Reply #100: You could enter Annapolis and West Point at young as 12 in the 1800s.

[happyslug]

Annapolis was formed in the 1830s, after the Secretary of War's teenage son was hung for Mutiny by the Captain of the ship he was an Ensign on. In the 1830s the Navy set up a School for Ensigns to both avoid such problems in the future AND to provide a more standard Education. The age to enter was the same as the age you entered the Work force in the 1800s, your teen years. Most people entered the workforce when they turn age 12 and of you had the money, the Collage Market.

Both Academies took in teenagers in the 1800s, Both would be view more like a High School today than a Collage of today (most Collages of that time period would also be more like High School than collages today). High Schools started about 1860 to prepare people for Collage. It was only after the Widespread adoption of High Schools did both academes started to require a High School Diploma BEFORE accepting people in (This occurred around 1900, it would take someone with some background on this subject to find out when that occurred, but many school districts did NOT have high schools till almost WWI). In fact one of the big differences between the US Armies of WWI and WWII was that the Majority of WWI soldiers were NOT high school graduates, while the Majority of WWII solders WERE (Through a high percentage of WWII soldiers did NOT have high School Diplomas, the vast majority of people having High School Diplomas is a product of the 1950s not before).

People worked as teenagers, not part time like today, but full time. As full time employees they had to quit school. One of the reason most states have Mandatory School ages was in the 1920s-1950s they was a movement to get more people high school Diplomas. While this started in the late 1800s, it did NOT really take off till after WWI, thus most Soldiers were High School Graduates in WWII, but NOT before. This also lead to the Academies (And most Collages) to go for the 18-22 year old student instead of the 14-18 year old Students (Which by 1900 was the High School Market, but prior to that time period was also a Collage Age Group).