The Air Force Academy is highly ranked on many lists of top-performing colleges, including U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges”. We all recognize that college has gotten expensive, but an undergraduate college experience that costs $416,000 per student? That, according to the U.S. Air Force Academy, is what it costs over the course of four years to educate a student there. However, tax-payers, not individual parents, are footing the bill for cadets at the U.S. Service Academies.
The Air Force Academy, the baby of the group, graduated its first class from its Colorado campus in 1959 and has since soared to the top in some of the country’s most prestigious lists. With almost 4,500 students, USAF offers an enviable 8:1 student/faculty ratio while its male/female ratio hovers at nearly 4:1.
West Point, the U.S. Military Academy, was founded in 1802 as the U.S.’s first engineering college; it is now renowned as the world’s premier institution for development of leaders. Cadets are groomed academically, militarily, physically and ethically. They are kept extremely busy, but in their free time they can enjoy on-campus facilities including a golf course, ski slope and skating rink. Plus, New York City is just 50 miles away.
The U.S. Coast Guard Academy, based in New London, Conn., is the smallest of the five academies with fewer than 1,000 students. However, it has the largest percentage of women at 35 percent. Academics are intense here with only eight majors, most in science, technology, engineering and math.
The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. is a “rugged, in-your-face, leadership laboratory that teaches you to think critically and develops your skills as a future combat leader,” according to Princeton Review student surveys. The USNA ranks as the most selective of the five service academies, accepting just 8 percent of its applicants. The Naval Academy has embraced technology, offering midshipmen experience on nuclear-powered submarines and supersonic aircraft.
The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point, N.Y., is noticeably different from the other academies because the midshipmen spend an entire year at sea, visiting an average of 18 foreign nations. Additionally, USMMA students have a greater variety of options after graduation; they can apply for active duty in the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Air Force or Army.
What the service academies have in common is that the lives of students there are highly regimented. Students have little free time, lots of physical demands and precious few opportunities to be an individual. Clearly the benefits are a free first-class education, a guaranteed job upon graduation (graduates have at least a 5-year duty commitment) and the opportunity to serve their country.
