West Point Admissions & Data Insights
We learned today that John T “Jack” Reed, West Point class of 1968, Harvard Business School class of 1977, died on January 31st, 2026. John’s writing was influential in our own life and career. We appreciated his insightful and no-bullshit approach to topics including West Point, the Army, and follow-on life decisions. He was a … Read more
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stipulated an athletics admissions exception for West Point and other Service Academies. In directing merit-based admissions, he wrote that merit-based scores may “give weight” to “unique athletic talent.” This is bad and the language should be rescinded. DEI advocates and/or athletics stakeholders will exploit this particular call-out as an exception … Read more
We turn from our regular topic of documenting USMA’s racially-preferential admissions regime to another favorite subject: its athletic program. Specifically, whether the subsidizing of USMA’s inter-collegiate athletic program is supporting or undermining its purpose of producing the backbone of the Army officer corps. We don’t think the program is worth the cost. Below, we walk … Read more
The Class of 2029 has started at West Point. And so kicks off admissions activities for the class of 2030. Recently we noted that the Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum directing the Secretaries of the Military Departments to “certify within 30 days that, for purposes of the 2026 MSA admissions cycle, as well as … Read more
According to PACER, the case “Students for Fair Admissions v. United States Military Academy at West Point et al” is settled as of 8/12/25. This was anticipated after Secretary of War Hegseth released his memo on MSA admissions, but took a while to come to pass. The SSFA announcement is here as is a copy … Read more
Recently we published a post with a message submitted to our site purportedly from LTG (Ret) Robert Caslen which was filled with disparaging language towards USMAData. We stated the letter was “ostensibly” from LTG Caslen, noted we couldn’t confirm its authenticity, and published it with our response, believing we had no reason to doubt its … Read more
On 09 May, Secretary of Defense Hegseth issued this memorandum on Service Academy admissions: This directs the Academies to “apply no consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex”, “offer admission based exclusively on merit” Bravo. Finally. The implementation remains to be seen, and we should keep an eye on the discretionary nominations, but this is a … Read more
A reader was able to get a data update on West Point Whole Candidate Scores (WCS) through a FOIA request. Here we use this data to demonstrate that West Point admissions used racial preferences to admit candidates. We gathered that West Point was not very helpful in the request, but eventually and begrudgingly complied and … Read more
We track the SFFA vs West Point and similar cases, like the recent case involving the Naval Academy’s admissions. Since the case is still in progress, it’s interesting to try to read the tea leaves on the strength of each side’s case and how the court will rule. We of course think that West Point’s … Read more
Yes, we’re focused on the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But the diversity and standards problems afflicting West Point, currently in litigation with Students for Fair Admissions, are also the problems afflicting Annapolis. So we pay attention when others, including CDR Salamander , write about the Navy. And today we learned about an exceptional … Read more