. USAF O-1 pay starts at ~$2650 a month.
That is a thread on this topic at a college admissions discussion forum. You should read some of the dripping hate for his ranking system there. Especially since Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other “elite” universities didn’t hog the top spots. There is a link to another thread on the same subject in there somewhere.
Many an O-1 asked where $30k of that amount went when they read this article
The Military Academy now offers Bachelors’ in degrees other than engineering now too.
Cecil Rhodes, for whom the scholarship is named, was an avowed White Supremacist! Look it up!
My oldest son and his wife of 2 weeks tomorrow are both graduates of CMC (’05 and ‘08). It’s a terrific school!
I also have a son who graduated from Boston College at #16 but my 3rd son just graduated from Duke. There’s something very wrong with the methodology if Duke is #104. Give me a break. My daughter is at UNC Chapel Hill which is #7 among publics but #1 in Basketball! haha! Sorry! couldn’t’ resist! ;-)
I think it looks at things like student satisfaction and indebtedness after graduation. As a balance to USNWR, that doesn’t really take that into account.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.