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Foreign Student Program at U.S. Service Academies

Program description / Law | Other sites

Program description Law
The United States invites democratic countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to nominate students to compete for entrance into U.S. military academies (the Army's U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY; the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD; and the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, CO). The students are selected according to "the same criteria applied to U.S. students."1

Foreign cadets' tuition is waived for countries designated as "low income" or "middle income" in the World Bank's annual World Development Indicators report. All Latin American and Caribbean countries qualify by this measure, as per capita income in each is below the $8,626 threshold necessary to be considered a "high income" country.

The cost of educating students from these countries is paid by the armed services' operation and maintenance accounts. The annual attendance cost at the academies is $69,147 per student.2

Students from Latin America and the Philippines have been attending the service academies at no charge since before World War II. In 1983, the law was changed to give the program worldwide reach, authorizing a maximum of 40 foreign students per academy. As of 1997, 115 foreign students were in attendance at the three academies.3

In 1997, the following countries from Latin America and the Caribbean had students at U.S. service academies4:

  • Barbados
  • Colombia
  • Costa Rica
  • Ecuador
  • El Salvador
  • Guatemala
  • Guyana
  • Honduras
  • Nicaragua
  • Peru
  • Trinidad and Tobago
Three similar sections in Title 10, U.S. Code -- one each for the Army (section 4346), Navy (section 6957) and Air Force (section 9344) -- govern the practice of funding foreign students at U.S. service academies.

All three sections limit the number of foreign students to 40 per academy.

Foreign students, of course, are not required to serve in the U.S. military after graduation.

Click to read the text of section 4346 of Title 10, U.S. Code. (From U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library)
Click to read the text of section 6957 of Title 10, U.S. Code. (From U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library)
Click to read the text of section 9344 of Title 10, U.S. Code. (From U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library)

Other sites:

Sources:

1 United States, Department of Defense, "Foreign student program at the U.S. service academies," (Washington: 1997).

2 "Foreign student program."

3 "Foreign student program."

4 "Foreign student program."

Foreign Student Program at U.S. Service Academies

 

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