Being primarily a military school, Norwich has some major enrollment considerations that most schools don't deal with. For example, I enrolled in Norwich in 2009, which was shortly after the surge in Iraq and just before Obama announced a similar surge in Afghanistan. As a result, the DOD was passing out ROTC scholarships like candy. I believe my class had over 120 scholarship awardees in the Army department alone. By the time I graduated in 2013, after we had withdrawn from Iraq and at the beginning of the drawdown in Afghanistan, the number of scholarship winners in the freshman class had dropped to around 30 across all the branches.
This forces the school to have a lot of flexibility. Many of my classmates are some of the most impressive people I have ever met in my life. There were also those that had no business being there. But, when you have 120+ new students whose tuition payment is guaranteed in full by Uncle Sam, there are bound to be a few that fall through the cracks. There's still great interest from people wanting to join the Corps, which numbers close to 1500 now, but historically speaking the civilian component serves as sort of a safety against times when military service isn't as desired (enrollment dropped to 9, that is nine, after the Civil War for example. The post-Vietnam era certainly didn't make a military school, especially one in Vermont of all places, attractive to many people). I'm not saying that's its only merit, but it's certainly a factor. So as the military continues to make cuts, will we see an increase in competitiveness in Corps applications that require financial aid? Will preference be given to those who don't require as much aid? Will the school emphasize its traditional component more?
My apologies for the history lesson, but I've always found my beloved alma mater's unique history and role fascinating (well, except for when I was a rook and hated the place). Surely someone can tie this back into hockey.
