Stress involving high school and college

@AsianInvasionAD, the biggest red flag in your post is that your goal in applying to West Point is to become a doctor (any type of doctor). Your chances of going to med school from USMA are so slim, regardless of how hard you work/study, that you should reexamine your options. USMA attempts to graduate and commission about 1,000 2LTs each year. Of that number, generally fewer than 20 are chosen for med school. In our son’s class of 2019, the number was ten, and GPA is just part of the selection rubric. West Point cadets are ranked by OML (Order of Merit List) comprising academics, physical, and military performance; you will need to be superior in all three and end up in the top 3% of the class. Understand that you may not necessarily go to medical school right out of West Point, but serve in a branch first, and your specialty may be determined by the needs of the Army. Also, most Army doctors do not attend the academy but apply for a commission after earning their medical degrees elsewhere. Becoming a doctor out of West Point (or any of the academies) is not a sure bet by any means. If your main goal is medicine rather than becoming an Army officer, you will have much better odds of achieving that goal via the civilian route.

Because it sounds like you are just starting to explore this option, you might want to read this article:

https://apgnews.com/inside-the-innovation/chem-bio/apg-surgeon-talks-medical-school-with-usma-cadets/

Then scour the USMA website and research the USUHS and HPSP programs for a better understanding of the military path to medicine.

If you DO decide that you want to become an Army officer via USMA, whether or not you are selected for medical school, you will need to focus your course work on doing well in calculus, physics, and chemistry as those are the three courses most scrutinized for admission. USMA is primarily an engineering school, and all cadets are required to take and pass those three courses Plebe year regardless of what they eventually major in. Admissions will next expect that you’ve taken the most rigorous courses offered by your high school and done well in them. If APs are the most difficult courses at your disposal, you must take advantage of them because you will be competing against those who have.

Another concern in your post is your lack of team sports participation. All West Point cadets are physically fit and almost all were varsity athletes in high school. For example, of the 1302 candidates appointed to the class of 2020, 99% were varsity athletes, and a large percentage were also team captains:

Varsity Athletics …1294
Letter Winner …1142
Team Captain …826

You can study a recent class profile to see that these percentages generally hold (and get a good look at the stats you need to meet or surpass):

https://westpoint.edu/admissions/class-profile

In addition to HS course selection and sports participation, you need to start focusing on securing a congressional nomination. USMA cannot offer an appointment without a nomination, so you need to familiarize yourself with this process if you haven’t already by checking the websites of your congressperson and both senators. Once you start the nomination and application process, you will be assigned a Field Force Representative (FFR) who will shepherd you through the process and who will have insight into how competitive your district is and how you stack up against the competition in the year you apply. Getting the nomination is the gating factor; once a candidate has a nomination and is deemed 3Q (qualified academically, physically, and medically), the likelihood of an appointment is close to 50%. You will also need to dig deep to be able to explain clearly and genuinely to the nomination panels why you want to serve as an officer in our armed forces. (Hint: The answer is NOT, “I want to be a doctor.”) Also, be prepared to answer your understanding of the consequences of your decision knowing that USMA branched 81% of the class of 2019 into combat arms. That percentage is not expected to go down anytime soon.

So, what else can you do? In addition to scouring the wealth of applicant information on the USMA website, you should check out serviceacademyforums.com (CC for military applicants) where you can learn more about the process and get all your questions answered by current and former military personnel, including questions about the path to medical school. There is also some good general information about the application process in this article:

https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/college/T014-S003-things-to-know-to-get-into-a-service-academy/index.html

Note: Our son graduated and commissioned from West Point last May and is now serving his nine-year commitment in the Cyber branch at Ft. Gordon, GA. I’m happy to answer any other questions you have to the best of my ability.

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