West Point Admissions & Data Insights
Our October 2022 post “USMA Admissions Site Needs An Update” pointed out that the West Point admissions page https://westpoint.edu/admissions was using videos with cadets from 2017, posted in early 2019, for its promotions materials. We’re happy to report that the Admissions site has finally gotten an update. We’d like to think it was because of … Read more
What exactly is West Point pitching to candidates nowadays? “Duty, Honor, Country”? Not anymore. Selfless service to country? Being a Commissioned Leader of Character? Adventure? Proving yourself through overcoming difficult challenges? Be a Ranger, or Green Beret, or Soldier? An Officer in the United States Army? Or, none of the above. If you’re a candidate … Read more
In the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v West Point case, West Point relies heavily on a declaration [ link ] by Professor Jason Lyall of Dartmouth on the benefits of diversity to the Army. This is a critical piece of evidence which attempts to directly link battlefield lethality to the Army’s diversity programs. If … Read more
The document “Amicus brief in opposition by USMA graduates” [ link ] from the previous post caught the eye of the estimable John T Reed. Excerpt from his whole comment [link]: It is also an effort where the soldiers and civilian employees of the Defense department including the soldiers and civilian employees of the U.S. … Read more
The Supreme court succinctly denied the Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) request for an injunction to stop West Point’s race-based admissions practices while the lower court handles the case with this order (and see the Reuters write-up here: link). FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024 23A696 STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS V. USMA AT WEST POINT, ET AL. … Read more
The report “Return On Investment in Graduates of the DOD Service Academies: Assessment and Improvements ” [Link] published in July 2023 by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an excellent piece of research with very interesting information and insights on officer retention. We recommend reading it. Below we offer a brief summary and share … Read more
It sounds like the military academies may get their chance to justify their race-based admissions practices. From Reuters: Aug 3 (Reuters) – The group that took its case against affirmative action in college admissions to the U.S. Supreme Court and won is seeking to end an exemption for military schools, the founder of Students for … Read more
We’ve been quite busy and other things have taken priority on posting. However, there have been a few events worth noting: New Data Request We filed another FOIA request last year with the West Point office. It included requests for meaningful data for applicants and classes of 2020-2026, including, among some other helpful information, demographic, … Read more
We saw a while ago that John T Reed gave us a nice mention on his military articles blog. High Praise – Thanks John! I just learned of an important blog about my undergraduate alma mater West Point. It is called https://usmadata.com/..A more complete title might be.• The Unofficial Web Site of the United States Military … Read more
In our recent post “Call for Sunlight…”, we outlined which groups went into which Army branches to put context around USMA’s stated need for preferences in admissions. Finding that certain minority groups were less represented in non-combat arms than in combat arms, we also speculated that one driver of the low number of minorities in … Read more