By MATT CHITTUM
ROANOKE TIMES

The long holiday break is typically a high attrition period at VMI. This time, about a dozen men left during the break or just before it.

Some said women would never want to come to Virginia Military Institute. But they did, and it seems they are there to stay. All 25 of the women remaining in VMI's first coed "Rat Mass" who went home Dec. 19 for the holiday furlough came back Monday, ready to finish the brutal "ratline" training regimen.

"And our basketball team beat Davidson at Davidson last night," said VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III, "so our cup runneth over."

About a dozen men left during the break or just before it, including a few who were suspended for having too many demerits. Five women and 53 men dropped out during the semester, for a total attrition rate of just over 15 percent.

That's about average, spokesman Mike Strickler said.

Bunting attributed the women's staying power to their character and the reasons they chose VMI.

"What we have here is a group of dedicated, quiet, rather conservative, highly intelligent, athletic young women," he said. "No publicity hounds; no one came here frivolously."

The women "have excelled in most of the ways VMI has asked them to," he added.

"It's really a product of preparation," said senior cadet Tom Warburton of Pulaski. "Possibly in the beginning, they, more than the men, may have steeled themselves more because they knew when they got here, it would be showtime."

The long holiday break is typically a high attrition period at VMI.

"It gives you a time to readjust to the outside world and all its positives that VMI does not possess," Warburton said.

Rats, as first-year VMI cadets are called, get a break from having to "strain," or hold an exaggerated position of attention much of the time. They can sleep late, wear civilian clothes, and eat Mom's cooking in a relaxed position instead of mess hall food while sitting at attention on the front 3 inches of their seats. Hardest of all, Warburton said, is hanging out with high school friends who didn't have to get their heads shaved to go to college. They tell stories of dorm life and parties.

"And the only parties you get to come to are sweat parties," Warburton said, referring to the spontaneous 15-minute workouts rats must endure.

The rat year at VMI is academically rigid and challenging, too, Bunting pointed out. All rats are required to take math and chemistry. "Those are big, scary requirements," Bunting said.

The average rat grade-point average for the first semester this year is 2.262 on a 4-point scale, Strickler said - the third highest in the last ten years.

Strickler said six rats resigned right after finishing their exams. It's common for rats to finish their courses so they can transfer credits to another school, he said.

Applications for next year's freshman class, meanwhile, are coming in at about the same pace as last year overall, but more women are applying. Thirty-nine women have applied to VMI so far this year, compared with 24 at this time last year. More than 500 men have applied.

But this year's rats, who will get to harass that incoming class come August, can't afford to get ahead of themselves. They still have more than a month - perhaps longer - before they "breakout" of the ratline by climbing up a muddy hill to freedom in late February or early March.