West Point Admissions & Data Insights
In our earlier post “WCS Doesn’t Matter for Athletes & Minorities” we found out that the Whole Candidate Score is bypassed for certain preferred categories of applicant. In this post, we explore its impact. Specifically we try to answer the questions: What would a class built solely on the Whole Candidate Score look like? How … Read more
We recently found some interesting discussions on the Service Academy Forums [Link]. The topics discussed were about whether being a White applicant puts one at a disadvantage and why some of the West Point classes had SAT scores under 500. Well, these topics have been addressed extensively and quantitatively on these pages ( spoiler: 1) … Read more
West Point G5 has made great strides in data transparency. We noted this in the last post, but we have saved the best for last! The G5 Institutional Research site also has a link tantalizingly named “Graduation, Commissioning, and Retention rates.” We visited it hoping to find detailed breakdowns of graduation rates and separation rates … Read more
West Point has launched some new data offerings on their site. These exceed the previous “class profiles” that passed as the best readily-available public information. Now there are newer, better datasets available at the G5 page. We get comprehensive class characteristics on all the application elements — test scores, qualifications, race, athletics, prior service… We … Read more
“This commitment to excellence must permeate everything we do. I will not compromise my decision to advocate winning in accordance with our values of duty, honor and country…. I have great concern being called a liar after more than 42 years of honorable service to our Nation and many years serving here at West Point.” … Read more
A large cheating scandal at West Point has come to light: The US Military Academy at West Point is dealing with the fallout from a major cheating incident involving 73 cadets, the largest cheating episode at the elite school since 1976. Seventy-two of the cadets accused of breaking the academy’s famed honor code are first-year … Read more
Another year, another graduating class, another record level of Diversity. West Point now celebrates an even larger number of Black Female graduates. This year, it’s 38. We look forward to 2021’s achievements. As we previously educed, this ‘achievement’ comes at significant though unacknowledged cost to separated cadets, taxpayers, soldiers, and warfighting capability. If past trends … Read more
**Updated 11/15/20 to 25% and with some additional information on the number of service-related cadetships** In researching for our last couple of posts, we noticed something funny. Perhaps you, the perspicacious reader, can help us explain it or correct us if we’re wrong. You see, we thought the vast majority of nominations to the Academies … Read more
“Wow, it must have been hard to get in there.” We’ve gotten that a lot when acquaintances find out that we attended USMA. Other grads probably get it too. West Point is often described as “highly selective.” But how hard was it? How selective–or perhaps “elite” is a better word — is West Point? Falsely … Read more
The post on Why There Are So Few Women at West Point raised our interest in a topic: What would the composition of West Point look like if candidates were admitted and attended based on rank order of candidate scores? Given our previous findings, they would almost certainly look very different than they do now. … Read more