I've applied for SAMS, and we are expected to be notified next Friday on whether we were accepted or not.
The SAMS program has been expanded to over 110 students in the Summer class, and there is also a winter class of around 35 students.
The feedback we were given from the SAMS instructors was that the biggest challenge getting into SAMS was the following:
1. No combat experience - they have made this a discriminator now.
2. Branch allowing you to attend - operational demands have priority over all schools, including SAMS, so if Branch tells you you ain't going, you ain't going.
3. Bad interview
If I get into the program, I can provide some feedback. I am light years more excited about SAMS than CGSC, mainly because CGSC has become an Army school where the POI has been reduced to a lower standard because, according to at least three of my instructors "everyone gets to graduate unless they committ a crime, plagarize or fail the Height/Weight and APFT twice."
It's sad, because I don't think the POI is altogether bad - there certainly should be some revision from an intellectual and common sense perspective - but because many of my peers do not have the background necessary to get into details about a lot of the coursework (see my earlier comments about learning history, reading, professional development in other threads).
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