USD Student Connor Anderson ranked among top ROTC Cadets in the Country

SAN DIEGO, CA: University of San Diego senior Connor Anderson, an Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadet majoring in Mechanical Engineering, has been selected as the number 10 Army cadet in the nation. Cadet Anderson was ranked against a class of 5,617 seniors scheduled to graduate next spring.

“Cadet Anderson operates at a much higher level. He is an outstanding, incredibly mature cadet who is highly intelligent and very ambitious,” said Lieutenant Colonel John W. Turner, a professor of Military Science at San Diego State University where Cadet Anderson is a member of the Army ROTC battalion.

“This recognition means a lot to me. It is a reflection of the top-notch Army ROTC program we have in the San Diego area. I could not have been successful without the mentoring provided by my Army ROTC cadre, USD professors, and my peers,” said Cadet Anderson. Adding, “My years at USD while also in Army ROTC have developed and matured me in an invaluable way. This honor motivates me to keep improving and evolving as a person so that I can better serve my soldiers once I am in the Army.”

A cadet’s positioning on the Order of Merit List can determine his or her priority in being chosen for the branch or occupational specialty of choice. Cadets are ranked on the OML by achieving superior grade point averages, strong athletic performance in the Army physical fitness test and college athletic participation, proving their worth as exceptional leaders in their college ROTC training, and their performance at the Leader Development and Assessment Course.

Cadet Anderson will be commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry upon graduation in May 2015.

About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.