Summer 2013 Weekly Enrollment Form June 10 2013 August: Fill & Download for Free

Youngsters are taking more interest in the governing of the country and wish to put in their two cents. Working of government bodies and ministries has changed, with an increased accountability.Check this site for official internship detailsInternship SchemeMany websites publish intership opportunities and you may apply based on your education, skill,, exp and interest. Some I have listedGovernment Internship | InternshalaSummer and Winter Internships 2017 | Internships in India - ResearchXInternship programme for young studentsInternship ProgrammePRSInternship Programmehttp://dgft.gov.in/exim/2000/EmpCorner/internship.pdfInternship with Delhi Government (Various Positions)Directorate General of Foreign Trade - policy research and were from Economics/International Business background.Government Of India-Ministry Of Commerce & Industry--Department Of Industrial Policy & PromotionDepartment of Commerce, Government of India1. Internship with NITI AayogNITI Aayog is what the Planning Commission used to be! Instated on January 1, 2015 by Narendra Modi to replace the Planning Commission, the think-tank fosters state and centre partnership for economic policy. They have started an internship program for studentspursuing UG, PG & PhD programs in any discipline/subject to give them exposure to various departments/verticals/units under NITI Aayog.Duration of Internship – The internship is for between 6 weeks to 3 months. The interns are taken throughout the year.Last Date of application – An application link opens up on their website every month from 1st to 10th only which is one allowed to applyHow to apply – Students have to fill out the application form on the official website.Stipend – No Stipend2. Internship with Reserve Bank Of IndiaThe Reserve Bank of India is the prime financial authority, controlling monetary policy. RBI often offers research internships for students mainly PhD students in Economics, Banking, Finance and related fields. However, they have a Strategic Research Unit (SRU) which takes B.Tech or BE graduates as well with quantitative-oriented degrees in Economics, Finance or Statistical Science with expertise in Computer or Data Analytics. Do remember this is suggested for students who have finished their course.Duration of internship – It is for a minimum of 6 months and is conducted in two sessions starting January 1 and July 1 of every year.Last Date of application – Applications are accepted for the five months preceding the next batch of internship.How to apply – Applicants have to send their CV, references, statement of purpose by post or email to [email protected]. It is followed by a personal interview, in case you’re shortlisted.Stipend – Rs. 35,000 per month3. Internship with Ministry of External AffairsThe Ministry of External Affairs or the MEA is the foreign ministry of India and conducts the foreign relations of the country. It represents India at the UN and all international bodies. The internship program is very prestigious and allows the young academics to familiarise with the working of the ministry as well formulation of foreign policy. The ministry offers internships on site (premises of ministry) for which only graduates are allowed to apply or offsite to which under-graduates still enrolled in college can apply.Duration of internship – The internship can start at any time of the year and can be between one to six months.Last date of application – Applications are taken all year long however at any given point only 30 interns are taken on board. It is preferable to apply at least one month prior to internship commencement.How to apply – Students must apply with the application form, 3 proofs of identity including Passport and Adhaar, CV, an introduction letter from the head of the institution where the applicant studied/studying, no objection certificate from same institute and send it by postor to [email protected] and [email protected] – No Stipend4. Internship with Ministry of Law and JusticeThe Ministry of Law and Justice is one of the oldest ministries of the government of India and has the Legislative Department and Department of Legal Affairs. The internship program is under the Legislative Department which is concerned with drafting the principal legislation for the central government.The internship is a great opportunity for final year students studying law and was started to motivate students to take interest in legislation drafting as a profession.Duration of the internship – The internship will be between four to six weeksLast Date of application – The internship is open throughout the year and students can apply at any time, however only 5 interns can be taken in at any given point of timeHow to apply – Students must apply with the form on the website along with a recommendation by head of institution and a statement of purpose for interest in legislative department and send it by post or by email to [email protected] – No Stipend5. Internship with Directorate General of Foreign TradeThe Directorate General of Foreign Trade formulates and implements the Foreign Trade Policy of India. It is an extremely important government body as it interacts with trade bodies, government departments, exporters and other experts in gauging the changing international trade scenario. They recruit interns to infuse refreshing ideas into the system and they recruit final year law students and recent graduates from courses of economics, finance, management and law.Duration of internship – It is offered in two sessions –Summer Internship – June and JulyWinter Internship – December and JanuaryLast Date of application –Summer Internship – 30 April of every yearWinter Internship – 31 October of every yearHow to apply – Students have to send in their internship applications along with their CV by post or email to [email protected] – Rs. 10,000 per month6. Internship with Ministry of Corporate AffairsMonitoring all companies in India and overseeing business activities, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs acts as a regulatory body over corporate India. It implements the Companies Act 2013, Companies Act of 1956, Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1969 and other company related acts.They have an internship program for students pursuing PG and research programs in economics, law, finance, commerce, management and IT to understand the activities of the ministry at macro-level and implementation of policy measures by officers at micro-level. Students of IT and Computer Science B, Tech final year can also be considered for the internship.Duration of internship – It is for a maximum of two months and will commence either June or July 2017Last Date of application – The last date of applications is February 28, 2017How to apply – Students have to apply with the application form in the official website and sent by post or email to [email protected] – Rs.10,000 per month7. Internship with Ministry of FinanceThe Finance ministry is the ministry that looks after all financial matters like taxation, centre and state finances, union budgets, financial institutions and capital markets.The Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance has created this internship program to familiarise students with the economic and financial policies of the government. Students pursuing PG courses as well as 4th & 5th year students of 5 year courses from economics, finance and management courses are eligible to apply for this internship.Duration of internship – The internship is between two to six months anytime during the year.Last Date of application – Students can apply by the 1st of the preceding month for which application is intended. For example, for an internship in April 2017, applications should reach by March 1, 2017.How to apply – Students have to apply in the application forms along with their CV by post.Stipend – Rs. 10,000 per month8. Internship with Competition Commission of IndiaThe Competition Commission of India ensures that the objectives of The Competition Act, 2002, are achieved. It ensures that any practices which have an adverse effect on competition are removed and it promotes competition and protects the right of consumers.Students from economics, law, management and finance are recruited as interns to familiarize them with the tenets of the law and impart training.Duration of internship – Every month 10 interns are recruited as interns and the internship period is only for a month. It has a set program and a guide is assigned to each intern for the duration.Last Date of application – The application should reach the office by the 1st of preceding month for which application is intended. For example, for an internship in April 2017, applications should reach by March 1, 2017.How to apply – Students have to submit the application form along with a recommendation from faculty at college, a synopsis on the topic intending to research on (1,000 words) and emailed to [email protected] – Rs. 10,000 per month9. Internship with Ministry of Women and Child DevelopmentEarlier a department under the HRD Ministry, the Ministry of Women and Child Development became a full-fledged ministry in 2016. The internship program is meant for students from UG, PG and Research from any discipline/subject to understand the formulation of policies and programs of the Ministry.Duration of internship – It is offered based on the qualification of applicant1 month – For students currently pursuing UG course in any subject/discipline1 – 3 months – For students who have completed UG course in any subject/discipline6 months – For students who have completed PG course in any subject/disciplineLast Date of Application – The internships are conducted in four batches every year – Mid-August to Mid-September, August to October, November to January and March to May. The notification will be available on the website one month prior to the internship; however, the schedule may change depending on the interns requiredHow to apply – Students can apply through the online link available on the website.Stipend – No Stipend10. Internship with National Museum, Ministry of CultureThe National Museum in Delhi is directly under the control of Ministry of Culture and the keeper of over 5,000 years of artifacts from Indian cultural heritage. They offer research oriented internships, creating a platform for interns to have exposure to the art and culture sector.This is a unique opportunity for students who are pursuing UG and PG courses in anthropology, history, art history, archaeology, sciences, languages, museology, library sciences, sculpture and fine arts.Duration of internship – It is offered in two sessions –Summer Internships – Conducted in May, June and July over time periods of 6, 9 and 12 weeksWinter Internships – Conducted in December, January and February over time periods of 6, 9 and 12 weeksLast Date of Application –Summer internships – March 10 of every yearWinter Internships – October 10 of every yearHow to apply – Students will have to submit the application form along with a Covering letter, CV, Statement of Purpose (500-750 words), reference letter from any teacher/professor and a copy of student ID and send it to [email protected] – No stipend

Q. How can a veteran get into an Ivy League school?A. There is an organization of veterans in the Ivy League. There are several articles in newspapers and magazines.The Ivy League Veterans CouncilConfessions Of A Vet Who Went To HBSVeterans and Ivy League (A salute to Cornell, Dartmouth, and Columbia)Ivy League and Veterans (Reddit)Why Don’t Top-Tier Colleges Care About Enrolling Veterans? (2013)Rice University Veterans Education Benefits (not Ivy League, but well regarded), Military at Rice (Military Scholars Program - full cost of attendance scholarship for veterans in the Jones School of Business)The Ivy League Veterans CouncilABOUT MEMBERS CALL TO ACTION SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONSContact Us Veterans in the NewsVeterans in the Ivy League: Students Seek to Up Their RanksBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESSNOV. 1, 2016, 7:33 A.M. E.D.T.PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It's not easy to find military veterans in undergraduate programs at most Ivy League schools.Harvard has only three in its undergrad liberal arts and sciences school. Princeton, just one.Students from the eight Ivies hope to change those kinds of numbers. They see a chance for institutions to diversify and for veterans to get an education that will help them become leaders.Nov 3, 2016Where Are Veterans at Our Elite Colleges? (NYTimes)The tally noted just two veterans among undergraduates at Duke, one at M.I.T., one at Pomona and zero at Carleton.“These schools all wring their hands and say, ‘We’d love to have more, but they just don’t apply,’ ” Sloane said. “That’s what offends me. These schools have incredibly sophisticated recruitment teams. They recruit quarterbacks. They fill the physics lab. They visit high schools. How many visits did they make for veterans?”Sep 7, 2016Marine Corps Partners with Columbia University (Military.com)Columbia University recently announced that eligible Marines planning to exit the U.S. Marine Corps will for the first time have formalized, national program to access a top-tier undergraduate education. Through the Leadership Scholar Program, a partnership developed by the U.S. Marine Corps and leading colleges and universities, qualified Marines are identified by their commanding officers and are then shepherded through the college admissions process on their respective Marine Corps bases.Aug 26, 2016The Nonprofit Helping Veterans Get Into The Country’s Top Colleges (Task & Purpose)Army veteran Sang Ra never thought he'd go to an Ivy League college until he connected with the nonprofit, Service to School.Aug 21, 2016Lima Charlie Team Spotlight: Mike ConnollyOur VP of Communications did an interview with Lima Charlie News on his involvement there. Give it a read!Aug 21, 2016Posse Foundation Announces New Veteran PossesWe’re excited to have our THREE newest Veterans Posses at national headquarters in New York for Pre-Collegiate Training! These Scholars will attend Dartmouth, Vassar College and Wesleyan University in the fall. http://www.possefoundation.org/veterans ‪#‎PosseVetsLead‬Jul 21, 2016Confessions Of A Vet Who Went To HBSOver five years ago, I began taking the steps necessary to attend business school. I took the GMAT, arranged my letters of recommendation, filled out applications, wrote essays, and did my interviews over Skype or phone from Iraq.Jul 21, 2016Veterans Groups Seek a Crackdown on Deceptive Colleges (NYTimes)WASHINGTON — Some of the nation’s largest veterans and military organizations sent letters last week to the Veterans Affairs Department asking it to crack down on colleges that prey on veterans by charging exorbitant fees for degrees that mostly fail to deliver promised skills and jobs.Jul 3, 2016As A Poor Kid From The Rust Belt, Yale Law School Brought Me Face-to-face With Radical Inequality (HuffPo)“I have never felt out of place in my entire life. But I did at Yale.”Jul 3, 2016Veterans Deserve a Chance in College, Not a Free Pass (NYTimes)MY six years in the Marine Corps taught me the importance of learning the basics...Jun 18, 2016Confessions Of A Vet Who Went To HBSBY: MARTIN PETERS ON JULY 07, 2016 |5 COMMENTSThis article was contributed by Service to School, a nonprofit that provides free application assistance for veterans transitioning from the service to undergrad, MBA, and JD programs. Service to School has helped over 300 veterans into the nation’s top undergraduate and graduate school programs.Over five years ago, I began taking the steps necessary to attend business school. I took the GMAT, arranged my letters of recommendation, filled out applications, wrote essays, and did my interviews over Skype or phone from Iraq.First, a little background. At the time I matriculated in 2012, I was a 30-year-old West Point 2004 grad, eight years on active duty in the infantry with four deployments, and was (and still am) married, with three dogs. I graduated from Harvard Business School in May of 2014 and started work with Boston Consulting Group in September of 2014.My thoughts involve some MOTO (Master of the Obvious) statements about school and life. Hopefully, though, some of my thoughts are something you, the reader, may not have thought about. I’ll add the disclaimer that everyone’s experiences are unique (and mine in particular are based heavily on HBS). Still, for what they are worth, here they are — with the up-front thought that my MBA experience was a great one and I would do it again in a heartbeat.SCHOOL SELECTIONStrive to get into a top 10 MBA program (HBS, GSB, MIT, Darden, McCombs, Kellogg, Booth, Tuck, UPenn, Fuqua, Ross, etc.). An MBA from a top 10 program is certainly worth it, but I question the return on a non-top 10 program because many top firms specifically recruit at the top schools.GET TO SCHOOL A MONTH EARLYHBS started in late August. My wife, Megan, and I arrived in the beginning of the month and immediately linked up on Facebook with the HBS 2014 Boston Admit group, whose membership swelled as school got closer and people began moving to Cambridge. Megan and I began meeting and hanging out with people throughout the month. When I went to school the first day, I already knew 60-70 people by name, both in and outside of my section. Also, I maintained relationships with most of that summer crew because we met prior to the pressures of school and other social commitments. Meeting fellow classmates, then, was novel and not overwhelming like the first couple months.DEFINITION OF SUCCESSThe Army makes it very easy to know when you have been successful in its eyes — you are promoted, you get the next position, and/or you get a thank-you from your soldier. On the wall of every company and above CP are the institution’s definitions of success — the chain of command. Leaving active-duty changed that. In business school, the definition of success is much more ambiguous. Certainly, in large corporations there are well-established measures of success, but outside of those, success takes many forms and is truly dependent on the person. No longer is an easily acceptable definition provided. It is up to YOU to create your own personal definition of success.LACK OF CAMARADERIEYou read and hear about it: When people leave the military, they miss the camaraderie. It’s true. During my first couple months at HBS, I missed the intense friendships that come with having intense shared experiences (deployments and field problems) toward a common goal. For soldiers who were only in for three years or who never deployed, it may not be an issue. But for someone who went to West Point and then served eight years on active duty with four deployments, it was an issue. Initially, I felt many of my relationships were skin-deep, and I was always putting up a perfectionist front. Slowly, over time, I developed a core group of friends, yet the majority of what I call my “vacation friends” were primarily veterans. We simply had the most in common.WHAT VETERANS BRING TO THE CLASSROOMHere is what veterans bring to the classroom: leadership, real-world experience, and exposure to the military.The Army provides leadership experiences at extremely early stages in a soldier’s career. At 23, I was leading an infantry platoon in Afghanistan with an area of operations the size of Rhode Island. My final assignment was as a headquarters company commander of 250 soldiers during our deployment to Iraq. An infantry buck sergeant, or team leader, has more direct leadership experience than the majority of my business school classmates. It is not entirely their fault, because the industries many of my classmates come from (at HBS, one-third finance and one-third consulting) simply do not provide direct leadership opportunities early in their careers. During an informal survey of my 90 section mates, I learned that two-thirds of the class never had a direct report (subordinate) and the majority of the remaining third had from one to five direct reports. Only myself, another veteran, and one other classmate had ever led more than 15 people.The second great thing vets bring to the classroom is experience in an organization where not everyone has a college degree. Think about it. Many of my classmates, if they came from a consulting or finance background, went to undergrad and then to work at top-tier firms (the typical pipeline to HBS), and their only interaction with a person without a college degree was at grocery stores with cashiers or restaurants with waiters. Army veterans have worked with a wide variety of people who have varied backgrounds. It broadens your perspective and understanding.Finally, most of my classmates, unless they have parents or siblings in the military or are veterans themselves, have very little knowledge of the military outside of Hollywood or the news. With an all-volunteer military, it is simply something they do not think about. My classmates were keenly interested in hearing about the military. For some, I was the first person in the military they ever spoke with (which blew my mind). A Chinese student in my section wrote an email at the end of the first year to all the vets in my section stating that we had changed her view on the American military because she had been taught that we were all automatons. It made me feel good.Harvard Business School graduation for the Class of 2016INTERNATIONAL DIVERSITYI felt that HBS oversells its international diversity. I got the feeling the majority of international students were “international” in passport only. They had gone to American universities for undergrad, worked for American companies, and would be going back to work for American companies following HBS. While brilliant, they brought little “international” diversity to the table.RECRUITINGTry your best to identify early, if not before school, what industries you would like to recruit for. Narrowing your choices will save you a lot of time during recruiting.INTERN APPLICATIONSI’d limit your job applications to about 10. If you are applying to more than 10 companies, I don’t think you have properly done your research and it will show during the interview. I applied to eight companies during recruitment, and even that was a lot to keep track of. On one of my interviews, I had had no time to research the company or network and it definitely showed.Expect to get dings (rejections), even when you’re applying from Harvard. For high-performing individuals, it will be the first time you may have been told thanks, but no thanks. Expect it. It builds character.EXPLOIT YOUR STATUS AS A STUDENTExploit it when making phone calls and visits with alumni, potential employers, and others. Most people will give you a minute if you are a student. After graduation, you are just another dude/dudette.GRADESThe sooner you stop worrying about them, the better and more stress-free your experience will be. At HBS there is little transparency and the grading system to me was very subjective, with 50% of your grade based on class participation and 50% based on a case exam. You receive little to no feedback on either grade until you receive them a month after taking the exam. By then, you have stopped thinking about it.Coming from West Point, where I studied to a degree that amazes me a decade later, not worrying about grades took some getting used to. You need to understand why you are at business school. If you want top honors, crush it. If you want to develop yourself personally, learn a new hobby, or try new things, crush it. In the decade since West Point, I learned that there is more to life than grades (not an excuse to sham, but I don’t have the single-minded academic drive that I once had at West Point).VETERAN STATUSRid yourself of any form of veteran entitlement that seems to have crept up. You cannot rest on your laurels. Your veteran resume with its accompanying experiences will assist greatly in getting that first interview with companies, but after that you must prepare for the interview and then perform during your internship.HOUSING (HBS SPECIFIC)On campus or off campus, it doesn’t matter. If you are off campus, try staying within a mile of campus and you won’t miss anything. The main social scene at HBS revolves around the campus and Harvard Square (and club parties in downtown Boston if you choose to do them). If you live off campus, get a bike.CLASSESAt HBS, your first year is all required curriculum (RC) so you have no choice in what you take. Your second year (EC), you choose your courses. Take some time to plan your schedule. Talk with current second-year students and look at course reviews. While I was happy with my course selections and thought the allocation system to get into them was equitable, I wish I had done a little more deliberate planning on what courses to take.My favorites second-year courses were The Coming of Managerial Capitalism, taught by Professor Nicholas (a history-like course and Professor Nicholas was awesome); Business at the Base of the Pyramid, by Professor Michael Chu (interesting course that took a while to gain steam/catch my interest, but the last half was enlightening); and The Energy Business and Geopolitics, taught by Professor Maurer (I want to go into the energy industry post-BCG and this course was absolutely fascinating).Harvard Business School – Ethan Baron photoWORKLOADIf you went to a service academy, do not stress about the workload. I found the academic workload at Harvard underwhelming compared to West Point. All the books, all the blogs, blah blah, stress how busy it is. I was never as busy on any single day at HBS as I was at West Point, hands down.Your first month you will be busy as you learn the ropes, but after that your busy-ness is primarily a factor of your priorities and is mainly self-induced (how much stuff you voluntarily pile onto your academic load). I did Reserve drill, volunteered weekly at a local school, mentored a Harvard ROTC cadet weekly, helped out with the MIT ROTC program a little, continued my long-distance running routine (I did 3.85 marathons while at HBS … at Mile 22 ruck marching with cadets when the bombs went off and they closed the course), and took a photography class at the New England School of Photography in addition to the normal academic workload at HBS.My priorities at HBS had changed from my single-minded focus on academics at West Point to realizing that academics are only one aspect of the HBS/life experience.Also, whenever I felt busy, I thought of my classmates with three kids and my woe-is-me party ended immediately.PARTYINGI thought Army lieutenants partied hard after a deployment. Then I went to HBS. Be prepared for a large social scene.Ignore Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and realize early on that there are club/section parties/get-togethers on most evenings. It is all about priorities. If your priority is partying, then you have found your home in business school. But if you have other priorities, don’t worry about not going out every night. At the end of the day, going out drinking with section mates is not some mind-blowing, nirvana-attaining affair that will make or break your experience. It’s just getting drinks with people.For HBS, the key parties/events to attend are: RC Halloween Party, RC Priscilla Ball, RC Newport Ball, RC Holidazzle, the EC Gala, and section retreats. Anything else I would pick and choose going to.AGGRESSIVELY SOCIALBusiness school people are what I would call “aggressively social.” Sometimes it is overwhelming, but it makes it easy to meet people.RESERVES WHILE AT SCHOOLI continued to serve in the Army Reserves while at school, and I am one of the few who is staying in post-HBS, for a couple of reasons: 1) I transferred my remaining GI Bill benefits to my wife so she could attend school; 2) I am more deeply appreciative now of the privilege of being able to put the uniform on as opposed to when I was on active duty and took it for granted; and 3) If not me, then who?While at business school, the one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer did not provide any issues. Units post their drill schedules in advance for the coming fiscal year, so I knew well in advance of every weekend when I would be gone and when my annual training was set. Did I miss some parties or trips? Yes, but after a month at business school you realize parties are a dime a dozen and trips/treks occur at an uncanny frequency. My Reserve unit worked with me to conduct Rescheduled Training (RST) for the summer internship, so during my first-year spring break, instead of going to *insert X exotic destination*, I went to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, to knock out my drill requirements. This enabled me to stay in Dallas, where I was interning, the entire summer instead of flying back to Massachusetts. Further, Boston Consulting Group pushed my internship up two weeks ahead of the primary summer intern cohort so I could attend my unit’s active training (I finished my internship on a Friday and reported that Saturday for active training). You work it and make it happen.The main positives of staying in the Reserves at school are: 1) Personal pride and satisfaction; 2) They help you stay grounded and get outside the business school bubble; 3) You have a steady, though small, income coming in (two years of O-3/O-4 Reserve pay comes out to under $20,000 net free of taxes so that is $20,000 in debt I do not have); and 4) Health insurance that was cheaper than the school’s option. The main drawbacks are that it takes time (though manageable) and your experience will vary with your unit — just like active duty, some units are good and others are a drag.If you are staying in the Reserves, I recommend that you interview your unit.Talk with the commander and get a feel for his/her leadership style. You select the unit you want to go to, so if the commander gives you a bad vibe, look for another unit.Ask for the drill, AT, and mobilization schedules. Check the drill schedule to see how many MUTA 5’s (Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday), or MUTA 6’s (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Saturday, Sunday, Monday) they have. Make sure their annual training is in August (most units’ ATs are), which is workable with an internship versus a June or July annual training. See where they are in the ARFORGEN cycle to make sure you won’t get called up in the middle of school!If possible, stop by a unit for an hour or two during their BTA to see what they actually do.Ask the unit and commander how much work they expect you to do outside of drill weekends. Some units/commanders expect a significant amount of work outside of drill. It varies tremendously with units, position, ARFORGEN cycle. For many reservists this will make or break the Reserve experience.Manage your expectations … it is not active duty infantry anymore.TRANSFER OF GI BILL BENEFITSArmy Reservists can transfer their GI Bill benefits to their dependents. You incur an extra four years of service on the date of transfer. The process was extremely simple to do online. I transferred mine during the spring of my second year, but I wish I had done it immediately upon leaving active duty so that 18 months of the four-year commitment would have been my time at HBS. I plan on serving beyond the four years, but it is nice serving at my leisure versus serving because of a contractual obligation.With this, my wife is attending the University of Michigan to get her Master of Architecture degree “for free” and we get the housing stipend as well ($1,578 a month).ENJOY ITDon’t fall prey to cynicism. Enjoy the experience. It goes by ridiculously fast.BE HUMBLEOne of my main goals coming from HBS is to do well in the business world, yet *knocking on wood* regardless of the amount of success I may have, I want to remain humble.“You can’t help when or what you were born, you may not be able to help how you die; but you can — and you should — try to pass the days between as a good man …” — Sam Damon from Once an EagleIf you made it this far, get after it.Author Martin Peters is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served eight years on active duty as an infantryman with four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, concluding his time as an HHC commander. Following active duty, he attended Harvard Business School and joined the Boston Consultant Group as a consultant. He continues to serve as a major in the Army Reserves, training battalion- and above-level staffs, and is passionate about veterans. Martin is an ambassador for Service to School and has successfully assisted several veterans applying to MBA programs. Martin is married, has three dogs, and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.Veterans and Ivy LeagueA Salute to Cornell, Dartmouth, and ColumbiaMarch 15, 2015Ivy Coach salutes Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and Columbia University for their outstanding track record of supporting our troops. It is to be commended.As you may know, Ivy Coach is deeply committed to helping America’s veterans and current members of our military (which also can include veterans) gain admission to the colleges of their dreams. It’s work we’ve been doing for years and it’s some of the most fulfilling, rewarding work we do. We are so proud of the many veterans across highly selective college campuses whom we had the privilege — and that’s precisely what it is — to work with in the admissions process. But we are also aware that we have a voice in the admissions process and we’d be remiss not to raise it to commend Ivy League institutions that do right by veterans and shame other Ivy League institutions that we don’t believe properly support our troops. Just because all Ivy League institutions are “Yellow Ribbon” does not mean they are all equally supportive to veterans. Being “Yellow Ribbon” simply means they have agreed to contribute some money towards tuition costs. As an example, while not an Ivy League school, Johns Hopkins University contributes $1,000 annually per student. That’s not going to cut it. But back to the Ivy League…Cornell University, we salute you! The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill offers only a certain amount of money towards annual tuition ($19,200 for private universities and $8,900 for public universities). Cornell covers the remainder of the tuition (making them “Yellow Ribbon”). They welcome these brave men and women into their schools as though they are any other students pursuing college degrees. And that’s exactly how it should be. Cornell University has earned an ‘A’ in our book. They’d get an ‘A+’ if they didn’t have a cap of 100 veterans whom they can have on campus at a time under the “Yellow Ribbon Program,” a cap that also includes dependents (not just the troops themselves).Dartmouth College, we salute you! It’s all love from us for this fellow “Yellow Ribbon” university. With respect to veterans, you are the crown jewel of the Ivy League. Dartmouth College supports our troops and may the world know it. Dartmouth College covers the full cost of tuition that is beyond the funds from the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill. And they have no cap on the number of veterans they admit each admissions cycle. Dartmouth doesn’t have to do the right thing. But Dartmouth chooses to. Dartmouth College has earned an ‘A+’ in our book. Other Ivy League colleges may say they support our troops but Dartmouth speaks softly with one very big stick.And Columbia University, we salute you, too! You may not cover the full cost of tuition, contributing $8,000 annually per student. But maybe it’s because you admit so many vets! And you admit all of these vets through your General Studies Program. This way, their numbers don’t hurt your “US News & World Report” ranking. It’s a creative workaround and we salute you for this workaround because it means more veterans studying on your campus. For this, we’ll give you an ‘A.’ Columbia, you deserve it.But that’s just about where the love fest ends. Check back soon to find out what we have to say about the remaining Ivies’ admissions policies towards our troops. It won’t be all puppy dogs and ice cream.And, veterans, this is a terrific tool to use to measure a university’s “Yellow Ribbon” contributions against another.Ivy League and Veterans (Reddit)drlovespooge 1 year agoI'm in a SEC university right now, and honestly the childish behavior of the student is killing me. I'm 23, USMC vet making great grades, and have been looking into Ivy League (Dartmouth, Cornell) schools in the hopes of finding more academic rigor with a little more serious atmosphere.Does anyone have any experience, or currently enrolled in any top tier institutions who could give me some insight?I'm a Marine veteran at Columbia university. Columbia has by far the largest population of veterans, and provides the most support. We have just over 400 undergrads who are vets, which is about 4% of all the undergrads in the school. The other Ivies have a handful each. Brown and Dartmouth each have a dozen or so. Yale and Cornell about half that. Princeton and Harvard have 1 or 2 at most.At Columbia we have a very active Veterans group called Milvets (check us out on Facebook www.Facebook.com/CUMilvets and Twitter @Milvets) that does social events, hosts speakers, organizes career info and recruiting events, and throws a big Marine Corps Birthday Ball-style gala every year.As others have stated, the biggest change transitioning from a lower-tier school is the increased workload, particularly reading. I personally find the other students to be noticeably smarter and more mature here. I've made friends with a lot of traditional-age students and found them to be very driven.Some stuff you should be aware of:-Several of the Ivies have special application processes for nontraditional students; people like Veterans, retired professional athletes, Olympic figure skaters, etc. Applying through these is a higher chance of admission than what the overall admission stats would lead you to believe. They like the diversity having interesting people attend brings to the school. The ones who have programs like this are: *Columbia - school of general studies (note, this is just an administrative division, not a separate school like Harvard Extension School. GS students are "real" Columbia students, are in the same classes, and earn the same degree) *Yale - Eli Whitney Scholars Program *Brown - Resumed Undergraduate Education (RUE) program *Penn - (I forget the name. Will edit later)-Also, several other top schools have a partnership with non-profits which feed them Veterans. Service to School is a nonprofit that sets you up with a mentor already attending the school who helps you through the application process. They have a partnership with Yale, Cornell, MIT, Columbia, and a few others that will get you a garenteed interview with admissions and get your application to the top of the pile. Dartmouth also partners with a nonprofit called the Posse Foundation, which creates a cohort of ten Veterans who the school admits as a group, and then those ten serve as a pre-made peer support network.-A third nonprofit, the Warrior Scholar Project, does couple-week-long seminars at various too schools, including Ivies like Yale and Harvard, to teach Veterans skills to succeed at top schools. It is all-expenses-paid, food and lodging provided, and you get to see what the Ivies are like in person. WSP alumni have a good record of getting accepted to top schools afterward.Jim_Nebna 1 year agoI am an Army vet that transferred into Cornell. What kind of info are you looking for?drlovespooge 1 year agoOverall impressions and such. Also the challenge of the classes. I'm worried that classes are easy here, but I will struggle at a more difficult school. Also, curious about admissions and veteran resources around the university.Jim_Nebna 1 year agoIt was a great experience. Almost all of the classes were excellent. A few were not. I did well at my prior school and my first semester after transferring was very rough. You will have to adjust to the workload. Depending on your major, reading multiple books, having several problem sets, and/or writing multiple papers per week is not out of the norm.I found transferring to be pretty straight forward. I started in 2008 and resources were basically non-existent. It was the same at my prior school as well. By the time I had left the VA rep was telling me about programs I had never heard of.drlovespooge 1 year agoWow, how were you able to stay afloat while transitioning? I mean my workload now is a joke, so that's going to be interesting.Jim_Nebna 1 year agoDiscipline and between my then wife's stipend, and the GI Bill, I did not need to work. Which depending on where you wind up can be a challenge.I would highly suggest getting to know some of your current or prior professors. Do an independent study with them or build some rapport other than "He was in my class". Everyone who applies will have a good GPA. Having a good GPA, showing that you have already been successful at another school, and good reference letters will greatly increase your chances.bruceholder84 1 year agoI understand. I chose online classes because I'm not great at biting my tounge and could see this being an issue in a traditional classroombrianwillneverdiejarhead 1 year agoHey u/drlovesspooge, I'm a USMC vet and am the president of the student group at Columbia. We've got a vibrant community of 400+ enlisted vets. Definitely recommend it. The academic rigor and serious atmosphere are both here, but we have our share of childish behavior. Happens at every college. I'm headed to the Student Veterans of America conference in Orlando but can answer any questions you may have and connect you to some great organizations that help vets apply to top schools. Will DM you my emailroost9i 1 year agoI had a similar experience at my state Uni. It was the worst in the first year and tapered off a lot towards my junior year when the insincere fell out. But you just have to expect it. Even in my senior year there were classmates just wasting their parents' money.MFW: "Am I the only one around here that wants to graduate!"The best classes were the ones where I could find other disciplined people to form study groups with.akamustacherides 1 year agoI started off like you, went to state school and was making the dean's list with little effort. The maturity level of the students didn't bother me because at the end of the day it was me and my performance I had to face. Into my third year I started dating an attorney with a prestigious education and she convinced me that I would be better off at a different school. I transferred to a school in the northeast, it was more of a challenge, it gave me more opportunities because it had more clout, and the student body was more serious. The difference now is that I am paying off bigger student loans than if I would have stayed in the state school.jbow808 1 year agoI went to a Top 50 school that offered a great program for non-traditional students, since I graduated it's become an on-line only program.Most of my cohorts in the program where in their late 20's to early 40's and coming from a community college where I was surrounded by mostly 16 - 20 year olds who texted and surfed the web during lectures. Students tend to take academics more seriously of they're footing the bill.As far as rigor goes, the program was on par with the "traditional" offerings at the school and no one knows I was in the special program unless I tell them.I even recall hearing a professor or 2 saying they preferred teaching to older students, since they know how to think (as opposed to just wanting the answers for the final exam), are more engaged in classroom discussions, and generally more respectful of their time and experience.IntendoPrinceps 1 year agoMarine buddy of mine is at Dartmouth, and he hates it. Everyone in his program is super young, and he comes home whenever possible and has taken many breaks from school. There isn't a real city nearby so the only young adults are grad students, according to him, and they mostly socialize with each other.My friend is an extrovert and very sociable, so it's not like he stays at his apartment all of the time. He even joined a frat but that didn't help much.harDCore182 1 year agoTuck MBA is my dream. Heard grad life is better than undergrad there.cwood74 1 year agoWent to Harvard for a masters program college kids are still kids. I went to a party school for undergrad and it was a noticeable difference in terms of difficulty and attitude but nothing like the military.drlovespooge 1 year agoWhat kind background did you come from when applying? I'm thinking about graduating from here, but going to a top tier school for my JD/MBAcwood74 1 year agoI went for computer science my grades were at the low side for top 20 around 3.8 GPA. What really saved me was letters of recommendation from employers and volunteering on open source projects. The top schools seem to care about someone that is really focused and dedicated to being good at one thing instead of mediocre at everything. I met people they turned down later that I would have considered a much better candidate than me.gijose 1 year agoI'm a junior at Brown, and I know for certain that the school has an interest in attracting more veterans. Brown has its own thing going—totally open curriculum, weird grading scheme, very liberal students—but it's a top-tier school and has a backdoor application for "non-traditional" students. If you have any questions PM me and I'll try to answer them.fezha 10 months agoBrown really wants more vets. This is true. In the cracks of the internet, I found a PDF detailing Brown's struggles to attract and connect with Vets. They even acknowledged other Ivies were attracting vets, but they couldn't.To be honest, I believe it's location. Brown is all the motherfucking way in Rhode Island. If prostitution was still legal in Rhode Island I would apply there...hahahah.....haha......yeah.talab 10 months agoConsidering the population density in the northeast is among the highest in the nation, I don't think location is really an issue. My theory is that it's more about the political climate — I've seen the studies suggesting political ideologies in the military are varied, but in my experience, the military is a very conservative organization — because Brown is among the most liberal campuses in the country. I also think that among enlisted personnel there's a culture of inferiority. People I served just don't see themselves being "smart" enough to study at Brown or any other Ivy, which is unfortunate.LEM413 1 year agoI'm not a vet, but I'm a Tufts University graduate, and one of my good friends who graduated with me is also a USMC vet. They have a program for non-traditional students called the REAL program (http://uss.tufts.edu/undergradEducation/academics/real/), which is basically just a separate admissions process. Other than that, you're a full-fledged Tufts student able to enroll as either a liberal arts or engineering student. As far as the specifics of the admissions process itself, u/beltayn88 can provide more insight into that, since he went through it personally.Tufts is definitely a school that attracts a particular kind of student, in that pretty much everybody is very academically motivated but not competitive in the way that you see in Ivy League schools. I wouldn't have traded my experience there for anywhere else. Their dean has stated that they want to recruit more veterans to attend as well.Why Don’t Top-Tier Colleges Care About Enrolling Veterans (2013)?By Wick SloaneNo veterans here?Photo by Glen Cooper/Getty ImagesThis article originally appeared in Inside Higher Ed.If you can believe it, the number of undergraduate veterans at the nation’s self-proclaimed most highly selective colleges is significantly fewer than we reported in 2011. The total this year: 168*. The * is because, again, too many of these colleges, the 31 invitation-only members of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE), don’t know. The number may bounce again.“Disgraceful and absurd” is what I called the 232 total veterans in 2011. By comparison, the total number of veterans and dependents of veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill rose from 555,329 students in 2011 to 646,302 in 2012. From 232 to 174 to 168—with the nation at war and 118,784 total undergraduate seats at the 31 COFHE colleges.Lost for synonyms, I asked Andrew Bacevich, retired U.S. Army colonel and author of Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country, to describe the pitiful count of veterans at selective colleges. Bacevich is an eloquent critic of all of us—we, the people—for letting 1 percent of the population bear the nation’s military burden—fighting, deaths, and wounds.“Here is an issue where the nation's most prestigious institutions should demonstrate some leadership,” Bacevich said. “With a very few admirable exceptions, they have failed to do so. That failure is nothing less than shameful.” (Listen to Bacevich on The Colbert Report and on Moyers & Company.)Some colleges had been including the combined totals of both veterans and veteran dependents and family members using the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill in their count of veteran students. In 2011, Cornell University reported 48 veterans, with just one confirmed veteran this year. Duke University reported 22 veterans in 2011 and one this year. Rice University originally reported having 27 veterans last year but then amended that number to one veteran last year and one this year. Northwestern University reported 45 undergraduates who are either veterans or dependents, with the administration relying on a student group to sort out the details.Lows for 2013: Yale University, two. Princeton University, one. Williams College, zero. Swarthmore College, zero. Harvard University—which did not reply to last year’s survey—reported 19 veterans this year but did not clarify whether that number includes dependents. The 27 veterans that Stanford University originally reported turned out to include dependents, and the administration hasn’t clarified the number yet.Highs: University of Pennsylvania, 35. Georgetown University, 25—with 81 total traditional and nontraditional undergraduates, including veterans and active-duty military. Johns Hopkins University, 23. Washington University in St. Louis, 20. University of Rochester, 16. Dartmouth College, 14—one down from last year.“Veterans can’t do the work,” an Ivy League president told me a few years ago.Again, there have been too many evasions and excuses and circumlocutions for one column. Yale President Peter Salovey didn’t think the question of why Yale has just two veterans was worth much time. Or Columbia, which again proclaimed unquestionable success with “about 300” veterans in its School of General Studies program. (This is separate from its main undergraduate college, Columbia College.) Or Columbia, again, declining to reply to the following questions: “Why can’t veterans get a degree from Columbia College, too?” and “What is the endowment of Columbia College versus the endowment of the School of General Studies?”Two years ago, Vassar College President Catharine Hill and Posse Foundation founder Debbie Bial created a program to encourage veteran enrollment. Yet of all the COFHE colleges, only Wesleyan University has joined the program so far. Why are so many prestigious schools reluctant to enroll veterans?“Veterans can’t do the work,” an Ivy League president told me a few years ago. (This was not at a press event or in an interview, so I won’t out the individual.) But many other university administrators begged to differ.“Generally devaluing the demonstrated abilities of the men and women who commit to national service is as ugly as the coarsest racism, sexism, etc., that presumably this same leader wouldn't be caught dead expressing. For shame,” said Jon Burdick, the University of Rochester’s dean of admissions and financial aid. “Anybody who wants to say that should be required to provide proof—including proof that guiding enrolling veterans to success on their campus would be a greater burden than the significant efforts they voluntarily make in guiding their underrepresented minority students, varsity athletes, and legacy children of major donors.”“I don’t see any evidence of that,” said Wesleyan President Michael Roth. “The average veteran entering college is in his or her late 20s or early 30s; many have been through a very intense experience serving overseas, and all have incredible training from the military. The workload at a highly selective college or university, while different, may seem easy to them! And unlike the typical 18-year-old first-year college student who comes straight from high school, veterans have had a number of extra years to consider their future and decided that they really want to go to college now.”Swarthmore College had zero veterans enrolled this year, and the reply from President Rebecca Chopp joined the chorus of the usual excuses. The Swarthmore situation troubles me on two counts: First, I don't see how institutions that benefit from so many federal programs and policies, from Pell Grants to research funding with generous overhead to tax-deducted donations and a tax-free endowment, can neglect the young men and women we have all sent to war. Second, working with returning veterans is part of what I do as a Quaker. Incidentally, Quakers founded Swarthmore in 1864.I wrote to Chopp:Williams, where I went, has zero veterans, has no spiritual or moral traditions. Trustees there refuse to discuss or wonder why I am asking. I can't give that pass to Swarthmore. I don't need to list to you, I know, why Swarthmore would seek a higher standard than Williams. The usual obfuscation is that a college would be happy to take veterans but none are applying. We both know that a college would need to recruit this population. And we both know, I think, that selective colleges, especially those as wealthy as Swarthmore, have exactly as many of certain types of students—soccer players, chemists, oboists—as they choose to have.Chopp’s reply:We are geared in our work toward undergraduates in the age range of 18-22 and that fact sometimes makes choosing us less likely for older veterans. In recent years we have been focused on the children of veterans and we have at present seven children of veterans enrolled, which is a part of the support that veterans and their families seek and need. The community colleges and the large state and research universities are better able to enroll large numbers at once.My rebuttal: Preposterous. For more than a decade, the U.S. has been a nation at war. Focusing on 18- to 22-year-olds is a decision by Swarthmore, not the hand of fate. Until the wars are over and the veterans healed, Swarthmore, a Quaker college, could decide to welcome and accommodate 100, even 200, veterans. Would Swarthmore accept a tax on its endowment to support veterans at community colleges? An institution supported by federal aid and tax policies shouldn’t relegate 18- to 22-year-olds to war with no responsibility to support those students on their return.Chopp: “We are only able to enroll smaller numbers given our class size and the commitment to a broad range of access to the liberal arts experience that we exercise.”In the eyes of Swarthmore, then, students of talent who have chosen not to serve their country are equal in diversity to those who have?Chopp: “In our history the largest numbers of veterans we accommodated came after the Second World War, as many who were our students before enlisting in that war returned. Those numbers are less likely in this modern era.”“Less likely”? With 646,302 veterans and dependents using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, Swarthmore made room for just seven dependents and no veterans.Top CommentThis doesn't surprise me for undergrads. If you're the type that will normally get into an Ivy League college, you're probably the officer type, not the type to enlist at 18. More...214 Comments Join InStill, I did find some good news. This year, Stanford’s summer school will include a program for up to 20 veterans to build their academic skills. That’s the result of several years of advocacy by William Treseder, a Marine combat veteran and Stanford graduate via community college. (Treseder says he came upon the summer school idea in one of my columns.)And through the Posse program, Vassar enrolled 11 veterans this fall and will enroll as many each year in the future. Wesleyan, a COFHE school, has also signed on. “We found that it was a real challenge to ‘go it alone’ as a single institution,” said Wesleyan’s Roth. “We were impressed by Posse’s veterans program and felt that joining forces with them was the best way to enroll more veterans every year.”

Q. Which movies are known to have resulted in a surge in US military recruitment during its opening week like Top Gun?A. These movies were successful at the box office and increased interest in military service.Top Gun - WikipediaTop Gun' Boosting Service Sign-upsHow did Top Gun affect military recruitment? (Quora)An Officer and a Gentleman - WikipediaA Few Good Men - WikipediaBlack Hawk Down (film) - WikipediaSaving Private Ryan - WikipediaZero Dark Thirty - WikipediaThe US military storm Hollywood | Steve RoseWhy the Pentagon Didn’t like “Platoon”'Act of Valor', 'Call of Duty' and the Role of Entertainment in Military Recruitment - Video Games and Military RecruitmentTop 10 Lies (Some) Military Recruiters Tell ApplicantsMovies with and without Pentagon CooperationTop Gun - WikipediaTop Gun is a 1986 American romantic military action drama film directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpsonand Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns" published in California magazine three years earlier. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Tom Skerritt. Cruise plays Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Edwards) are given the chance to train at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School at the former Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar in San Diego.Top Gun legendary opening scene and creditsTop Gun was released on May 16, 1986. Upon its release, the film received generally mixed reviews from film critics but many particularly praised the action sequences, the effects, the aerial stunts, and the acting performances with Cruise and McGillis receiving the most praise. Four weeks after release, the number of theaters showing it increased by 45%.Despite its initial mixed critical reaction, the film was a huge commercial hit grossing $356 million against a production budget of only $15 million. The film maintained its popularity over the years and earned an IMAX 3D re-release in 2013. Additionally, the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Take My Breath Away" performed by Berlin.In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".A sequel,Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled for release on July 19, 2019.My favourite Top Gun moments'Top Gun' Boosting Service Sign-upsJuly 05, 1986|MARK EVJE | Associated Press WriterSAN DIEGO — Regulations prohibit the Navy from promoting the hit movie "Top Gun" in its recruitment efforts, but the film extolling the service's best fighter jocks apparently has become a valuable tool--in some parts of the Southwest anyway.When the film opened in May, recruiters in some cities manned tables outside movie houses during "Top Gun" premieres to answer questions from would-be flyboys emerging with a new-found need for speed from an F-14 warplane.Navy recruiting officials say they didn't keep track of that operation's success, but they have noticed more inquiries than usual about the naval aviation officer candidate program since the movie's release.They don't think it's a coincidence."Two groups I can identify (as having increased interest) are individuals who have applied in the past and were turned down or dropped out of Aviation Officers Training School, and individuals who are approaching the maximum age limit (to apply)," said Lt. Ray Gray, head of the officer programs department in Los Angeles."There seems to have been a big rush in those categories that I have to attribute to the movie. I've asked several of these individuals if they've seen the movie and if that's why they came down to talk to us again and they've said 'yes'."On the other end of the spectrum, we've seen a general increase in interest in young men who don't yet qualify for the program, and I have to attribute that to 'Top Gun' also."Lt. Sandy Stairs, the Navy's representative while the film was in production, said Navy regulations prohibit the service from "selectively endorsing or appearing to endorse a commercial product," like the movie, even though it favorably portrays the Navy and could aid in recruiting."Some recruiters have said to me that a lot of young high school graduates said they've seen the movie and would like to sign up for naval aviation, but we don't actively go out and say, 'Go see the movie.' We're not in the business of promoting the movie, we're in the business of recruiting people," Stairs said.But Lt. Cmdr. Laura Marlowe, officer in charge of recruiting for the naval officer program in Arizona and San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said her recruiters in Phoenix have received twice as many calls as usual about the aviation program in the last month."They couldn't specifically say it was a direct result of 'Top Gun,' but they suspect it probably had a lot to do with it because when they would talk to applicants, about 90 percent said they had seen the movie," Marlowe said."Maybe it hadn't made them call in, but they'd been thinking about (joining the Navy) and this was just the kicker that put them over the line," Marlowe said.The film has been in the top 10 for box office receipts throughout its seven weeks of release, grossing more than $72 million. It depicts the extensive training given to the top 1% of fighter pilots at the Navy Fighter Weapons School at the Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. The school is nicknamed "Top Gun."Several scenes were filmed at the real-life Top Gun school, where most of the pilots have several years of F-14 experience. To qualify as a pilot, rigid mental and physical screenings must be passed, followed by two years of officer and flight training school and four years of non-combat flying.Despite the local tie, Marlowe said there hasn't been an appreciable increase in San Diego applicants. She said she thinks that's because of the high level of interest in aviation and the Navy in the area to begin with.Master Chief Charles Griva, who oversees the Navy's general recruiting in San Diego, said he's noticed a slight increase in people wanting to join the Navy since the movie came out and "a definite increase in those asking about the naval aviation program."This would be a hard town to sample," Griva said. "Maybe the Midwest would be a better place because if you live in Mira Mesa (next to Miramar), for example, watching F-14s is old hat."An Officer and a Gentleman - WikipediaAN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN - Trailer ( 1982 )An Officer and a Gentleman is a 1982 American romantic drama film starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger and Louis Gossett Jr., who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film, making him the first African American to do so. It tells the story of Zack (Gere), a United States Navy Aviation Officer Candidate who is beginning his training at Aviation Officer Candidate School. While Zack meets his first true girlfriend during his training, a local young woman named Paula (Winger), he also comes into conflict with the hard-driving Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant (Gossett Jr.), the drill instructor training his class. Also starring Phillip J. Salmon in his first role.The film was written by Douglas Day Stewart and directed by Taylor Hackford. Its title is an old expression from the Royal Navy and later from the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice's charge of "conduct unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman" (from 1860). The film was commercially released in the U.S. on August 13, 1982. It was well received by critics, with a number calling it the best film of 1982. It also was a financial success, grossing $130 million against a $6 million budget.An Officer and a Gentleman was an enormous box office success and went on to become the third-highest-grossing film of 1982, after E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and Tootsie. It grossed $3,304,679 in its opening weekend and $129,795,554 overall at the domestic box office. It sold an estimated 44 million tickets in the US.A Few Good Men - WikipediaOne man is dead. Two men are accused of his murder. The entire Marines Corps is on trial. And 'A Few Good Men' are about to ignite the most explosive episode in US military history. Universally acclaimed, 'A Few Good Men' unites the big screen's biggest stars.A Few Good Men is a 1992 American legal drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore, with Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, Wolfgang Bodison, James Marshall, J. T. Walsh and Kiefer Sutherland in supporting roles. It was adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin from his play of the same name but includes contributions by William Goldman. The film revolves around the court-martial of two U.S. Marinescharged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case to defend their clients.Saving Private Ryan - WikipediaFollowing the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war filmdirected by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II, the film is notable for its graphic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which includes a depiction of the Omaha Beach assault during the Normandy landings. It follows United States Army Rangers CaptainJohn H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and a squad (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies) as they search for a paratrooper, Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen.The film received widespread critical acclaim, winning several awards for film, cast, and crew, as well as earning significant returns at the box office. The film grossed $216.8 million domestically, making it the highest-grossing film of 1998 in the United States, and $481.8 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Spielberg's direction won his second Academy Award for Best Director, with four more awards going to the film. Saving Private Ryan was released on home video in May 1999, earning another $44 million from sales.In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."Black Hawk Down - WikipediaBlack Hawk Down is a 2001 war film produced and directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 non-fiction book of the same name by Mark Bowden, which in turn is based on the 29-part series of articles published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, chronicling the events of a 1993 raid in Mogadishu by the U.S. military aimed at capturing faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid, and the ensuing firefight, known as the Battle of Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Tom Hardy in his feature film debut, and Sam Shepard.Black Hawk Down (2001) - Official Trailer [HD]Black Hawk Down won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 74th Academy Awards.In 2009, an extended cut of the film was released on DVD. The cut contained an additional 8 minutes of footage increasing the running time to 152 minutes. This extended cut has yet to be released on Blu-ray.Zero Dark Thirty - WikipediaZero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American political-thriller filmdirected by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. Billed as "the greatest manhunt in history", the film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for al Qaedaleader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks in the United States. This search eventually leads to the discovery of his compound in Pakistan and the military raid that resulted in bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011.The film stars Jessica Chastain as Maya, a fictional CIAintelligence analyst, with Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, James Gandolfini, Kyle Chandler, Stephen Dillane, Chris Pratt, Édgar Ramírez, Jennifer Ehle, John Barrowman, Mark Duplass, and Frank Grillo in supporting roles.It was produced by Boal, Bigelow, and Megan Ellison, and was independently financed by Ellison's Annapurna Pictures. The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 19, 2012 and had its wide release on January 11, 2013.Zero Dark Thirty - Official Trailer #2 (HD)Zero Dark Thirty received widespread critical acclaim and appeared on 95 critics' top ten lists of 2012. It was nominated in five categories at the 85th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Chastain, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing, and won the award for Best Sound Editing. The film also earned Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, with Chastain winning the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.The film's depiction of so-called "enhanced interrogation" generated controversy, with some critics describing it as pro-torture propaganda, as the interrogations are shown producing reliably useful and accurate information.Acting CIA director Michael Morellstated, "The film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques ... were the key to finding bin Laden. That impression is false."Other critics described it as an anti-torture exposure of interrogation practices.Republican Congressman Peter T. King charged that the filmmakers were given improper access to classified materials, which they denied.An unreleased draft IG report published by the Project on Government Oversight, in June 2013, stated that former CIA Director Leon Panetta discussed classified information during an awards ceremony for the SEAL team that carried out the raid on the bin Laden compound. Unbeknownst to Panetta, screenwriter Mark Boal was among the 1,300 present during the ceremony.'Act of Valor', 'Call of Duty' and the Role of Entertainment in Military Recruitment - Video Games and Military RecruitmentBy Ryan Gorman| Feb. 25, 2012The much hyped military action drama Act of Valor opens nationwide this weekend. It is the latest in a long line of movies, TV shows, and video games focusing on war and combat. The amount of readily available war-related content is at an all-time high right now, is this good or bad for military recruitment?Movies like Act of Valor impact recruiting, so do video games. Usually they cause people to enroll in the military because they want to look as cool as what they saw at the theater or on TV.The Navy saw a huge increase in recruitment after Top Gun was released. Will this film, along with the killing of Osama bin Laden and other assorted SEAL Team Six activities, boost enrollment in the Navy again? Only time will tell. One thing that is quantifiable is the impact past military/special forces dramas and video games have had on military perception.The Army is so convinced that video games like Call of Duty boost recruitment numbers that it has released multiple versions of its own video game called America’s Army. Call of Duty itself is now on its 18th iteration, with a 19th already on the way. Every year the video game franchise breaks sales records, and the latest CoD: Modern Warfare 3 was no exception. With over 12 million copies soldin the first week it broke the old record of 4.8 million copies held by Call of Duty: Black Ops; its predecessor.America’s Army has never even approached those numbers, most likely never will, but it still gets the message the military wants to broadcast out there: shooting things is fun, and you can do it while working for us.Act of Valor sets itself apart from the pack by starring an ensemble cast of active duty Navy SEALS. Most movies about combat retain former soldiers in consulting roles, but this movie put commandos in front of the camera and let them do what they do best. This may not be the best military action film ever made, but it will likely be the most realistic.Before you watch the movie, remember the Vancouver Sun review’s headline: “US Navy SEALS can do anything – except act.” They aren’t being paid to act, they’re being paid to kick ass and make it look cool while doing it like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer did in Top Gun. Only this movie involves less drama and more murder, death, kill.While movies like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Saving Private Ryan made attempts to dramatize wars, they did not always convey a very positive image of the military. With graphic war scenes in the media, soldier meltdowns, and war crimes being committed all over the place; it’s no wonder people have such distrust in the soldiers who dedicate their lives to serving and protecting our freedom.That brings us back to Act of Valor, which derives its name from the Medal of Valor; an award bestowed on soldiers for heroic acts while under attack. The Navy SEALS portrayed in this film perform heroic act after heroic act because it’s their job, they’re SEALS. The movie goes for the gusto instead of the Oscar.Most movies that depict war make it look cool and fun. They make dying in combat look brave and heroic. My father fought in Vietnam, he would disagree with that idea. While dying in war can be heroic, simply doing so isn’t a heroic act and shouldn’t be viewed that way. Movies that make it look heroic to cowboy up and go guns a blazing into a hail of bullets are unrealistic and ridiculous. Movies like Act of Valor depict action in a way that will hopefully make people see war realistically. It will probably also boost recruiting so more people can try to be the hero who kills the next Osama bin LadenPhoto Credit: US NavyCall of Duty: WWII vs. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Storming Normandy then and now | PCWorldFilmThe US military storm Hollywood | Steve RoseThe US military happily rents out its wares to film-makers. But are the results little more than adverts for the forces? And are they now being targeted at children? Steve RoseMon 6 Jul 2009 21.30 BSTAt first glance, it looks like just another disposable summer movie, this time about battling robots from outer space. But Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is also quite possibly the most militarised film ever made. Even more than its predecessor, it crams in an exhausting amount of military hardware: jet fighters, transport planes, unmanned spy planes, helicopters, tanks, submarines, hovercrafts, aircraft carriers, you name it. And if you can't name it, an actor will usually yell something helpful like: "They're bringing in the C-17s!"Apocalypse NowIn addition, many of the characters in the movie are military personnel, and genuine US troops were used as extras. Large chunks of it were shot at US airbases, too. Holloman, in New Mexico, stands in for Diego Garcia, while the nearby White Sands missile range doubles for Egypt in the movie's comically destructive finale. It was generally assumed that the Transformers films were toy adverts disguised as event movies – but, on the strength of Revenge of the Fallen, a new question arises, one with much more sinister connotations in a movie directed at kids: are they really selling the mighty US military?By reputation, Hollywood is a town of lily-livered liberals. Military people rarely come off well in the movies: they are usually characterised as disciplinarian dads, meat-headed bullies, inflexible authoritarians or, in the case of American Beauty, self-hating, closeted gay Nazis. But there's a contingent of film-makers who seem to get on just fine with the troops, and chief among them are Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Not only did Bay direct both Transformers movies, but also such war-tastic blockbusters as Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, each made with heavy military cooperation; Pearl Harbor even held its premiere on a US aircraft carrier. Both were produced by Bruckheimer, who has also brought the world military-themed movies such as Crimson Tide, Black Hawk Down and the daddy of the genre, Top Gun.FuryIt's not difficult to see what both sides get out of it. The use of official hardware gives a movie such as Revenge of the Fallen a much-needed veneer of credibility: without the military, it's just a film about robots fighting. And it saved the film-makers millions of dollars in props, locations and special effects. Meanwhile, the military gets to show off its latest equipment to millions of people, and depict its personnel in the best possible light."Yes, we have a good relationship," says Philip Strub, director of entertainment media at the US department of defence, who has worked with Bay since Armageddon. Bay is always keen to include the military's latest equipment, says Strub: "We might say, 'Hey, you've never shown an X, Y or a Z.' We'll send them information, talk about its role. Or they'll come back to us and say, 'We'd like to have a C-17. Or what about an aircraft carrier and some F-18s?'"Bay and Bruckheimer aren't the only military-minded film-makers in Hollywood, though. The first Oscar-winning picture, Wings, from 1927, was a first world war movie made with support from the US air force, and they have been working together ever since, in war epics such as Patton, The Green Berets and From Here to Eternity.American SniperIn theory, any US film-maker can make use of the military's hardware, personnel and property. It all belongs to the taxpayer, after all. As well as Strub's office in the Pentagon, each of the US's armed forces has its own public affairs department in LA to work with film-makers. "The rule of thumb for us is that there's no additional cost to the US government," says Strub. "So if they're filming typical flight operations on an aircraft carrier, we wouldn't charge. But if you wanted to control the aircraft, then we would charge exactly what it costs the squadron." These costs vary: from $1,000 an hour for a tank, to more than $25,000 for an F-15 jet fighter.However, you get all this on the military's terms. The script must be submitted for approval, a military consultant will be on hand during the shoot, and the finished product has to be screened for Pentagon chiefs before its release. And if the military doesn't like the way it is portrayed in the script, it won't help you until you make the changes it recommends. "Our desire is that the military are portrayed as good people trying to do the right thing the right way," says Strub. "That's probably our single most important imperative. We want the equipment to be operated in a way that's more or less the way it would be; and for servicemen to act towards each other and towards others as they would in real life."Full Metal JacketIn his 2004 book Operation Hollywood, David Robb paints a darker picture. Robb documents the discussions between the two sides on many movies since the second world war. What emerges is a startling picture of an entertainment landscape shaped by the Pentagon. Sometimes the changes are laughable. In the James Bond movie GoldenEye, the Pentagon demanded the nationality of an incompetent US admiral be changed if the producers wanted US helicopters for the finale. He became Canadian.Sometimes the changes are more sinister. In the Cuban missile crisis drama Thirteen Days, the Pentagon objected to the way generals were shown to be in favour of invading Cuba at the time, even though this was based on tapes of discussions within the White House. The military described Thirteen Days's portrayal of the generals as "negative" and "inauthentic". It sought to alter the scenes, but producer and star Kevin Costner refused, and went ahead without their support."The military is part of the US government," says Robb now. "In America we have the First Amendment, which prohibits government from favouring speech it likes, and not favouring speech it doesn't like. You can't reward somebody who makes a movie saying how great the American government is – and deny the same break to somebody criticising it." By taking the military's assistance, he says, an artist's vision is inevitably corrupted. "The military are not film-makers. They're good at making war, and making weapons, but they're not good at making movies. They don't have a sense of humour and they don't really even have a sense of their own history."Bridge over the River KwaiDespite the extra cost and hardship, many of the best Hollywood war movies have been made without the forces: Apocalypse Now, Platoon, MASH, Catch-22, Full Metal Jacket, Dr Strangelove, Three Kings. And when it comes to the recent anti-Iraq/Bush war movies such as Redacted, Rendition, Battle for Haditha, Stop Loss, In the Valley of Elah, or HBO's Generation Kill, the film-makers didn't even bother to ask the US military for support, knowing full well how they operate. Even Bay and Bruckheimer have managed to make the odd movie without Pentagon help, such as 1996's The Rock, in which renegade US marines hold the country to ransom and kill Navy SEALs – a definite deal-breaker.But the more commercially minded film-makers have learned how to get the goods without coming close to upsetting the top brass, through a process that could be described as self-censorship. Transformers is the perfect example. First, it is not a war movie but a sci-fi movie. Its fantastical, apolitical storyline neatly sidesteps issues of historical accuracy or military competence. As Strub puts it: "Since we don't have too many existing war plans for fighting Decepticons, and allying with Autobots, there's an enormous amount of flexibility in terms of artistic licence."StalingradSecondly, and more worryingly, Transformers is aimed at children. Its target audience might well come to associate the military and warfare solely with exciting action, giddying technology, civic duty and untarnished heroism – and perhaps one day sign up themselves. The military don't like to talk about the recruiting value of movies these days, but they are clearly mindful of the Top Gun effect. It seems impossible to imagine now, especially since Quentin Tarantino's "Top Gun is the gayest movie ever" analysis, but in 1986, the sight of Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and co in white uniforms and aviator shades standing in front of throbbing jet fighters sent lots of America's young men straight to the nearest recruiting office. They usually didn't have to go far – the Navy installed special recruiting booths in cinema lobbies.That strategy would never work today. Post 9/11, the appetite of US film-goers for patriotic entertainment might be undiminished, but recruitment rates are low. And they haven't been helped by real-life events such as Abu Ghraib, friendly fire incidents, extraordinary rendition, atrocities committed by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention friends and family killed or maimed in the US's current conflicts. So sci-fi movies aimed at younger audiences seem to be a new direction for military recruitment. In the last few years, the Pentagon has helped with Spielberg's War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Iron Man. Coming soon are Iron Man 2 and GI Joe (another toy being turned into a movie). Think it's all just brainless nonsense and nothing to worry about? Well, bear in mind that Transformers broke box-office records.Paths of GloryWHY THE PENTAGON DIDN'T LIKE 'PLATOON'Fighting for country. At war with themselves. A contemporary trailer for Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning 1986 Vietnam War movie "Platoon". This is a fan-made trailer.There's a group of movie critics that the public knows little about, yet it has a sometimes important influence on movies the public sees: the anonymous military officers in the Pentagon who decide whether a movie maker will get official cooperation that could save millions in production costs.From our examination of a series of documents that detail the confidential negotiations between Hollywood and the Pentagon, we have come to the following conclusions:The Pentagon gives its wholehearted cooperation only to those producers who agree to turn out the equivalent of a recruiting poster.If a producer acts like a doormat to get the military reviewers' approval and cooperation, the Pentagon will walk all over him and demand changes that could significantly affect the artistic integrity of the movie.There's an inverse principle of military movie making: the less support (and interference) a producer gets from the Pentagon, the more likely it is that the movie will be a critical and/or commercial success.In short, this unholy, unhealthy alliance between Hollywood and the Pentagon -- so often eagerly sought after by each side -- is usually to the advantage of neither, and is certainly not useful for the American public, which pays for the movie in both subsidies and at the box office.Perhaps the best confirmation of these conclusions is that the total level of Pentagon support for the Vietnam War movie ''Platoon'' was exactly zero. Yet it was both a critical and a commercial success of prodigious proportions.The low-budget ($6 million) film was a blockbuster at the box office and won four Oscars, including ''Best Picture'' and ''Best Director.'' Its success was a tribute to Oliver Stone's dogged loyalty to a script he wrote in 1975, based on his own combat experience in Vietnam -- a script that was rejected by all the major studios.The ''Platoon'' script was also rejected by the Pentagon. In a confidential memo dated June 28, 1984, Col. John E. Taylor of the Army's public affairs staff wrote:''We have reviewed the script, 'The Platoon,' and have found the Army cannot support it as written. In its present form, the script presents an unfair and inaccurate view of the Army.''There are numerous problem areas in the script. They include: the murder and rape of innocent Vietnamese villagers by U.S. soldiers, the coldblooded murder of one U.S. soldier by another, rampant drug abuse, the stereotyping of black soldiers and the portrayal of the majority of soldiers as illiterate delinquents. The entire script is rife with unrealistic and highly unfavorable depictions of the American soldier.''Donald E. Baruch, a top Pentagon public affairs official, concurred in a July 5, 1984, letter. ''In our opinion,'' he wrote, ''the script basically creates an unbalanced portrayal by stereotyping black soldiers, showing rampant drug abuse, illiteracy and concentrating action on brutality.''Baruch left the door open for compromise: ''Of course, we would be delighted if your company would consider screenplay revisions. A meeting can be arranged to go over the script, if someone wishes to come to Washington.''As it happens, all objections raised by the Army censors were aimed at the very features of the movie that eventually drew critical acclaim, led to its commercial success and brought widespread testimony from Vietnam veterans that the story of their war had finally been told as it was.Admittedly a movie doesn't have to be a critical smash to get the thumbs down from the Pentagon. It refused to cooperate with Sylvester Stallone's ''First Blood,'' a gory action adventure that was a smash with the public and a bust with the critics.The Pentagon also refused to cooperate with the makers of another Vietnam film, ''The Deerhunter.'' Other Pentagon rejects included Arnold Schwarzenegger's ''Commando'' (for ''implying that the U.S. Army has or had a special unit trained solely for the purpose of committing murder and pillage''); ''War Games'' (because no computer hacker could break into the military's strategic defense system); ''An Officer and a Gentleman'' (because the Lou Gossett character and the portrayal of boot camp were offensive) and ''Heartbreak Ridge'' (because the profanity and other attributes of the Clint Eastwood character were offensive).The one notable exception that proves the rule was ''Top Gun,'' which succeeded even with the Pentagon's enthusiastic cooperation.Top Gun versus Sergeant Bilko? Pentagon CooperationFilms which obtained cooperation:• Air Force One• The Caine Mutiny• A Few Good Men• From Here to Eternity• Armageddon• The Longest Day• The Hunt for Red October• Pearl Harbour• Patton• Patriot Games• Top Gun• Windtalkers (to be released)• The Jackal• Hamburger Hill• Hearts in Atlantis (to be released)• The Longest Day• GoldenEye• The American President• Behind Enemy LInes (to be released)• Apollo 13• Tomorrow Never Dies• Tora! Tora! Tora!• A Time to KillFilms denied cooperation:• Apocalypse Now• Catch-22Advertisement• Broken Arrow• Die Hard 2• Dr Strangelove• Forrest Gump• Full Metal Jacket• GI Jane• Independence Day• The Last Detail• Lone Star• Mars Attacks!• Memphis Belle• An Officer and a Gentleman• Platoon• Sgt Bilko• The Thin Red LineTop 10 Lies (Some) Military Recruiters Tell Applicants