Did you read the article?
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USNA Curriculum
- Thread starter Charles Edward
- Start date
Did you read the article?
Charles Edward
Member
Yes, if you are referring to the NY Times piece. However, unless I am missing something, I did not see a reference to a shortened service commitment for athletes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-straight-to-the-pros/?utm_term=.6e938650a0af
The next article that was posted after yours.
The next article that was posted after yours.
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
I think the OP is coming up with another USNA question to ask.
Charles Edward
Member
ha ha...I guess I deserved that. I actually think I have all the info I need for now and appreciate all the responses.
If I were to go back as a Company Officer I would definitely have a lot more leniency towards the varsity athletes after seeing how awesome some of the "shitbags" are doing now. In fact I've been disappointed more by those who were "model" midshipmen and got to the fleet and just couldn't be team players, pansied out of everything, and demonstrated a surprising lack of creativity and basic leadership. I worked in admissions after graduating and was responsible for verifying that no standards were lowered for recruiting purposes. It may appear at times that the process works better for athletes but if you look at what they bring to the table and how much harder they work than the average NARP (Non-Athletic Regular Person, which I was) it all evens out.
With all that said, and with what I said, I do recall there being some serious issues over discipline that should have been handled as equally as any other Midshipman; but of course, that changes from Supe to Supe and Dant to Dant I suppose.
They enforce the 65% STEM requirement by running numbers during pre-registration for majors plebe year. If too many mids pre-register for Tier III majors they send out a mass notification that the numbers are off and then contact the individuals who might be affected if enough people don't voluntarily switch to Tier II or I. At least, that's how they did it in the early 000s. My advisor emailed me and said, based off what courses I validated and my grades in plebe calc and chem, that I would need to pick a Tier I or II major (I wanted poli sci). Lucky for me, the mass email scared enough people to make it unnecessary for me to switch.
BTW - NROTC has the same requirement. 85% of scholarships go to Tier I or II majors freshmen year, and then the percentage loosens as people need to change majors along the way to a 65% STEM at graduation.
Hope this helps.
BTW - NROTC has the same requirement. 85% of scholarships go to Tier I or II majors freshmen year, and then the percentage loosens as people need to change majors along the way to a 65% STEM at graduation.
Hope this helps.
Why this seemingly major emphasis on sports? Is there a mentality that sportsmanship makes one a better officer? I can certainly see why an officer (or anyone in the military) should be in tip top shape. But, there seems to be a focus on organized sports.
Also, do football players and other varsity athletes get any edge in choosing competitive designators like pilot or seal? Perhaps what it takes to be a successful SEAL can be sowed in a student who can do well on the playing field. I don't know. Inquiring minds would like to know.
Charles Edward
Member
Yes, it helps. Thanks. Oddly, it seems that the liberal arts oriented students who happen to be good at math or science may get penalized for their aptitude by being forced to choose a major they don't want. Then again, if you're choosing a technically oriented school like USNA or a technically oriented branch like Navy, this shouldn't be a huge surprise.
RadicalDude
Social Justice Warlord
Anecdotal, but in my experience, people who have the capability to balance sports and school in high school & college tend to be better at time management, prioritizing, team-building, and communicating. I think the Navy recognizes the value this brings to an officer. Hell the term "team player" comes form sports. Being competitive never hurts in this business either.
Admissions looks for candidates who are physcially fit, have demonstrated leadership, and are academically sound. Being a successful athlete generally indicates some degree of aptitude in two of those three areas.
If you mean at the Academy, it's really more an emphasis on "get out and do something active as part of a team," which is sensible in a military school. If you wanted to go out for varsity whatever, great, but you had to do some kind of extra-curricular activity, whether it was football or sailing or band or intramurals or whatever.
No. Your physical fitness grade does factor in to your order of merit, but that's only your PFA scores. No one gives a shit if you were varsity whatever when it comes to service assignment.
If anything, the varsity FB guys were often so banged-up by Firstie year that they couldn't commission in URL, much less NSW or aviation. At least amongst guys who got SEAL billets out of the Academy...basically they want high grades and super fit. I knew a guy in my class who really, really wanted to be a SEAL and was a PT animal - would swim to the Sea Bouy and back for giggles on Saturday mornings - but his grades weren't hot at all. It was made clear to him that NSW wasn't in the cards. As far as what they do look for athletically, they tend to recruit more from triathalon/Iron Man and water polo types - endurance athletes who are comfortable in the water. They get a lot of time to look at Middies who want to go to BUD/S. They run a lot of indoc/screening events over all four years, culminating in Mini-BUD/S, and the opinions of the Team guys assigned to the Academy are given a lot of weight.
Being part of a military unit, be it a ship, grunts, or Squadron, is very akin to being on a sports team. Working together to win, striving to perform, working well with others, knowing your job, knowing others jobs, being led, coaching, leading are all common thread between sports and the USN (and plenty of other places).
Cool..thanks..I do recall reading somewhere that football players with bad knees or other injuries end up getting commissioned in the Supply Corps or something like that because of their inability to meet the physical standards for other communities.
That being said, I wonder if the academy graduates who do get a slot at BUD/S tend to come from other sports (perhaps swimming or track) assuming they also have the grades (does academic major play a part?). Or do USNA NSW candidates basically good students with great PT scores, regardless of whether they play quarterback or flute on the band?
It's not about needing certain scores or grades or sports background so much as the Team guys deciding they want you. The middies who want to go NSW essentially spend four years auditioning for it. There are SEAL officers and senior enlisted assigned to the Academy in one role or another, and their opinions of whether you're a good fit for the community are the deciding factor. There are (usually) a small number of billets for mids to go to jump school and dive school over the summer, and they hold very competitive screening events to decide who goes, so that's one way they get a look at you. They run a mini-BUD/S sumemr before service assignment - again, very competitive screen events for that. By the time service assignment rolls around, they have a good sense of who they want from the mids who are serious contenders.