Every a new group of students arrive at VMI. Called "rats" and not a class they are the lowest of the low at VMI. After having their heads shaved bald (in the case of females not bald but shorter than would be socially acceptable) the rats undergo a week of intense military and physical training. Called "Hell Week" this is a crash course in everything VMI. How to wear every uniform, how to march, how to clean a rifle, everything is taught in these eight days. At the end of Hell Week the Rats are paired with a first classman.

This pairing is integral to cadet life at VMI. The first classman is called a "Dyke". Dyke is a souther corruption of the phrase "to deck out", as in to get into a uniform. This first arose from the pair helping each other get into the full parade dress that cadets wear which consists of several large web belts that are impossible to put on alone. The Dyke is the rats only friend in the corp out side the "Rat Mass". They are like a big brother, a father and a best friend rolled into one. Each person's experience with his/her dyke is unique and most have a rewarding experience.

The Rat Mass will continue to undergo training from the most highly skilled cadets at VMI, The Cadre. The Cadre will teach the rats everything they need to know. They will enforce all rules and keep the rats in line. Unlike normal college freshman the rat lead lives that are harsh and at time brutal. However, the treatment that the rats get from The Cadre is only preparing them for the real world, the world outside barracks walls, which will be much harsher on them than The Cadre.

The rats must prove that all can work together as a mass before the can be "Broken Out" of the Ratline by the first class. When the rats have shown that they are ready and the first class feels they are ready, they will be broken out. One week before Break Out is Resurrection Week. Normally after Hell Week the Institute gears up for the academic mission and the Ratline tends to be more bearable. Resurrection Week is the final push to weed out all those who do not belong, the final push to make you quite right before the finish line. This week is often harder than Hell Week was because the rats now have to attend class as well. At the end of the week Break Out will happen. The Rats will undergo the most grueling and demanding experience of their lives. Beginning before dawn and lasting well into the evening breakout will test everything that the rats have learned. By the end of the day every muscle in the body will be sore, eventually weary and weak the rats will be done. They will have become the next class to pass into VMI.

Many versions of the Break Out Ceremony have been conducted. In the 1950s rats from each company would be packed into a corner room in barracks, because of its hallway like feature, and brawl their way out through the upperclassmen. When they reached the outside, they were considered "broken out." Later in the early 1980s the rat mass had to fight its way up to the fourth stoop. Through three other classes of cadets determined not to let them get to the top. The stoops would be slick with motor oil and grease and the upperclassmen would be armed with bats and sticks. Only as one group, one mass, one class, could the rats reach the top of barracks and break out. Another version has the rats climbing a muddy hill on their stomachs while the upper classes drag them back down. This "rebirth" from the mud, the primordial ooze that spawned the rats, was a highly effective method of breakout.