Any tips on how i would get into West Point it has now become a top priority for me

A high school GPA of no less than 3.75 in honors classes. Be physically fit and even better, letter in and become the captain of say the; football, basketball, baseball, etc team/teams at your high school. JROTC will help also but you must be one of the top leaders in your program. Lots of community service will help as well and being in a leadership position at your church, club, scouts, etc will show leadership ability outside of school as well. Also, getting a 27 or higher on the ACT and the equivalent score on the SAT or higher is a must....

You might be seeing a trend with all that...leadership, physical fitness, and intelligence. You may have all those things, but if a congressman or senator is going to give you their appointment they need to see that you are those things from what you do through all the things I suggested. Remember, there are dozens or even hundreds of other kids that are trying to get in that will fulfill all those things I pointed out that you will be competing against...how will you stand out?

The officers coming from West Point, are they substantially better trained or is it only because it´s more prestigious to have been on West point?

Originally Posted by Kesse81

The officers coming from West Point, are they substantially better trained or is it only because it´s more prestigious to have been on West point?

Yes and no. Their actual college education is world class. Their military education is very good as well. Needless to say, I've met and served with many outstanding Westpoint graduates...as well as some not so outstanding graduates. They do receive a very large budget for training that OCS and ROTC would drool over. They also get the most access to follow on training either during the summers or after graduation. It is certainly very prestigious to graduate from Westpoint. I think it's much easier for them to train within a margin of error there since it is centralized at one location and it is a full immersion environment. This does present problems though...such as learning in a "bubble" as it were and almost ZERO life experience.

Still, the academic demands alone are grueling and most cadets spend 4 or more hours a day doing homework or studying. That doesn't include their military or physical fitness demands either...

Do you spend all your entire training at the Point, or do you have some kind of “on the job training”? In Denmark, you can´t become an officer unless you have passed the NCO school and served as a Sergeant before continuing officers academy.

Isn't there a chance that they will become more theorist rather than practitioners?
It seems like a very closed system.

Westpoint isn't the only commissioning system in the US Army. Actually, the largest source of commission is through the Reserve Officers Training Corps which is a 4 year military curriculum spread throughout 273 universities in the states. That's actually where I'm at right now, an instructor at one of those universities to create officers. There is also Officers Candidate School which is the smallest source of commission and draws largely from the enlisted ranks but also draws from civilians with college degrees as well. Don't be worried about theorist vs practitioners anyways...at least now anyways since almost everyone in the Army who has been in for more than 3 years is a combat veteran...plus we spend A LOT of time in the field training...For instance, before I came to the university to be an instructor I was a Fire Support Officer assigned to an infantry company...from Jan 2013 to August 2013 I spent 4 months in the field training, the year before that I spent almost 6 months in the field...we do a lot of training to work out those kinks.

It can be a fairly closed system in regards to Westpoint because there is an age limit to graduate which makes it hard for prior service soldiers like me to get into that academy. Still, by the time they are 2nd Lieutenants they will be paired with a very salty Sergeant First Class who has been in the Army for a decade or more to ensure that "theory" transitions into practice...and again...lot's of training.

Furthermore, every single officer will be assigned to a branch where they will have to attend that branches Officer Basic Course. The first part of it is to train and then apply basic military skills and get everyone on the same page. The second part is to train that officer into proficiency within their branch I.E. Infantry, Armor, Field Artillery etc.

For instance, once I commissioned from ROTC (After serving several years as an enlisted soldier and NCO) I went to the Army's Field Artillery Officers Basic Course. There I spent several weeks doing field training in basic infantry type training and then spent 6 months learning how to be a Field Artillery Officer.

Did it work? Well, I can tell you that after I reported to my first unit as a 2nd Lieutenant I found myself in the field 4 days later running a fire direction center that was sending live artillery shells into an impact area for my platoons certification. Six months later I was in combat again, but this time leading a platoon as an "infantry" platoon leader with those same artilleryman I was shooting with as an FDO (artillery soldiers in the US Army have regularly been used as infantry in combat over the course of the war on terror). I had a very successful time as a platoon leader thanks largely to my training...and the help of some very good NCO's.

I've met excellent officers who were never enlisted or NCO's and I've met terrible ones too. Same goes for prior service officers...it seems to me they're either REALLY good...or REALLY terrible...it's not a perfect system but when there are 9-10,000 or more commissioning officers every year that are coming into the Army...well, it works.

Thanks Brinktk

It´s always interesting to hear how other countries handle the same type of training of personnel.

How do you feel about being an instructor at a university, it is quite a challenge or what? I guess it's a completely different environment than the Army.
I´m currently a DI for a platoon of conscripts - it is quite a challenge.

Moreover, I was assigned a platoon leader directly from officer's school and he does everything by the book. So, in addition to turning civilians into soldiers, I also have to teach him that the book is a good thing, but in the real world there are some things you can only learn through experience.

Originally Posted by brinktk

Westpoint isn't the only commissioning system in the US Army. Actually, the largest source of commission is through the Reserve Officers Training Corps which is a 4 year military curriculum spread throughout 273 universities in the states. That's actually where I'm at right now, an instructor at one of those universities to create officers. There is also Officers Candidate School which is the smallest source of commission and draws largely from the enlisted ranks but also draws from civilians with college degrees as well. Don't be worried about theorist vs practitioners anyways...at least now anyways since almost everyone in the Army who has been in for more than 3 years is a combat veteran...plus we spend A LOT of time in the field training...For instance, before I came to the university to be an instructor I was a Fire Support Officer assigned to an infantry company...from Jan 2013 to August 2013 I spent 4 months in the field training, the year before that I spent almost 6 months in the field...we do a lot of training to work out those kinks.

It can be a fairly closed system in regards to Westpoint because there is an age limit to graduate which makes it hard for prior service soldiers like me to get into that academy. Still, by the time they are 2nd Lieutenants they will be paired with a very salty Sergeant First Class who has been in the Army for a decade or more to ensure that "theory" transitions into practice...and again...lot's of training.

Furthermore, every single officer will be assigned to a branch where they will have to attend that branches Officer Basic Course. The first part of it is to train and then apply basic military skills and get everyone on the same page. The second part is to train that officer into proficiency within their branch I.E. Infantry, Armor, Field Artillery etc.

For instance, once I commissioned from ROTC (After serving several years as an enlisted soldier and NCO) I went to the Army's Field Artillery Officers Basic Course. There I spent several weeks doing field training in basic infantry type training and then spent 6 months learning how to be a Field Artillery Officer.

Did it work? Well, I can tell you that after I reported to my first unit as a 2nd Lieutenant I found myself in the field 4 days later running a fire direction center that was sending live artillery shells into an impact area for my platoons certification. Six months later I was in combat again, but this time leading a platoon as an "infantry" platoon leader with those same artilleryman I was shooting with as an FDO (artillery soldiers in the US Army have regularly been used as infantry in combat over the course of the war on terror). I had a very successful time as a platoon leader thanks largely to my training...and the help of some very good NCO's.

I've met excellent officers who were never enlisted or NCO's and I've met terrible ones too. Same goes for prior service officers...it seems to me they're either REALLY good...or REALLY terrible...it's not a perfect system but when there are 9-10,000 or more commissioning officers every year that are coming into the Army...well, it works.

I find this aspect a very interesting and very practical sounding element of the training sequence. Having been enlisted I had no knowledge that an enlisted men I.E.: sergeant 1st class was responsible for a segment of the 2nd Louie's training. The nickname used in the day for 2nd Lieutenants.

Originally Posted by JOC

I find this aspect a very interesting and very practical sounding element of the training sequence. Having been enlisted I had no knowledge that an enlisted men I.E.: sergeant 1st class was responsible for a segment of the 2nd Louie's training. The nickname used in the day for 2nd Lieutenants.

Every platoon leader has a platoon sergeant, every commander a First Sergeant, and every Battalion commander and higher a sergeant major. Not to mention, the bulk of instructors that train the officers are...NCOs.