The standards to graduate at all are pretty darned high at West Point.
Last in your class at West Point equates to being first in your class at any number of other colleges.
The standards have been modified by race and sex. The academic requirements for certain minorities are much lower than for others. It is likely the goat will always now end up being a minority.
USNA has the same tradition, but they call him the “Anchorman”..guess not..Anchorperson.
All the grades and class standing at the academies used to be posted..there weren’t any secrets. I wonder if that is still true.
Yup!
I've been stationed at West Point. Frankly I am underwhelmed at the academic requirments needed to graduate and the actual lack of military discipline.
It's not what the WP publicity machine puts out.
The last-place graduate from medical school is called a “Doctor”. :=)
What do you call someone who graduates at the bottom of his class in medical school?
“Doctor”!
I was reading an article about a guy who was try8ng to make it through Officer’s Candidate School (OCS) for the Marines. About half way through, he wanted to quit. One of the sargeants took him aside and said “DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY CALL THE GUY WHO GRADUATES LAST FROM OCS? THEY CALL HIM ‘SIR’!”
I think there’s much wisdom in that thinking that can be applied to many things. If you go and run a mile every day, even if you’re not the fastest runner on the bock, you are a runner. One can easily think of a million other examples.
Goat Roll Call
1818-1900
1818 John Taylor Pratt
1819 William Henry Swift
1820 William Walton Morris
1821 Julius A. D’Lagnel
1822 Henry Clark
1823 Egbert B. Birdsall
1824 William Beaverhout Thompson
1825 Samuel Rogers Allston
1826 Ephriam Kirby Smith
1827 Nelson W. Clark
1828 Phillip R. Van Wyck
1829 Richard B. Screven
1830 Stephen Bruce Legate
1831 John Conrad Jr.
1832 Albert Gallatin Edwards
1833 Nathaniel Wyche Hunter
1834 Alexander Montgomery
1835 Hugh McLeod
1836 Charles Henry Edward Spoor
1837 Franklin Saunders
1838 Zebulon Montgomery Pike Inge
1839 John Howard Hill
1840 John Danforth Bacon
1841 Charles Frederick Morris
1842 James Overing Handy
1843 George C. McClelland
1844 George Washington Hawkins
1845 William Logan Crittenden
1846 George Edward Pickett
1847 Henry Heth
1848 George Washington Howland
1849 James McQueen McIntosh
1850 Donald Chester Stith
1851 Lawrence Simmons Baker
1852 Hezekiah H. Garber
1853 William Craig
1854 John McCleary
1855 George McGunnegle Dick
1856 Arthur Sinclair Cunningham
1857 Lafayette Peck
1858 Charles Edward Jessup
1859 Henry Augustus F. Worth
1860 Harold Borland
1861, May Sheldon Sturgeon
1861, June George Armstrong Custer
1862 Charles Nelson Warner
1863 James Riley Reid
1864 Samuel Hall Kinney
1865 Charles Adam Dempsey
1866 James Blakeslee Cole
1867 John Henry Gifford
1868 William Henry Coombs
1869 Mason Marion Maxon
1870 Levi Pettibone Hunt
1871 Julius Hayden Pardee
1872 Millard Fillmore Goodwin
1873 Joseph Francis Huston
1874 James Hansell French
1875 Charles Wilson Williams
1876 Hamilton Rowan
1877 Frederick Halverston French
1878 Ormentiz John C. Hock
1879 Guy Roosevelt Beardslee
1880 Percy Edwards Trippe
1881 Frederick Thrall van Liew
1882 George Patrick Ahern
1883 Clarence Ransom Edwards
1884 Powhatan Henry Clark
1885 Edward Percival Lawton
1886 David William Fulton
1887 Frank Herman Albright
1888 Matthew Calbraith Butler Jr.
1889 Charles Young
1890 Vernon Avondale Caldwell
1891 David Price Cordray
1892 Horace George Hambright
1893 Matthew Edward Saville
1894 James Alfred Moss
1895 Daniel Duncan
1896 Robert Boyd Powers
1897 Harold Edward Cloke
1898 David Lamme Stone
1899 Albert N. McClure
1900 Richard Morgan Thomas
BTW the bottom section of the class is known as the immortals. All those at the bottom. (i think the bottom 1/2 or 1/3)