If you can't get it done, you just keep a sense of humor about it. For Jones the hardest point is coming back to the academy after visiting family and friends. Everybody thinks about leaving at some point, he said. Some of his classmates are slowly trickling out, including his roommate, who left this summer. Jones said much of the leaving has to do with changing goals.
People come in with their own expectations.
Some find out either they don't want to put in the amount of work or their goals change, he said. According to the academy's institutional research and assessment department, the rate of cadets leaving after one year is 12 percent. The attrition rate in the full four years varies from 23.9 percent in the 1997 graduating class to 16.4 in the 1998 class and 17 percent for the 1999 class. Graduation For Connor and Ray academy life is close to over. Both will graduate in May 1998.