I have visited the Citadel and been mighty impressed w/ their honoring of tradition and valor. I certainly would rather hire a grad from there who has been through the type of experiences they have, especially over some Ivy Leaguer (most I've met, hired and been on the other side of are the "A" in School, "F" in life types)
Also, I honor any person, be it a service academy grad, Citadel grad, or some kid out of high school who decides to join the service, be in through enlisting, ROTC or whatever.They are far braver than I ever was or will be.
My only point is that the Citadel (or any other non-service academy) is in reality, nothing more than any other 4 year school. Most places, even the PC Ivy League schools have ROTC.
I think what sets the service academies apart from places like the Citadel, VMI, etc., is that they only take the cream of the crop (even more selective than the Ivy's). As far as I know, the Citadel/VMI don't require you to pass physical tests, or got through the Congressional appointment process.
However, I don't think you can even put the Citadel, or 99% of the other colleges out there in the same class as the service academies. For example, the average SAT score to get into USMA is 300 points higher than the Citadel, and that doesn't take into account all the other stuff.
The main thing that sets the service academies apart for me is the fact that unlike any other place, you don't have the option of going on Wall Street or into the private sector upon graduation. You know that you will be in the military and possibly in harm's way. At the Citadel you can CHOOSE to pursue a military career (as you can at any place ROTC is available - and God Bless those folks) whereas at the service academies you don't have that choice. To me that is the difference between the service academies and any other place like the Citadel.
I've met alot of graduates from those places and I've never sensed an arrogance. The Citadel response only came up after I had visited there and asked them about it. Their basic attitude came from the fact that, in their mind, anyone w/ a big checkbook could get into the Citadel, and to go to an academy you had to be chosen. They were also a bit upset at those people who graduated from there and claimed to have gone to a military academy. To them, unless you take the oath on Day 1, or have gone through "Beast", you have not attended a "military academy" . To them the whole Citadel/VMI thing is like being a toy soldier or as they say "playing Army".
I do like the line about "High School on the Hudson". I'll pass that on to my bro-in-law. I had a Yale grad working for me once and told him that where I went to schoolwe had a name for Yale - a "safe school".
Sounds like typical West Pointers -- they're also just playing Army til they get their commission, but it usually takes them til their butterbar (or even later) to realize that fact. My dad and my father in law were both OCS, and they were better officers than any Military Academy grad I ever met. (My husband was ROTC from a state school.)
Also, as I said, when I competed against them in college they played dirty. Without getting too technical, they told off a rider in every class to interfere with riders from other schools. They also brought a half-broken horse to one show (you draw your horse out of a hat) that bucked off three people and injured one pretty badly (concussion and a broken arm). I drew that horse for one of my classes, but I was breaking colts when those cadets were trying to figure out how to get the training wheels off their bikes, so she did not get the better of me. But I didn't like their attitude much.