{"id":6588,"date":"2026-08-15T07:06:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T07:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6588"},"modified":"2026-08-15T07:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T07:06:36","slug":"hegseth-angry-as-army-scraps-new-sat-minimum-to-screen-out-stupid-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6588","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth angry as Army scraps new SAT minimum to screen out ‘stupid’ officers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is fuming over the Army\u2019s decision to withdraw new academic standards for college students in the ROTC program \u2014 including requiring a score of at least 1000 on the SAT \u2014 to ensure that \u201cstupid people\u201d are not becoming military officers.<\/p>\n

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The new standards were announced on Aug. 5 in an internal memo issued by then-assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs Jules Hurst, whom the Senate confirmed as Pentagon comptroller two days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Army must cultivate intelligent and adaptive officers to build a lethal and ready Army prepared to deter, fight, and win our nation\u2019s wars. The strength of our Officer Corps is the strength of our Army,\u201d Hurst wrote.<\/p>\n

The requirement, which would have taken effect in January, was rescinded on Aug. 12 in a memo signed by under secretary of the Army Mike Obadal, who cited a need for \u201cfurther staffing and analysis.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pentagon sources told The Post the pivot demonstrated dysfunction within the Army, whose Secretary Dan Driscoll has clashed with Hegseth over the past year, including on personnel decisions \u2014 with the men hardly on speaking terms despite the ongoing Iran war.<\/p>\n

The memos did not reach Driscoll\u2019s desk before being issued, one source told The Post. A different source confirmed that the Army secretary was not included in an internal email chain unveiling the initial memo.<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s displeasure with the situation was described to The Post by three Pentagon sources.<\/p>\n

Military officials said new academic benchmarks are desperately needed and align with Hegseth\u2019s broader emphasis on tightening officer standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have friends that taught ROTC. They literally deal with some cadets that can\u2019t put together a coherent sentence or write correctly,\u201d a senior Pentagon official told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cA modest policy like this is a move in the right direction. Especially in an environment where the quality of a formal college education is less than what it was. 1000 on the SAT is nothing. If you can\u2019t hit that you probably shouldn\u2019t be an officer to begin with. We don\u2019t want stupid people leading our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The now-rescinded standards would have allowed incoming ROTC cadets to alternatively submit an ACT score of 20 or a score above the 50th percentile on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which is administered to enlisted troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are really common sense policies that everyone should be able to get behind,\u201d the senior official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery branch of the U.S. military, except for the Army, has minimum requirements to commission via ROTC regardless of scholarship status. The fact that this was not in place to begin with is a bit strange. Enlisted service members, in many cases, seem to have stricter testing requirements to join.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Army ROTC does not currently require students to submit standardized test results.<\/p>\n

College ROTC programs are the largest pipeline for incoming Army officers \u2014 ranging from 40-70% in recent years, according to publicly released statistics.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Hegseth has pushed to tighten other standards for military officers, including fitness and grooming policies for current officers to reduce the prevalence of \u201cfat generals\u201d and \u201cbeardos\u201d whom he described as reflecting poorly on the armed forces\u2019 professionalism.<\/p>\n

The ultimate fate of the test-score proposal is unclear, and it\u2019s possible it will be revived. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Army is in lock-step with Secretary Hegseth and the president\u2019s direction regarding military standards and readiness,\u201d an Army spokesman told The Post. \u201cThe Army is evaluating proposed changes to ROTC cadet standards for review by appropriate senior leaders and approval by the Secretary of the Army and the Acting Chief of Staff of the Army.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Army withdrew new academic standards for college students in the ROTC program \u2014 including a requirement for a score of at least 1000 on the SAT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nHegseth angry as Army scraps new SAT minimum to screen out 'stupid' officers - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6588\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hegseth angry as Army scraps new SAT minimum to screen out 'stupid' officers - 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