As the undergraduate college of the Naval service, the Naval Academy prepares young men and women to become professional officers and leaders in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Naval Academy students are midshipmen on active duty in the U.S. Navy. They attend the academy for four years, graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees and commissions as ensigns in the Navy or second lieutenants in the Marine Corps. Naval Academy graduates serve at least five years as Navy or Marine Corps officers.

Founded in 1845 by Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the Academy started as the Naval School on 10 acres of old Fort Severn in Annapolis with an original class of 55. In 1850 the Naval School became the United States Naval Academy. A new curriculum went into effect requiring midshipmen to study at the Academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer. Congress authorized the Naval Academy to begin awarding Bachelor of Science degrees in 1933. Today, the Academy offers 23 major fields of study, a wide variety of elective courses and advanced study and research opportunities.

USNA Mission Statement
"To develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highes­t ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future deployment in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government."­

USNA Quick Facts

Class of 2015 Facts

Navy Assignments
Graduates of the Naval Academy entering the Navy do so as ensigns and have the following service options available to them:

• Aviation -- pilot, flight officer
• Nuclear Propulsion -- ships, submarines
• Restricted Line and Staff Corps -- civil engineering, information warfare, cryptology, intelligence, maintenance, medicine, meteorology/oceanography, supply
• Special Operations -- explosive ordinance disposal, explosive ordinance management, mine countermeasures, operational diving and salvage
• Navy SEALs
• Surface Warfare -- conventional, nuclear powered
• Submarines

Marine Corps Assignments
Graduates enter the Marine Corps with a rank of second lieutenant. Those officers entering the Marine Corps have the choice of serving in one of the following fields:

• Aviation -- air command and control, anti-air warfare, aviation maintenance, aviation supply, pilot, flight officer
• Ground -- armor, artillery, communications (information systems), engineering, financial management, infantry, logistics, military police