F1,

It would have been truthful for Carson to have said that he was encouraged to apply to West Point. Some of my teammates in high school, including an early mentor of mine*...ended up applying to service academies.Very long process to apply and it's not just based on a gpa, or board scores. Not as though somebody at the institutions just saw someone's transcript/school record and could give them a slot for admission.
Carson never sent an application to West Point .He was not offered admission to West Point, so in no way can he truthfully write that he was "offered a scholarship" there.

I read the BE ad, and that's actually a good pull because the ad actually uses the term "scholarship". Whether one subscribes to the idea that service academies don't offer scholarships or to the idea that every midshipman,cadet,etc there is on scholarship, Carson's claim that he was offered a scholarship to WP is in no way accurate.