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 tremendous step in the right direction.
It will also be fascinating to see whether this addresses the over-valuing of athletics at the Academy since there’s a carve-out for “unique athletic talent.” Nonetheless this is very good and gratifying to us.
I wrote about the issue of athletic admissions at USNA, but, of course, same issues apply at West Point: https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2025/03/26/end-athletic-admissions-to-military-academies/
Exactly and well-put. That’s the next major push. Thanks for stopping by!
USMA class of 2030 application asks for race
they can probably collect it (for reporting & demographic purposes) but aren’t supposed to use it in admissions decisions. We will see!
With no consideration of gender, the academies (particularly USMA) could find too many females in the institutions based on DOD’s position (and reality) that women should not be in the combat arms. Gender needs to be cosnidered.
It follows that the Candidate Fitness Assessment should be gender-neutral.
Speaking of data, have you or anyone analyzed the correlation between sex and performance on the CFA? If the test were gender neutral, how much overlap would there be in scores between males and females, both for the overall score and for the subparts?
We’re not aware of that specific analysis being public. We have a set of CFA scores which we can map to candidates (and thus their genders) but this is not helpful because we’d need the underlying event raw scores to answer your question. However the standards available here: https://www.westpoint.edu/admissions/steps-admission/candidate-fitness-assessment may give an idea of the relative raw event score gaps.
Wonder if all applicants will have same physical standards.
If yes, women numbers will go way down.
If no and women will have lower physical minimums, look for a substantial increase in Asian women cadets.
I would like to raise a related cosmic question.
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MacArthur said in his 1962 Farewell to the Corps speech that “Your mission is to win our wars.“
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I agree. And I note that we have not won one worthy of the name since he said it. The current official mission statement is
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“To educate, train, and motivate the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate shall have the character, leadership, and other attributes essential to progressive and continuing development throughout a career of exemplary service to the Nation as an officer of the Regular Army.”
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Uh, there is no mention of wars or winning them there. Until September 18, 1947, West Point was in the Department of War. Since then, the same department has been called the Department of Defense, notwithstanding offense, not defense, being a Principle of War. But the new mission does not even mention defense either. WTF?
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When I was in the Army, we would often have a gripe session. But they all ended with some lifer saying, “Yeah. But this isn’t the REAL ARMY. This is West Point.” Or this is Ranger School or this is the airborne or this is Grafenwoehr. But the ultimate came one day in Vietnam: “Yeah. But this isn’t the REAL ARMY, this is war.” The REAL ARMY is not about war????
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I think that is West Point Superintendent LTG Gilland’s view. The REAL ARMY, the only one West Point is interested in, is the peacetime forts in the US, Germany, and other nations not at war. Gilland sees the careers of West Pointers as being 30 years of garrison duty far from the sound of any guns: “Stripes” or “Beetle Bailey,” not “MASH.”
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I think Gilland sees wars as annoying interludes for West Point career officers who see the REAL ARMY as being peacetime or far from our recent wars where we do not deploy “for the duration.”
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And note the phrase “career…as an officer of the Regular Army.” I do not know the overall retention stats, but last I checked my class of 1968, 73% got out short of a career. If producing career officers is the mission, USMA is failing and has not succeeded at producing a majority of career officers since [insert the last year that happened here].
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Let’s look at what West Point REALLY seems to see as its mission: being ranked in FBS football standings, winning Rhodes scholarships, being number 1 in the various college rankings, operating a Prince Charming theme park 50 miles north of NYC where occasional military parades are performed at that National Historical Landmark, and talking a good game.
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Where do the majority WP grads Actually spend their careers? Many get professional degrees in medicine, law, engineering and work in small civilian organizations in those professions. Maybe most others work in civilian government jobs or military contractors, often called “double dipping” referring to pensions.
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Again, the academy is failing to achieve Gilland’s career officer mission. Furthermore, the failure is longstanding and as far as I know, neither he nor anyone else is lifting a finger to increase the retention rate. It’s just lip service.
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With regard to war, West Point is a platoon leader and company commander school. 3/4 of the classes leave the Army as captains or majors, before they could get any higher command. Furthermore, many WPers who stay in the Army for a career, never command a battalion. Truth to tell, there are not many active battalions left in the shrunken Army.
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So what is all this grandiose talk of combat and war and grand strategy. I think a list of the amount of time WP grads spent in actual command slots—platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, etc.—as a percentage of their time in the Army, would be shocking and embarrassing.
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If its goal is to win our wars, and most grads leave after about 5 to 8 years, it should be a one-year or less company-grade officer school that is all field training. Not a college or a football team or a prelude to a 35-year sinecure or a troupe of War of 1812 reenactors.
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The original reason for West Point, to end reliance on Europe for civil engineers who could build fortifications, is long gone. The whole idea of the true mission of the place and whether it is accomplishing the mission needs to be reconsidered.
Not surprising that you racists would applaud an order of an unqualified sycophant of a pussy-grabbing convicted felon.
You are a blight on the fine record of service academy graduates.