This is interesting. I always wondered about that place.HollywoodBQ said:Apologies in advance for the length but there's no way to tell COL Kurtz story without telling my own.The Kraken said:
Your daughter went to VMI...how did they train/integrate the rats?
My daughter appears to be the only cadet from Australia to ever sign the Matriculation Book.
Coming from a swanky private girls school in Sydney to VMI was a major shock. She told me later, something to the effect of, one of the reasons she made it was because she didn't know what she was getting in to.
Just like at Texas A&M, they have a non-commission option in the VMI Corps.
Unlike Texas A&M, all of their Division 1 athletes are also cadets. This is one of the primary avenues for recruiting females.
The composition of their Corps is similar to the US Military with 15%-18% females even though the first female wasn't admitted until about 1999. I know they celebrated the 20th anniversary while my daughter was a cadet (her friends are in scenes of the RBG movie).
VMI has a fitness test which all cadets must past so just like Texas A&M, there is a physical fitness aspect as well as the 7-day a week uniformed Corps of Cadets. There is an honor code which they adhere to much more strictly than A&M does the Aggie Code of Honor.
For the integration of the Rat Mass, here's how it works.A few major differences between A&M's Corps and the VMI Corps:
- They usually have about 500 cadets show up in August for Matriculation Day.
- They get fitted for uniforms, change into PT gear and then have a ceremony where they are taken away for an 8 day long training event called "Hell Week" (far more intense than Aggie FOW).
- They lose a few cadets during that time which completes prior to the start of classes. At VMI, quitting is called Outprocessing or OP.
- During "Hell Week" is when some athletes discover that this is a Military themed college (despite the fact it's in the name, you'd be amazed how many athletes don't realize this).
- After "Hell Week", they start into their academic year, going to class, doing ROTC, etc.
- They have formations in the morning and evening, just like A&M's Corps.
- If you think "Whipping Out" is bad, wait until you find out about "Straining" at VMI.
Their cadet companies are much larger. They have a small marching band which is its own company. Otherwise, they have about 9-10 companies for a Cadet Corps of around 1,700 cadets on a good day. Each of these companies might have 150 or so cadets. I think they only have two Battalions and one Regimental Commander.
They assign male cadets to companies based on height. Kind of like the Ross Volunteer Platoons, I guess. Alpha and India are the companies where everybody is 6'0" or better and these two companies include most of the athletes. In the middle of the formation, the 5'4" guys are all in Delta or Echo.
Females are assigned to companies more randomly. They don't have that many females to go around so they get scattered across random companies. Especially since a lot of them are in Band Company, each company only gets a few female Rats every year.
They live in bigger rooms on the same floor with their class. Fourth Class cadets on fourth stoop and First Class cadets on the ground floor. The rooms vary in size from as few as 4 Rats per room to as many as 7 in a strangely shaped corner room. Every year they move down a floor so the rooms get mixed up a little as well as friendship groups change so they don't necessarily live with the same people all the time. And there's no outfit per floor concept like at A&M. They only have 3 "barracks" buildings instead of 10-12 like the Aggie Quad.
Limited Cadet Leadership Opportunities At VMI, there are only a handful of leadership positions compared to A&M so not that many cadets get to be a Platoon Leader, Company Commander, Regimental Commander, etc. Those folks are referred to as "Rankers" and get made fun of a lot by their Brother Rats (BRs).
There is no Civilian Option Obviously the biggest difference overall. If you OP from the Corps at VMI, you're also leaving the University.
Ca-dating - You're not allowed to date in your chain of command and as a Rat, you're not allowed to date at all. With the upperclassmen, some cadets will move between companies for dating purposes.
Leaving Post - Rats are not allowed to leave campus except at special times of the semester like when there's a Football Game and their parents can take them out for dinner afterwards.
Cars - Only First Class cadets are allowed to have cars on campus so there is a culture of ride sharing. Especially for out of state cadets who need a ride from Roanoke, or Washington, D.C. to get to campus.
Duration of their Rat Year versus our fish Year - The Rats get dogged out until they "breakout" which usually occurs in February when the Rats have achieved the standards required.
I know things are different today but when I was in the Corps (BG Michaelis was in the same Army ROTC Year Group as me), Corps Brass was earned in the Fall at random times by random Corps outfits. In the Band, we technically earned our Corps Brass after our first "Perfect Drill" (which in my case was before classes even started) but, we continued to get dogged out until sometime around "March to the Brazos" in April. Some minor chilling out during Bonfire cut but otherwise, it was balls to the wall.
Rat - First Class relationship - During my time, we were always 1:1 between the fish and sophomores. The Juniors were enjoying Junior Privileges and the Zips were pretty much dead except for the Zips who wanted to be Super Pissheads. They'd stop by to make sure the Sophomores were doing their jobs to their degree of satisfaction.
At VMI, the (Seniors) First Class Cadets are assigned a Rat. Sometimes, they might have more than 1 because there are more Rats than First Class Cadets. The well being of that Rat is the responsibility of the First Class cadet and they take pride in ownership so to speak. They want their Rat to do well. They want their Rat to learn and survive and continue their lineage.
Everybody at VMI can trace their "heritage" so to speak back to whomever trained them. Who their Rat to First Class cadet relationship was. So, my Armor School buddy who was VMI Class of 1993, would have trained 1996, they would have trained 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, etc. So, it would have been a big deal if his son had been 2020 instead of 2021.
One key takeaway here is that at VMI, their Class Year and their "Line" matters more to them than what cadet company they were in.
The other key takeaway in the VMI system is that the First Class cadets are invested in the success of the Rats. They set the standard and hold their Rats to the standard but it's more of a 1:1 relationship rather than dogging out some random cadet in your company that you don't know. Because with the larger company sizes, you won't know everybody.
Summer Transition Program - We didn't know about this program before my daughter attended VMI but it's helpful for many. What they do is, teach summer school classes not in uniform. So there's no Corps active and no uniforms but, they have two terms where students can earn 6 hours per team.
During STP, they work with upper class cadets to improve things like running, PT, fitness. I know that they break up the incoming cadets (the call them "Pre-Strains") into running ability groups and work with them on that.
Meals - Once the Fall school semester starts and they're marching down to Crozet Dining Hall for meals, it's very much like the old Duncan Dining Hall meals were.
Breaks - VMI gets a Furlough for a week over Thanksgiving. And they get some relief after home football games but other than that, it's a long slog.
I was confused when I was reading the earlier statements about Texas A&M having a Fall Break. During my era of the Aggie Band traveling to every football game, our first "break" was after the Thanksgiving game against t.u. in Austin.
Politics - One last thing I'll say about the VMI Corps is that they're way more politically connected in Virginia but just like Texas A&M, a frequent target for the media and haters. We had Governor Perry, they had the Coonman.
Probably more information than any of you every wanted to know and I'm sure I left some stuff out.
Hopefully that info is useful as the Aggie Corps looks at making changes.
Does anyone know anything about Virginia Tech's Corps? I am guessing it's more like A&M because they have a lot of non-regs. It's notable that Virginia has two senior military colleges.
