The academic side of a cadet's life is equally disciplined and regulated. Cadets take 40 courses--31 are required. Although major fields do not exist as such, eight of the remaining nine "electives" must be taken within one's chosen field of expertise. Physical soldiering is confined to summer months--training camp before yearling (sophomore) year, field training in places like Alaska or Panama before becoming a cow (junior)--but a hefty portion of the curriculum is devoted to technical training. The honor code scandal of three years ago was sparked by a take-home exam in "juice" (electrical engineering), a course many cadets disliked. In the halls of the classroom buildings, next to signs outlining how the barrel of a gun operates, huge posters declare: "Engineering is the foundation of a good curriculum."

The uniformity of military life pervades the classroom. Cadets carry identical three-ring binders to class, embossed in one case with the words "Duty, Honor, Country, Automotive Engineering." When the colonel-professor holds up a piece of engine to demonstrate a point, he remarks casually that it comes from an M-60 tank.

THE WEST POINT honor code over-shadows everything. "A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do." That code, which brought the academy into the public eye and exposed it to criticism from the media and the government, has been moderated. Under the eye of Superintendent Gen. Andrew Goodpaster, the code has been reduced to its essentials, but many say reforms are still necessary. Cadets are asked to sign the statement, "This is a product of my own work," on any paper, test or lab, or admit aid if they received it.

The training a cadet undergoes in Beast, some say, helps them cope with the vast amount of memorization that West Point classes require. If there is a frequent complaint, it is that classes do not allow one to get at the deeper concepts, that a school which aims at training leaders tells those leaders what the right answers are.

The end result of the requirements and rules is what one cadet describes as "what you'd expect when you put 4000 overachieving high-school presidents in the same place: competition and pressure." There is little privacy at the Point; vacations are limited to three weeks around Christmas and barely six weeks during the summer. When one is on post, the pressure to perform, compete and succeed is intense. "There is no substitute for victory," reads an inscription at the base of the statue of MacArthur which stands in front of the barracks.

For those not cut from the more normal white, male and army background, the pressure is even tougher. One hundred nineteen women entered in the Class of 1980 but only 62 made it through. During survival training, some of those women were allegedly singled out by officers for participating in exercises like biting the head off a live chicken. Although there remain those who refuse to accept women's presence at the academy, the atmosphere is much improved. "If you don't look for feelings of resentment," says one woman cadet, "you're not going to find them."

For minorities and the poor, the increasingly heterogenous nature of the corps has made things easier than before. The fourth class system makes those in the same class equal, regardless of whether they're rich or poor. And things have come a long way since Black cadets got "silenced" because of the color of their skin. An intensive minority recruiting drive has upped the proportions and eased the pressure. "When my father went here," one Black cadet says, "the pressure on Blacks to perform was greater than anyone else. If you didn't make it, you were living proof that the old system was better. Now, things are different."

But West Point's mission--to produce the nation's army officers--is much the same as it was when it began. And although a woman cadet in undershirt and trousers remarks that the full-dress parade she has just marched in was "a pain in the ass," few question the traditions. Fullerton puts on the plume that marks the second lieutenant rank he holds in the United States Army and straightens his coat for the parade. "We were all civilians once, too," he says. "It's not as hard as it looks." Another cadet who has less than a year to go says, "It's a whole different world. It's not like anything out there."