United States Military Academy Preparatory School

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United States Military Academy Prep School


Motto	Desire • Faith • Effort
Established	1947
Type	Federal military academy prep school
	Colonel Tyge Rugenstein
Staff	approximately 100 faculty
Location	Eatontown, New Jersey, United States
Campus	At Fort Monmouth
Athletics	9 varsity teams, called "Golden Knights"
Colors	Black █, Gray █, and Gold █
Website	The official USMAPS website

The United States Military Preparatory School (USMAPS), sometimes referred to as West Point Prep, is a preparatory school for the United States Military Academy currently located at Fort Monmouth, in Eatontown, New Jersey. Formally established in 1946, its official mission is "to provide academic, military and physical instruction in a moral-ethical military environment to prepare and motivate candidates for success at the United States Military Academy." [1]

1 Cadet Candidates and Life
2 Admissions
3 Athletics
4 Location change
5 External links

[edit] Cadet Candidates and Life

Students at USMAPS are known as Cadet Candidates (often abbreviated to "CCs"); board and tuition are free and they are paid as active members of the U.S. Army. The course extends over a ten-month scholastic year and aims at training the "CCs” to cope with the academic and military rigors of an army education before attending West Point proper.

Cadet Candidates arrive at the Prep school in early July for Cadet Candidate Basic Training or CCBT, an intensive four week program to put them in shape and provide the foundation for army and military instruction. Immediately following CCBT, classes start, ending in mid-May. In June, most of those who attended the Prep School will go on to West Point; some few will go to other service academies.

USMAPS provides instruction in English, physics, calculus, military history, physical and military training among other courses. All CCs must play a sport, which is considered a course (see Athletics).

[edit] Admissions

As with the other United States military academies prep schools, there is no separate application for USMAPS, only the West Point application. Admission officers will offer USMAPS to potential West Point cadets who have received their Congressional appointments yet may lack the grades or skills necessary for West Point. During the middle of the Prep school year, CCs must submit new applications to West Point, including the Congressional appointment; almost all, however, are granted and the CCs go on to attend West Point. [2]

(For more information on the admissions process, see West Point.)

[edit] Athletics

USMAPS has an extensive athletic program including "football, women's volleyball, cross-country, track, men and women's basketball, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, and wrestling."[3] Known as the Golden Knights (where as West Point is the Black Knights), with black and gold colors, USMAPS primarily participates with the other United States military academy prep schools, especially their rival the Naval Academy Preparatory School. Potential athletes are the most notable group of those sent to USMAPS to upgrade their scholastic abilities.

[edit] Location change

Fort Monmouth was not USMAPS' first location, since it was founded in June 1946 at Stewart Army Air Field, Newburgh, New York (a few miles from West Point), and moved to Fort Belvoir, Virginia in 1957, only moving to Fort Monmouth in 1975. Now in turn, due to the Base Realignment and Closure, 2005, Fort Monmouth is currently in the process of being shut down. USMAPS will continue, however, to operate at the Fort Monmouth campus for several more years.