WEST POINT, N.Y. -- An opportunity is all a person needs to change the course of his or her life, and on July 1 a group of nearly 1,240 new cadet candidates making up the U.S. Military Academy Class of 2028 will arrive at West Point to transform the dynamic of their future.

Conversely, not so long ago, upon his arrival at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School (USMAPS) in 1992, the life-altering journey began for a high school track athlete from outside Pittsburgh who grew up as the seventh of 10 children from his parents, Ozette and Joan Lee. Today, on June 26, Rance Lee was promoted to colonel and is officially the new USMA Director of Admissions.

“It’s the honor of a lifetime to be selected as USMA Director of Admissions,” stated Lee. “I’ve been assigned to the admissions directorate three times. It’s really become my passion and to be selected as director is truly an honor – an outstanding culmination of my career.”

Lee said he is still trying to wrap his head around this career defining moment with the promotion and the validation of his hard work over the years. Since 2016, his third assignment at West Point in Admissions, he has performed the jobs of associate director, deputy director, acting director and now the director replacing his mentor, Col. Deb McDonald.

“This will allow me to keep doing what I really love doing and that’s talking about West Point and getting folks to see the great opportunity that West Point and the Army provides to the sons and daughters of this country,” the 1997 USMA graduate said.

While nothing will change within his job going from acting director to director, his focus will remain helping continue the success of the academy in producing leaders of character for the Army.

“Without the work that the Directorate of Admissions does, we really don’t have a Corps of Cadets,” Lee explained. “We are at the front end of the funnel that brings the cadets into every class and, ultimately, gives the Army it’s nearly 1,000 new officers four years later. 

“I truly believe West Point is one of the vital links to the country and the folks we bring in and we educate over those four years end up doing great things, not only for the Army, but in all kinds of ventures, business, civil society and things like that,” Lee added. “I still wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t passionate about it. It’s just an exciting thing to be the director of Admissions and play a part in shaping the next generation of Army leaders.”

 In June 2001, he first began in Admissions as the Far West Minority Outreach officer, and then for three years starting in June 2006, he was the Minority Admissions officer. Lee has been that guy with boots on the ground and making phone calls to find the next generation leaders and he respects the ones who are those positions now.

“The regional commanders and the outreach officers, they’re the ones who are cultivating leads, bringing kids into the admissions process and nurturing them through the admissions process and matriculating them into the class,” Lee remarked. “These folks are strong at what they do and understand the importance of the mission.”

Having worked at that level in Admissions, it was always a pleasure for him to see the transformation of a high school kid he recruited commission into a second lieutenant.

“It’s just a testament of how great this institution is that we can take a kid from all walks of life, from all parts of the country and backgrounds, and transform that kid into an Army officer who is going to do great things in the Army,” Lee declared. “I’ve been doing this long enough that there are kids I interacted with 20 some years ago who are now lieutenant colonels in the Army. One of them is Lt. Col. Yoonie Dunham, who I met when she was a junior in high school out of Los Angeles, and we’ve stayed in touch.

“Just seeing her thrive as a cadet and then thrive as an officer … now she is getting her Ph.D. at Tufts, it’s great to see that,” Lee added. “It is an amazing thing, but we do change people’s lives with the decisions we make. The Superintendent (Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland) likes to say that West Point changed the trajectory of his life, and I will tell you it changed the trajectory of my life, and that’s why I’m so passionate about telling folks how great this place is.”

As he settles into the director’s chair, some things he’s looking to improve upon is making the admissions process easier for candidates by streamlining the application process to make it more user friendly.

Currently, USMA has four parallel application processes – West Point Admissions process, medical process, nomination process and the physical qualification process. It’s working with congressional offices to make the nomination process easier and streamlining the candidate fitness assessment process.

“These are all things we’re looking at currently … but we did make some decisions earlier this year as we eliminated a couple of smaller requirements that will make things easier for candidates,” Lee said. “We eliminated the need for the ACT essay, eliminated teacher evaluation from a PE teacher and eliminated a video requirement for pushups.”

The Class of 2028 admissions cycle had more than 12,300 individuals apply to West Point, which was an increase of 8% from the 2027 cycle.

While Lee said choosing among the final 2,500 candidates is the toughest cuts in terms of who gets in and who doesn’t, but the key is getting outreach across all kinds of demographics across the United States.

“Be it race, be it economic, be it gender, it is all very important,” Lee explained. “Let’s face it, as an Army officer, you’re going to be leading all kinds of folks, so the better representation we have at West Point, in my opinion, make better officers out there with officers who can connect with individuals in their units.

“There are folks who come here where they didn’t grow up in a diverse community,” Lee added. “So, coming here, taking them out of their comfort zone, making them understand different perspectives – that is all great.”

One of his major responsibilities as the director is to be the person who slots candidates against the vacancies with the class, especially when it comes from congressional districts.

“It’s a very important job in terms of there are laws that say you can only do this many vacancies from this type … that’s a very important part of the director’s job,” Lee stated. “Just as important is overseeing the whole operation and making sure everyone’s doing the things they need to bring in the best class possible because ultimately that’s why we exist.”

Those who helped Lee blaze his trail

As an Engineer officer, Lee has run the full gambit in his career outside of the time he worked with Admissions from working in the legislative liaison office at the Pentagon to his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with units such as the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade.

However, how he got to where he is now begun with a trail of mentors who helped him along the way. When it comes to the job he is currently holding, Deb McDonald was a big influence in his career.

Lee met McDonald in 1995 when he was a junior at West Point and she was the Information Systems officer in Admissions and her husband, Ken, was one of his instructors.

“I would not be where I am at today if it were not for Col. McDonald,” Lee declared. “She played a large part in bringing me back in 2016 when she was the director, but she was also on staff when I came back in 2006 as the minority admissions officer when she was the deputy director at that point.

“Her mentorship and her leadership are why I am at where I’m at today,” he added. “She was a tremendous boss and an institution around here as she was in the job for 17 years, and it’s large shoes to fill, but I think she prepared me well to take the mantle.” 

Through all the preparation and success he achieved at the academy, the steppingstone experience for him was USMAPS, which he says prepared him for the USMA 47-month experience.

“I don’t know if I would have been successful had I not gone to USMAPS,” Lee said. “I don’t how much better academically it prepared me, but it did reinforce how much I wanted to be at West Point … and it did get me into the mindset of this whole West Point experience.”

But as the Director of Admissions, Lee who went through five years between USMAPS and USMA, believes everyone who is chosen to come to West Point should stick with it.

“We all have times when we get down and we feel sorry for ourselves, but you’ve got to push past those moments and look at the bigger picture and understand, ‘This might (stink) today, but I have got to look at where I want to be in 10 years,’” Lee explained. “If you stay here and persevere, it’s going to get easier, and you’re going to get to where you want to get to 10 years down the road.” 

The lasting words he wants to give to prospective cadets is West Point has the ability “to change the trajectory of your life.”

“It’s an institution where you get a first-tier education … and as the superintendent likes to say, ‘You get a Bachelor of Science in leadership and character development,’” Lee said. “I think going here makes you so much more marketable to a larger swath of individuals, whether you stay in the Army or decide to get out and go to business school. I like that we’ve put back into the mission statement the lifetime of service to the nation, as opposed to just being an Army officer because if you do the math, not everyone can stay in for a full career.

“We want folks who want to serve their country in various ways, whether it’s volunteering on boards, working as a government civilian or being an Army officer,” he concluded. “There are a lot of ways you can serve your country. Duty, Honor, Country is not just specific to the military.”