Applying to competitive colleges after a 2-year break

<p>I'll try to keep this short. :)</p>

<p>I graduated from High School (a public school) in 2007 with a 3.4 or 3.5 GPA and an 1890 on the SAT; I got accepted to every college I applied to (American University, York College of PA, Mercyhurst, Endicott, etc), but rather than enrolling I decided to work full-time. I did that pretty successfully: I wound up being the first female promoted to a couple of high-level positions.</p>

<p>But now I've figured out what I want to do with my life. I want to go to a military college; my first choice is Virignia Military Institute.</p>

<p>My questions are: Is my break going to hurt my chances of being accepted? They're pretty selective and don't appear to have many non-traditional students. Should I send in a one-page paper detailing what I did over my break, or should I wait to explain it during my interview, which is 5 days before the Early Decision deadline? (They didn't ask for an essay, but say on their Website that "an essay is optional, but prospective students are encouraged to submit a one-page paper on a topic of their choice.") Will the fact that I am applying Early Decision improve or decrease my chances of acceptance?</p>

<p>Thanks so much in advance; you have no idea how much any information you can provide will benefit me! :)</p>

<p>I am not sure if you will find many people on these boards that are familiar with military colleges, but I can tell you that you should definitely submit an essay explaining your non-traditional status. Explain how you went out into the real world and found your calling (a military college). You could create a great essay out of that topic. Good luck to you!</p>

<p>Thank you so much, Anarchist. I'm having trouble keeping it to one page, haha - it takes a little bit of detail to explain "why I chose to end my career when I was one promotion away from six figures and apply to military school so I can make $3k/month."</p>

<p>Hopefully someone familiar with VMI (or any military school for that matter) will come along, but thanks again! :)</p>

<p>As a suggestion, I would suggest you start a new thread with something in the title about military colleges. That should attract those who have any personal information regarding them. With your current title, you attract people like me. ;) (clueless on the matter!)</p>

<p>EDIT: Why don't you check out this part of CC. These guys/gals may know something.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/u-s-service-academies/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/u-s-service-academies/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks so much.</p>

<p>I feel a little weird about posting in Service Academies since I'm applying to military schools a tier below them :/ But I certainly will try.</p>

<p>I'm also going to see if I can figure out how to suggest a new forum - just for plain old military colleges (ie VMI, Norwich U, The Citadel), because their applications and admissions procedures are different from traditional schools AND service academies.</p>

<p>Thank you for all the help and quick responses!</p>