Portal:United States Coast Guard/Selected article/1

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The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA), located in New London, Connecticut is a U.S. military academy that provides education to future officers of the United States Coast Guard. Unlike the other Service Academies, admission to the Coast Guard Academy is purely merit-based, and does not require a Congressional nomination.[1] The Academy is regularly cited as being the most difficult U.S. college-level institution to gain entrance into. Each year some 400 students are selected from an applicant pool about eight times that size for appointments to the Academy. About 280 of those 400 students accept the appointment and report to the USCGA in early July for "swab summer," a basic military training program designed to prepare them for the rigors of their Fourth Class year. Each cadet takes two semesters of classes during the school year and then spends the majority of the summer in military training. After four years of study and training, approximately 175 cadets will graduate with a B.S. degree and be commissioned as Ensigns in the United States Coast Guard, to begin serving their five years of obligatory duty. Around 30% of the Corps of Cadets is female.