Top military schools report applicant rise

ANNAPOLIS, Md., June 18 (UPI) -- Officials at three of the top U.S. military academies say they are enjoying a boost in applications thanks in part to the economic downturn.

Officials at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, along with the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., have confirmed application increases for the incoming Class of 2013, The New York Times said Thursday.

The military academy officials also credited the application increases to the declining number of casualties in Iraq and aggressive marketing efforts.

The Naval Academy has enjoyed the most significant increase in applications with 15,342 individuals applying for the chance to be among the nearly 1,240 Class of 2013 cadets. The application tally was the highest for the Maryland academy since 1988.

Meanwhile, West Point in Orange County, N.Y., received 11,106 applications for its nearly 1,320 open places in the incoming class. The Air Force Academy has nearly 1,350 class places available and received 9,890 applications.

The Times said the West Point and Air Force academy tallies marked a 9.6 percent and 10 percent increase, respectively, compared with last year's application totals.

I agree and disagree at the same time

Why We Should Get Rid of West Point

By Thomas E. Ricks

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Want to trim the federal budget and improve the military at the same time? Shut down West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, and use some of the savings to expand ROTC scholarships.

After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades, I've concluded that graduates of the service academies don't stand out compared to other officers. Yet producing them is more than twice as expensive as taking in graduates of civilian schools ($300,000 per West Point product vs. $130,000 for ROTC student). On top of the economic advantage, I've been told by some commanders that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs, because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military.

This is no knock on the academies' graduates. They are crackerjack smart and dedicated to national service. They remind me of the best of the Ivy League, but too often they're getting community-college educations. Although West Point's history and social science departments provided much intellectual firepower in rethinking the U.S. approach to Iraq, most of West Point's faculty lacks doctorates. Why not send young people to more rigorous institutions on full scholarships, and then, upon graduation, give them a military education at a short-term military school? Not only do ROTC graduates make fine officers -- three of the last six chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reached the military that way -- they also would be educated alongside future doctors, judges, teachers, executives, mayors and members of Congress. That would be good for both the military and the society it protects.

What do you think?

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