Rep. Ric Killian, R-N.C. 105th District, understands the value of networking. After all, he's in politics.

But the Bridgehampton resident also understands the value of a top-notch, fully funded, four-year education worth more than $250,000.

That's why Killian, class of 1986, uses the local alumni network to connect accomplished high school students with his alma mater: the U.S. Military Academy.

West Point is renowned for attracting and producing intelligent, disciplined and charismatic leaders. Several U.S. presidents are alumni, and the school took the No. 1 spot in Forbes Magazine's 2009 list of college rankings.

Killian calls the academy a "pressure cooker," and says cadets call it a "47-month immersion program."

Each day starts at 6 a.m. and ends at midnight.

Everything cadets do is graded - in the classroom, on the field and during military duties.

"You're going to graduate and be a leader of soldiers," said Killian. "It's a fantastic opportunity, nothing like it in the country."

Once they graduate, cadets become second lieutenants in the Army and are assigned a platoon of 30 to 40 soldiers and millions of dollars in equipment.

With American lives and taxpayer dollars on the line, academy spots aren't awarded to just anyone. More than 10,000 students nationwide apply annually to West Point; about 1,300 cadets are admitted.

Charlotte is well-represented. Eight graduating high school seniors from Charlotte left for West Point this spring, Killian said, and three were from schools in south Mecklenburg: Charlotte Christian, Charlotte Catholic and Butler High.

Killian had a hand in those appointments.

When he finished active duty in 1991, Killian began working with West Point admissions. He started in Wisconsin, then Maryland, and finally in North Carolina in 1995.

As the state coordinator for West Point admissions in North and South Carolina, Killian attends college fairs and hosts meetings for interested students. He helps coordinate efforts of West Point groups in the Carolinas, including the West Point Society of the Carolinas and the West Point Parents Club of N.C.

"Our purpose is to get out the message and to explain what these academies are about," said Killian.

For a student to be admitted to West Point, he or she must have a nomination from a congressman. So Killian and other local West Point graduates coordinate with liaisons for the states' U.S. representatives.

South Charlottean Will Grooms, class of 1974, is on the West Point admissions board and works closely with Killian.

Grooms, 58, graduated with four-star Gen. David Petraeus, the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Two years ago, Grooms saw his son, Miles, a 2005 Providence High graduate who'd dreamed of West Point since he was 9, follow in his dad's footsteps.

The West Point experience is hard to beat, Grooms said. Miles never had a class with more than 20 people and he never studied under a professor with any degree below a doctorate. Miles excelled on the football team.

But there's a new reality, too, said Grooms.

"There's a war going on," he said. "When you come out, you've got a job - you're going to be a leader in the U.S. Army, and pretty soon, within a year of graduation, you're probably going to find yourself (overseas)."

Miles, now 24, already has done two tours in Iraq and now is stationed in Hawaii.

Killian did a tour in Iraq between legislative sessions in 2009 and 2010, and he served alongside a former student he'd helped get into West Point.

Killian said the schedule incoming freshmen, or "plebes," have is the same he had 25 years ago.

"Warfare is about the soldier," he said. "It's about leadership and the human. It's not about a weapon, a tank, a plane or a ship.

"It's about a person, and those things don't change."