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Tough. Challenging. Rewarding. That’s student life at the Royal Military College

At precisely 7:30 on a cool, damp morning in late October, moments before the sun begins its ascent into an overcast sky, the Parade Square on the campus of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., is filled with about 1,000 cadets wearing camouflage uniforms. They are aligned in a giant U formation, and in the middle stands their cadet wing commander, 21-year-old Nicolas Bouchard, a fourth-year chemical engineering student and army combat engineer.

“I’m throwing you a challenge,” says Bouchard into a microphone. “Anyone who gets either a 95 per cent average at the end of the semester, or anyone who gets 500 on the next PPT [Physical Performance Test], will have an award created in your name.” A hush falls over the cadets. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Bouchard continues, “but I believe that’s what Russell Crowe really meant [in the movie Gladiator] when he said, ‘What you do in life echoes in eternity.’ ” The speech ends, but a buzz filters through the crowd. At RMC, cadets are used to big challenges, and this one is no exception.

Just getting into the college is difficult. In any given year, the 39 Canadian Forces recruitment centres across the country receive as many as 1,500 applications for the Registered Officer Training Program (ROTP); only about 300 make it into the college. Applicants need at least a 70 per cent high school average, although most have an average greater than 80. And they must successfully complete a series of aptitude tests, interviews and medical examinations. Being well-rounded is also imperative. “A person who has a 95 per cent average but never had a part-time job, played a sport or had a hobby will really struggle here because they have never multi-tasked,” says Commodore William Truelove, RMC’s commandant, who is the head of the institution.

Anyone who makes the cut had better not expect a laid-back transition into university life. Before classes begin in the fall, all first-year cadets take part in their first military training exercise: a three-week boot camp. If you hail from Ontario or the West, the training takes place at RMC; those from Quebec and the Maritimes travel to the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., which also serves as a preparatory school for Quebec students who want to complete their first year of CÉGEP and then attend RMC. “The boot camp is a bit of a transition, to say the least, if you just came from sitting on your couch,” notes Bouchard, who was born in Summerside, P.E.I. “It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.”

Upon arrival, cadets have their hair cropped, their cellphones and computers taken away, and their civilian clothes exchanged for military fatigues. Each day brings intense physical training exercises and lectures designed to teach the basics of military life and the officer-like qualities needed to be an effective leader and comrade.

They are also introduced to an idea that could one day alter, or even end, their lives: unlimited liability. “It means you agree to go off and serve your country at the risk of potentially losing your life, as some of our countrymen have done,” says Truelove. “Over the next four years, and through their summer training and courses, you instill in them that reality.”