Military academies are looking for 'the very best'

NEW BREMEN — Each year, Ohio congressmen and senators can nominate up to 10 students for service academy appointments.

Congressmen and senators can nominate students for four of the five military academies: the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Port, New York. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy does not require Congressional nominations.

Barbara Taylor, the service academy coordinator for Congressman Jim Jordan’s office, walked New Bremen New Knoxville Rotarians through the process of students getting nominated for the institutions.

Taylor is part of the seven-person review board that oversees the application and interviewing process where they interview candidates on Saturdays in November and each candidate takes typically 20 minutes to interview.

She explained that getting into a service academy is no easy feat.

Typically there will be around 10,000 congressional applications per year and 3,500 will get accepted as nominations. That number gets even smaller when it gets to actual appointments as there were only 538 that were accepted into West Point last year.

To be eligible for a service academy, applicants must be between 17 and 23, be a U.S. citizen, not married, not pregnant, no dependents and be of good moral character.

She said review boards and service academies will look at a number of things when evaluation applicants including leadership, athletic ability, character traits, grades and one’s motivation for joining.

“We want the kids that have been a team leader, have led a Sunday School class, have been a captain of a football team or basketball team,” said Taylor. “When they're looking, they want an all-around kid.”

Taylor said academies are looking for students who are at the top of

their class and do well on college placement tests; a combined math and reading SAT score of at least 1,260 and 1,300 and at least a 28 on the math, reading and English portions of the ACT.

She explained that most academies will take a “super score” from those tests meaning they will take the best score from each subject, regardless of how many times the tests are taken.

When considering nominations, the academies will look for students that have the want to be there, rather than doing it because a family member wanted them to join or other motives.

“Did you sign up to go to West Point because you want to go? Or because Grandpa wants you to go? They're going to talk to you about that,” said Taylor.

One particular branch that Taylor harped on the most was the Merchant Marines, calling it the “best kept secret.” The Merchant Marines Academy is under the Department of Transportation while the other branches serve under the Department of Defense.

“It offers the same education as the other three academies,” said Taylor.

She explained the many benefits of joining the Merchant Marines, with one being the travel students get to experience in their second years where they get to live on a ship for a year and travel to as many as 24 foreign ports across the world.

The scholarships students receive to the Merchant Marines Academy equates to $500,000 over four years. Students are allowed to drop out after their first or second years, but if they do so in their third or fourth years, they have to owe back the money. Following four years, students have to serve five years to pay back the money.

“With the Merchant Marines, you get to choose which branch of the service you get to do your five-year payback,” said Taylor. “Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Merchant Marines. If you choose to do the Merchant Marines, you immediately come out at 23 or 24 years old guaranteed a job in the maritime industry and be making between $150 and 160,000 a year.”

Taylor said that all branches have prep schools as well that students can attend if they do not get appointed to the academy the first go-around. She said 85% of prep school attendees will get appointed the following year.

This year’s deadline for submitting applications to Jordan for the 4th Congressional District is Oct. 8. All applicants will be interviewed by the review board on Nov. 14 and Jordan will announce the nominees from the 4th Congressional District in December.

Appointments will be announced by the academies during the first few months of 2021.