Before he became a billionaire real estate developer, reality TV star, and president-elect, Donald Trump was a cadet who attended the New York Military Academy.
Founded in 1889, the private school is spread across 120 acres in rural Cornwall, New York, located 60 miles north of Manhattan. The cost of tuition is $41,210 a year at the school, which ranks No. 128 on a list of the best boarding schools in the US by education resource Niche.
The story goes that Trump’s parents shipped their 13-year-old son off to NYMA when he began acting up and it became a problem. Some 50 years later, Trump would tell his biographer that his five years’ education there gave him more military training than the military could.
Here’s what it’s like at NYMA.
The New York Military Academy opened doors in 1889 with the hopes of preparing cadets for "further education and to be effective leaders and responsible citizens."
Source: New York Military Academy
Charles Jefferson Wright, a Civil War veteran and teacher, founded the school under the belief that a military structure provided the best environment for academic achievement.
Source: New York Military Academy
Through the years, the student body has remained small. Two classroom buildings and three dorms accommodate the 28 students who enrolled in the 2016-17 academic year.
Source: New York Military Academy and Wall Street Journal
The school's alumni include composer Stephen Sondheim, director Francis Ford Coppola, and, of course, President-elect Donald Trump, a class of 1964 graduate.
Trump rose to captain, tasked with presiding over NYMA's most prestigious company of cadets. Former roommates and instructors say he thrived under the school's rigidity.
Source: The Washington Post and NPR
However, he was later removed from his post for allegedly looking the other way when the older students hazed the underclassmen, according to some former classmates.
Source: The Washington Post
Unlike the United States Military Academy West Point or the United States Naval Academy, which require military service after graduation, NYMA has no obligation.
In his biography, "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success," Trump told the author that he "always felt that I was in the military" because of his education at NYMA.
Trump sat out the Vietnam War because of determents and a high draft lottery number.
According to NYMA's website, 97% of students go on to work in the private sector.
Cadets wear uniforms, learn drills, and sleep in "barracks."
Source: Wall Street Journal
Fletcher Bailey, an instructor and a master sergeant in the military, told WSJ the training aims to instill "discipline, attention to detail, and moving in an orderly fashion."
Source: Wall Street Journal
Male cadets are strictly forbidden from entering the women's housing, and vice versa. Students also aren't allowed to leave base without permission from the commandant.
Source: Cadet Manual
Students stand at attention as they wait to be served lunch in the mess hall.
According to a sample menu posted to NYMA's website, a typical day might include a hearty breakfast of waffles; sausage patties, and fresh fruit; beef burgers and steak fries for lunch; and sweet and sour chicken with a side of veggie fried rice and green beans for dinner.
The curriculum involves English, math, history, science, world languages, fine arts, and technology. Classes are small, so that instructors can provide individualized attention.
Source: New York Military Academy
With enrollment numbers dwindling since the 1960s, the school has struggled financially. It filed for bankruptcy in March 2015 when its debts neared $12 million.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Some buildings, namely the dormitories, are in need of massive repairs. Quartz called the facilities "dilapidated."
Source: The New York Times and Quartz
Administrators asked their wealthiest living alum, Trump, to make a $7 million donation to ease its money troubles back in 2011. Trump reportedly declined.
Source: The New York Times
(He did, however, donate a classroom in honor of his parents some years ago.)
In September, a nonprofit conservation group owned by Chinese real estate mogul Vincent Tianquan Mo bought the military academy for $16 million at an auction.
Source: The New York Times
For the first time in decades, things are looking up at NYMA.
