The first torturous week of Virginia Military Institute’s rat line began Aug. 12 and ended Aug. 20. Throughout this week, 27 out of the 504 first-years dropped out. Five of the 27 who dropped out were women; however, only 63 women were in the rat line this year. For any other college, 27 students dropping out in the first week may sound surprising, however, for VMI a 5% dropout rate in the first week is a regular occurrence. Unlike most colleges, VMI has a rigorous physical and mental first week of training for their first-years.

The first week included a lot of physical activity and rigorous training for the rats, who exercised strenuously in the heat from 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.. They also learned marching techniques, the history of VMI, and criteria within the cadet handbook. To make the experience even harder, cadres, or upper-class cadets, taunted and screamed at the rats while they completed these activities. VMI workers such as James Hentz, head of the international affairs department, sees the first week as “an indoctrination to the system.”   

Josh Thomas, a VMI rat and RCHS graduate said, “you’re running around going three times your normal pace, and you really have no privileges. Your only privilege is to do what everybody else tells you.”  

The dropout level was only around five percent, but it begs the question, why did those 27 cadets drop out?

Colonel William Wanovich, Commandant of Cadets said, “They didn’t really have a good idea of what they were really getting into. Some hadn’t even visited. If you come here just to play sports, it probably won’t work out; if you come here because your uncle or grandfather went here and it’s a legacy, it probably won’t work out. So most of the ones that left didn’t have their whole commitment in it, and didn’t have their whole heart in it.”

The quick drop out rates also pertained to the women that went through the first week. About 8% of the women in the rat line this year dropped out, due to the equal treatment they faced from the cadres.   

“The treatment of women has to be the same as the guys– the yelling, the correction, all of the toughness, all of the physical fitness– it all has to be the same,” said Wanovich.

Although the rat line seems tough at times, it sets the cadets up for the next four years of attending VMI. According to Wanovich, being in the rat line effectively teaches the cadets discipline and how to manage their time. The habits cadets learn can be proved successful by VMI’s higher rate of Rhode Scholars than Washington and Lee University, according to Hentz.

“I think we have more Rhode Scholars because if you think about a Rhode Scholar you probably want high academic achievement and high athletic achievement,” said Wanovich, “I believe we have a few more opportunities than W&L for athletic achievement as a division one military school.”

Although 27 rats dropped out the first week, the 477 rats remaining will likely remember their experiences in the rat line and the lessons they learned.