RMC Preparatory Year
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The Royal Military College of Canada's Preparatory Year exists to provide additional academic training for those officer candidates selected under the Regular Officer Training Program who do not have the academic prerequisites for entrance to an Ontario University (of which RMC is one). Other ROTP candidates who do meet the academic prerequisites but have not demonstrated strong academic potential but who are still felt to be superior candidates may also be offered an ROTP Junior enrollment and an initial posting to the Preparatory Year.
Prep Year is housed at Campus Fort St. Jean on the banks of the Richelieu River in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, approximately 30-45 minutes south-west of Montreal. The site is the former home of Le College Militaire Royale du Canada.
Richelieu Squadron
RMC Prep Year Officer Cadet's are members of Richelieu Squadron, and are part of the Cadet Wing of RMC. Prep year cadets are issued RMC college numbers and effort is made throughout the year to integrate the squadron as much as possible with the rest of the RMC Cadet Wing through familiarization visits and other events where possible.
Prep Year cadets do not however walk through the "Arch" at RMC Kingston until they complete their preparatory year and arrive at RMC Kingston, and thus many of RMC informal and formal traditions are not fully instilled until the Prepatory Year is complete.
Over recent years, the typical size of Richelieu Squadron has been approximately 140-160 Officer Cadets, with a roughly fifty-fifty split of anglophones and francophones.
Academics
The academic program is a specially-formulated pre-university program offered under the Province of Quebec's CEGEP system. This permits RMC to issue Quebec college-level credits to students completing course curriculum under the program. The credit-granting institution providing transcripts for these credits is CEGEP St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, under contract with DND.
The primary purpose of the program is to fulfill the requirement to have one year of CEGEP studies completed for Quebec Secondary School Diploima Holders entering an Ontario University. As Quebec candidates leaving high school would not have the academic requirements necessary to directly apply to an Ontario university such as RMC, the program allows these students to enroll immediately after leaving high school and earn the academic prerequisites necessary to enter an Ontario university. Other students lacking in certain prerequisites or those students hailing from provinces with weaker academic curriculum than that which Ontario universities demand often also find themselves offered a position in Prep Year.
Two programs of study are offered to students, Arts and Sciences.
Housing
Officer Cadet's in Prep Year reside in renovated buildings, typically two to a room. The majority of the rooms are the equivalent of a large to very-large hotel room and each cadet has his own bed, desk and closet space. Showers and toilet facilities are shared (gender-separated) and are available on each of the three floors of the building.
A nearby Mess-hall serves buffet-style meals three times a day, and the building also houses a small Canex.
