A Cadet Sergeant at USMA notified me of several West Point blogs on LiveJournal. LiveJournal is a free blogging platform like Blogger and Xanga. In the cadets’ busy schedule these blogs aren’t updated very regularly. Still, these online journals are valuable insights into the military academy lifestyle.
- The Warrior of Light
- LiveJournal users who listed “West Point” in interests
- LiveJournal users who listed “USMA” in interests (may overlap with the previous one)
- Aggregated West Point Class of 2009 journal
As you browse through the users, if you notice any particular journals with great content leave a comment here and we will feature them on this list.
Previously, we had a social network for service academy candidates at Get Into Academy N. Now that site has been redesigned and rebranded as NewCadet.com.
When we created the first version of this social network on Get Into Academy N, I had doubts about how many candidates would actually use it. But over a test period of a couple of weeks, I have developed unbreakable faith in the future of this community. Not only have dozens of candidates joined the network quickly, but they have also been actively contributing and interacting among each other.
We have a unique community at NewCadet.com that exists nowhere else. It is more than just a discussion forum. NewCadet.com is a living, breathing community of service academy candidates who want to help each other and track one another’s progress in the admissions game. We are happy to complement our service academy blog at Get Into Academy with a full-featured social network.
A few of our most active members are Mackenzie (USAFA), Jessica (USAFA), David (USNA), and Joe (USAFA). View their public profiles by clicking on their names.
As you can see, a lot of the interaction takes place from one candidate to another on the personal “walls.” And, like MySpace, candidates can personalize the content and appearance of their personal profiles. The coolest features on NewCadet.com are the blogs, groups, and forums.
I occasionally run across some blogs written by West Point cadets. These are hidden gems that are rare and difficult to find. Military Academy cadets tend not to publicly express their lifestyles, and when they do reveal their innermost thoughts on a blog, most of them do so anonymously without mentioning the institution.
One of the best things you can do while applying to West Point is to read and follow cadets’ blogs. You will find all sorts of information about the West Point experience that you would not get from brochures, books, or academy representatives. This is totally uncensored information coming straight from the source.
Here is a list of several West Point cadet blogs. And if you would like to discover some more on your own, go to Google Blog Search or Technorati and search for keywords that a West Point cadet might include in his blog entries such as plebe parent weekend or beast barracks.
From the context of his posts, Cadet McCarter was an enlisted soldier before getting into West Point. Cadet McCarter’s blog is the best currently updated West Point blog. He stays on topic about his experiences at West Point and posts many relevant pictures. The cadet appropriately calls his blog the “The Four Year Experiment: A collection of my four years at West Point.”
This is a photo blog of Cadet Kelsea Schultz. What’s interesting about this blog is that her mom/dad is updating it with photos that Kelsea sends home. The purpose of this blog is so that “family and friends can follow Kelsea’s endeavors as she starts her military career at West Point.”
3. Gray
This anonymous cadet is an awesome writer. He/she has long, drawn-out entries on the blog. Read this cadet blogger’s great narrative of R-Day 2006.
A blog of a graduating West Point cadet going into the Army. He has almost two years’ worth of entries written at the Point.
5. Cadet Ty Lin
This is the blog of an ex-plebe at West Point. There’s not too much information about his lifestyle at West Point except for a post about his experience at R-Day. He seems to have dropped out during Cadet Basic Training.
7. Life as a… Miserable West Point Cadet
This is a perfect example of a cadet gone bad. I would be surprised if this cadet is still at the Academy after this summer because of the pessimistic attitude just oozing out of her writing. Updated most recently on May of this year, this cadet writes on her blog, “I really needs to leave this place… I feel so stupid sometimes here. Like everyone else is so much smarter than me and I’m so sick of it.”
What might be this cadet’s problem? She is not performing well in her classes and she is breaking under the hazing by the upperclassmen. Here is a short rant about the mistreatment of plebes at West Point:
Yeah so I’m pretty fed up with being a plebe. Acutally, I really don’t care anymore. Some firstie yelled in my precious, sensitive ear, to greet him. It was like something a baby killer would yell….GRRREEEEETTT!!! What the f? first of all i didn’t even see his face so how was I supposed to, he was coming at me from the side. Again, what the f? Do they feel that important? The only thing that will make their day is some idiot plebe greeting them? That’s sad. At the beginning of the year if that would’ve happened, I would’ve been all sad and disappointed in myself but now I just wanted to grab that guy, put him in inside neck control, kick him in the stomach and drag him to the ground. I even had that scenario going on in my head right after i passed him. No really, I was pissed that someone thought they had the right to scream in my ear about something so incredibly gay such as that. It was just the most retarded thing ever.
This cadet says, “I hate this place sometimes, I really do.” I am not criticizing this cadet for how she feels at the Academy, because everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion of West Point, but don’t be like this cadet. If you know the ins and outs of West Point before you accept an appointment to the school, you should never be in this situation.
Have you ever asked yourself why you want to attend a service academy? If you do not have a clear idea just yet, this is a good chance to brainstorm and discover your intentions. I can guarantee that one of the first questions that you will be asked during a congressional nomination interview is “Why do you want to go to the US (branch of service) Academy?” So, in no particular order, here is a list of reasons to apply to a service academy.
1. A top quality education for free
If you are in it for the bachelor’s degree, each of the service academies offer some of the most competitive undergraduate programs in the United States. The academies are especially renowned for their excellent science and engineering programs. And the best part? You do not pay a dime for an academy degree that is highly demanded in the job market.
2. No one else is doing it
With the highly negative media attention on the war in Iraq, joining the military is not a popular thing to do right now. Show that you are unfazed by selfishness or popular opinion by putting our country and its people before your own interests.
3. You come from a military family
Your great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, your grandfather is a Vietnam War veteran, your father is a colonel in the Army, your uncle is serving in Iraq… You’ve already been set up to choose the path of duty and honor since your childhood. If you’re going to go military, you may as well graduate from one of the service academies to become a well-respected officer.
4. 9/11 Terrorism
“You mess with me, you mess with my country.” Candidates who are currently applying now experience the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks during their early adolescence. To react defensively to such a blatant attack on our country is reasonable for us patriots. Make sure our country is well defended so that something like 9/11 never happens again.
5. Challenge yourself
Do you know the extent of your mental and physical limits? Do you have the courage to push yourself to demand the best out of your performance? If this sounds like your attitude, going to a service academy will be a constant sequence of personal challenges that you will have to overcome. And in the end? You will be able to overcome anything in life with the experiences you take with you after graduation from a service academy.
6. Fly planes, drive tanks, command ships
Experience America’s military might and power from the hot seat. You are in command. Only the best of the best get to handle our military’s costly machinery, and if this has been your childhood dream, the service academies will set you on the right path.
7. Travel the world
As an officer in the US Armed Forces, you will have opportunities to travel and be stationed all over the world. If you like to travel overseas and experience different cultures, let the military pay for your trip expenses.
When you are applying to your congressmen for the required congressional nominations, you will be able to choose an order of preference for service academies of your choice. This is an optional step. When I was applying for West Point, I was so set on the Military Academy that I didn’t want to be appointed to any other service academy. So I did not select backups.
This was a big mistake on my part. In retrospect, if I had applied to West Point and didn’t get in, my dream of defending and serving our nation would have been over as far as attending a service academy goes.
Obviously, West Point is not the only path to duty and honor. And the same applies to the other academies like the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy. Each academy should be interchangeable within the outlook of your goals. Do you want to become a leader in the United States Armed Forces? How bad do you want it? If you were determined enough, you would grasp the opportunity to attend any of the service academies.
Securing a spot on the congressman’s list for a congressional nomination is an extremely competitive event. No matter how confident you are about the caliber of your candidate status, you cannot afford to overlook the order of preference when you apply for the nomination.
A congressional nomination is required by the service academies. You may be qualified from the standpoint of the Admissions office to get into your first choice school, but if your home state has such fierce competition for a certain academy that other candidates beat you out of a nomination, then your journey is over. Instead, if you select a second and third choice school for a nomination, then you will still be in the game even after an unfortunate elimination from the first round.
