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the same rigid academic pattern. New emphasis
on broadening their academic opportunity has
expanded the old basic core curriculum into
majors ranging from aerospace engineering, to
history, to oceanography. A little more than a
decade ago, all midshipmen took the same 40
courses. Today’s midshipmen can select from
more than 500 courses, including political science,
languages, and computer science.
The professional changes at Annapolis are
also important. Along with the emphasis on
broadening the academic curriculum, the
Academy provides more intense officer training.
Upperclassmen have more of the responsibility for
plebe training and for leadership of the entire
4,500-person brigade of midshipmen.
New buildings—modern, yet in harmony with
the classic structures from the past—now line the
Severn River. The twin towers of the science and
mathematics buildings, Michelson and Chauvenet
Halls, have been in use since 1971. The
560,000-volume Nimitz Library, dedicated in the
fall of 1973, contains complete audiovisual and
closed-circuit television facilities. Rickover Hall,
the Academy’s engineering studies complex, is as
extensive a laboratory facility as any in the
nation.
On the waterfront rises the Robert Crown
Sailing Center, dedicated in April 1974. Built from
privately donated funds, the center houses the
Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame. It also
provides facilities for the Academy’s program of
varsity and intramural sailing training, Venerable
Dahlgren Hall, for years an armory and drill hall,
has been converted with private donations into
the Midshipman Activity Center. This center
contains a hockey-size skating rink, snack bar,
and other recreational facilities.
The new Brigade Activity Center, which
opened in 1990, can seat the entire brigade. It
houses a theater and concert hall and is used for
brigade professional programs.
Today’s Academy boasts improved facilities
along with a sophisticated professional training
program to meet the more complex needs of
today’s nuclear Navy. These improvements and
the increased versatility of the academic program
and extracurricular activities provide midshipmen
with a well-balanced education.
Beginning with the class of 1980, the Academy
offered this education to women as well as men.
Under a new law passed by Congress, the Naval
Academy admitted the first women midshipmen
with the plebe class that reported in July
1976.
Instead of the 7 founding professors, the
Academy faculty now numbers more than 610.
Half of the faculty are naval officers who serve
on a rotating basis, bringing fresh thinking from
the fleet. The other half are civilians, ensuring
continuity and input from the academic
community.
Some 50 young men crowded into the old
barracks of the 10-acre Fort Severn in 1845 to
open the new national Naval School. Now more
than 4,500 midshipmen walk the 309 acres of
today’s Naval Academy.
APPOINTMENT PROCESS
Appointments are granted to applicants to the
Naval Academy by either their Congressman or
the Vice President. The Vice President and each
Congressman may have five of their appointees
in the Academy at any one time. They may
allocate these on the basis of 1 principal and 9
alternate appointments or award them com-
petitively with 10 applicants vying for each
vacancy.
Remaining appointments are strictly com-
petitive and are awarded on the basis of those
considered best qualified as set in the Academy’s
“Whole-Person Evaluation.” Competitive appoint-
ments are available in the following general
classes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Presidential
Regular Navy and
Marine Corps
Naval and Marine
Corps Reserve
NROTC students and
graduates of honor
military and naval
schools
100 each year to sons
and daughters of mem-
bers of the Regular
and Reserve compon-
ents of the armed ser-
vices who are on active
duty and have served
continuously on active
duty for at least 8
years; retired person-
nel; and those who
died while in receipt of
retired pay
85 enlisted members
per year
85 enlisted members
per year
20 annually (normally
10 from each cate-
gory)
10-7
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