System: Dover

In addition to supporting two major weapons manufacturers, Dover is the home of the Dover Institute for Higher Learning. Established in 2910, from the remnants of the Peoples Reconstruction Effort university on Ashio, the school has trained technicians, doctors, engineers and even MechWarriors for the past hundred and fifty years.

Primary-school proctors may forward the applications of promising students to the Dover Institute at the same time they send them to any other Draconis Combine academy. Applicants must meet basic physical and mental requirements and must demonstrate the ability to build on whatever they learn through scholastic records and a thesis paper. In several cases, proving or disproving the theories in these entrance essays becomes the focus of a student's training over his or her four-year course of study.

Institute students learn the basics in a series of month-long training programs, each separated by a week of general study and testing to ensure the student is eligible to continue. At the end of the five months basic training, students in the bottom 10% of their class are dropped from the program. Those remaining may then progress on in their chosen field. Though the Dover academy offers excellent technical and scientific courses, the only combat-orientated training available is for MechWarriors.

The Dover Institute graduates fifty or so MechWarriors each year, with many graduates remaining within the Benjamin Military District. Dover graduates often rise to command positions quickly as their hard-earned knowledge carries them beyond the average MechWarrior.