HollywoodBQ said:

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AgBQ-00 said:

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In my experience as an exchange cadet to VMI they did not have the same outfit pride. Class pride...most definatly yes. But the outfits were all pretty generic.

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I'm not saying their outfit identity is on the same level as A&M - i.e. If you gave me a choice between attending a reunion for my class or a reunion for my outfit, I'd definitely choose the outfit reunion. But, they do have outfit identities and bag out the other outfits, etc.

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You had a lot more cadets that were not as engaged as A&M. That comes from as you observed the lack of leadership opportunities.

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I agree with that. One thing that amazes me is the fact that VMI 5th year and the ultra-rare 6th year cadets still have to go to formation, wear the uniform, etc. Could you imagine 5th, 6th and 7th year cadets at A&M?

That also reminds me of one big thing at A&M which is Class Distinction by uniform parts. Nobody else has anything as distinctive as white belts or Senior Boots.

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Also the fact that our fish year is in fact a full year is a big difference.

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Yeah, that one still trips me out. They have two hell weeks but after the second one circa February, they're just regular 4th class cadets, no more hard core corps games. Whereas we had to go hard all the way until mid-late April or even up to the old Canoe Trip (which of course is long gone).

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Unfortunately, the Ratline at VMI is quite different now than it was 20 years ago. Similar to fish, rats on the stoop by themselves were subject to all manners of crap, just trying to get up to the 4th stoop where all the rat holes are. Which is why all the rats ran together up the stairs in a rat train. They've also eliminated the traditional break out & put some Corps wide team building exercise in place. Sadly, A&M isn't the only school slowly sanitizing away all the traditions that make it unique.

tgray99 said:

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Unfortunately, the Ratline at VMI is quite different now than it was 20 years ago. Similar to fish, rats on the stoop by themselves were subject to all manners of crap, just trying to get up to the 4th stoop where all the rat holes are. Which is why all the rats ran together up the stairs in a rat train. They've also eliminated the traditional break out & put some Corps wide team building exercise in place. Sadly, A&M isn't the only school slowly sanitizing away all the traditions that make it unique.

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One of my Armor School buddies was a VMI grad and he built up the Rat Breakout to be this huge deal (which it still is but...) and he made the biggest deal out of some super steep hill that they had to climb up covered in mud while being sprayed with firehoses. I think he said that they also had to fight their way up the hill against upperclassmen, etc. Since in Texas, our idea of a hill is a slight incline, I couldn't really get why he was making such a big deal about this hill.

Anyway, when I toured VMI two years ago with my Year 12 student (HS Senior equivalent) who is now a Fourth Class Cadet at VMI, I wanted to see this hill because my buddy made it sound like it was on campus. Since this sounded like the pinnacle of their Rat experience, I had to see that. Well, they told me that they don't use the hill for breakout anymore and the hill is several miles away from campus. I was disappointed but... that was then.

In reference to 20 years ago, 20 years ago, VMI didn't even allow women to attend the Institute and today, they have a Top 25 Ranked NCAA Women's Water Polo Team. So... yeah times change, things change.

Those "Sheeds" as they call them still have to learn "Rifle Manual". My dad's (Class of '59) biggest complaint about my time at A&M was that we didn't have to learn rifle drills. The first question he asked when my parents toured my fish hole in Dorm 11 - "Where do you keep your rifles?"

Here's a shot of one the VMI Water Polo ladies who has been the conference player of the week twice. Not bad for a Rat. The VMI logo swimsuits do kind of make me laugh. I would have expected some sort of digital camo print instead of a giant "VMI Spider" on them.