<p>If anyone has any questions concerning being denied an appointment as a senior in high school and trying again as a freshman, please ask me any questions; it's exactly what happened to me. My advice: work hard. As they say, if it's not hard, it's not worth it. Think about your future during your first semester as a freshman, and think about your own goals. Personally, I worked fairly hard, especially in calc and chem, and picked up a new sport: crew. If the admissions office sees that you can adapt to college and still excel, and apply to the Academy again, they know that your heart is set on Navy. Ask me any questions! I did it and succeeded.</p>
<p>Good for you, Pierce! Get some! :)</p>
<p>Deffinately - a year at college is a great way to go. I didnt make it into AFA last year and spent a year at college. I took Calc II, Java II, English I and Chem I and am taking this semester Calc III, Soc, English II and Chem II. Put me around 17-18 SCHs and i know that made me look alot better to AFA. I really worked my tail off, threw away any and all social life and rarely emerged from my books. Pay off: An awsome GPA in some of the hardest courses offered.</p>
<p>Unfortunatly it seemed like it wasnt enough, although i didnt have much to build on in the first place.</p>
<p>I really think that if you spend some time in college you really increase your chances of acceptance. Best of luck but im sure you'll be finding out this year anyways good news!</p>
<p>Questions abound..... My son is thinking of attending a large public school in the fall. He will probably place out of calc I and II, comp sci, physics I and II and possibly chem I due to AP placements. Should he go on and take the next level of classes as a freshman (Calc III, Dif Eq, etc.) or stay with the standard freshman classes to make sure his gpa is awesome. Also, since he is at such a big school, he will not make any of the official sports teams. Do intramurals count when it comes to sports participation? He plans on trying out for band and joining AFROTC - but there will be few opportunities for leadership in these orgs as a freshman. Any thoughts on how to ensure 'whole person' score is adequate?</p>
<p>ECs in college are great, but remember the academy still looks at his ECs from high school. If he does AFROTC, tell him to take classes and plan as if he were going graduate from that school. Should he not get in a second time, he'll still be well on his way to a commission, and from the sound of it, maybe even an earlier graduation.</p>
<p>His TOP priority should be GPA. That'll be the academy's biggest concern. Don't let him overload himself. ROTC is a something that can eat up a big deal of one's time. I only know of two or three mids in my unit who participate in sports, many others attempted, but quickly dropped the sport due to time constraints. Remember, ROTC is not like the academy. Only a fraction of a fraction of the student body are in it...so he's gonna have to bend over backwards sometimes to successfully fit both college and ROTC into his schedule.</p>
<p>In my opinion, ROTC should cover the whole area of college ECs. When the academy sees that, they're gonna know he's dedicated to the service and is a sound investment. But if he feels like he can handle more, by all means tell him to live it up and have fun while he's in a civilian college!</p>
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</p>
<p>Why will the file not get reviewed until Feb/Mar if the semester is over in December? Just curious.</p>
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</p>
<p>Because that is USNA's policy. They do not evaluate candidates until first semester grades have been recieved. Even though the semester ends in December, it takes time for the university/college to send the transcript to USNA; it also takes time for USNA to process the transcript. By the time this happens, it is the end of January/early February. Furthermore, I believe that the board evaluates college candidates in Feb/Mar because they want to see how each college candidate has faired against each other. It makes perfect sense...the waiting is hard, though!</p>
<p>Green-I noticed your degree in college was going to be econ. What classes did you take in college? Did you take the recommended classes the academy tells you to take? i.e., Calc, chem, english, etc?</p>
<p>Yea, i am also curious. What would someone guess the precentage of students re-applying from college, actually getting accepted the 2nd time (it looks to be pretty high!)</p>
<p>Also, leaning back on the issue of classes to take; I've heard mixed suggestions: take the classes you would as a plebe to show you can handle the stuff, or take classes, but not hard enough so that you'll ruin your GPA</p>
<p>Anymore insight on this? Thanks So Much!</p>
<p>What courses you take (or at least, those you can choose) depend on many factors.</p>
<p>Here are some examples:</p>
<p>1) The guy who takes the heaviest courseload of the hardest courses he can find because he wants to excel. Admirable. Also fraught with risk, but as with so many things in life, the good stuff requires risk to be attained.</p>
<p>2) The guy who goes into poli-sci in order to ensure a high GPA because he wants to go aviation, only to have his eyes go bad on him and have to go SWO anyway. Now he's stuck with a major he can't do anything with that he'd want to do for a living.</p>
<p>3) The guy who studies something he likes and gives it his all. Depending upon effort, he either succeeds wildly, fails miserably, or falls somewhere in between. If he gets his service selection, GREAT! If not, he still has a marketable major he can fall back on.</p>
<p>I always recommend that people go with Option 3, and that they take as many courses as they WANT without risking everything by overloading. It is also why I urge people to validate courses, but to think carefully of the possible consequences.</p>
<p>There is no set formula. Each person is different, with different career aspirations, academic ability, personal discipline, and interests. The bottom line is that they need to remember that the decisions they make now will reverberate throughout the rest of their lives (whether they stay military or not), and as such they need to be very clear on what they are doing.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Oh! I just remembered an applicable anecdote!</p>
<p>When I was getting out, I went to a fair put on by one of the better-known headhunting firms that specialize in placing Junior Officers coming out of the military (Did you know there were such places? I didn't at the time, but there are! Several, in fact!). </p>
<p>At the fair, this one officer (a pilot) was getting out, and went up to ask the recruiter what he could do to help him find a job in Corporate America. </p>
<p>The recruiter asked him "What did you do?"</p>
<p>"I was a pilot."</p>
<p>"How many direct reports did you have?"</p>
<p>"Just a few."</p>
<p>"What was your major?"</p>
<p>"Music. I wanted to fly."</p>
<p>"Sorry. I can't help you."</p>
<p>Never, EVER, find yourself in that poor man's place. He had not supervised any significant number of people, and his major was worthless. For whatever reason, he could no longer fly. Now he was in a pickle because he bet everything on a hard six and ended up with snake eyes.</p>
<p>Think about it.</p>
<p>"Questions abound..... My son is thinking of attending a large public school in the fall. He will probably place out of calc I and II, comp sci, physics I and II and possibly chem I due to AP placements. Should he go on and take the next level of classes as a freshman (Calc III, Dif Eq, etc.) or stay with the standard freshman classes to make sure his gpa is awesome. Also, since he is at such a big school, he will not make any of the official sports teams. Do intramurals count when it comes to sports participation? He plans on trying out for band and joining AFROTC - but there will be few opportunities for leadership in these orgs as a freshman. Any thoughts on how to ensure 'whole person' score is adequate?"</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation. I validated 33 credit hours coming into my University. Calc I and II, Chem I and II, Physics I and II, English Composition I.</p>
<p>This is my second year of college (going to USAFA as 2010). I've finished Calc III and Diff. Eq., all sorts of EE courses (Circuits I and II, Signals and Systems, Switching and Logic, Physical Electronics, Programming in C, etc.). My GPA is a 3.539. I'm only saying this to show it can be done. Yes, I'm fairly smart, but it sounds like your son is as well. People were often surprised when they realized I was a year or two younger than they were and in their same classes. But I flourished in that tough learning environment. Now I have 73.5 credit hours (1 semester skipped due to full-time co-op, part of the 5-year engineering program) and will coast by a lot of classes at USAFA.</p>
<p>I would recommend taking the hardest courseload. Sure, you can skate by in Calc I and II, but most likely your son will do no better in those than the harder classes. He'll be bored out of his mind. Not to mention he needs to be ready for a rigorous Academy program, and the best way to prepare and know you can succeed is to attempt to mirror that, at least academically.</p>
<p>Also, if he does it like I did, he'll find himself so far ahead at the Academy he'll have to retake at least some courses. This is, IMO, a very good thing. It'll give him a chance to really learn the material while also not taking classes so low it insults his intelligence. So yes, take the hardest classes he can.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, however, that the Academy may make him retake some chemistry/physics. The standards for getting out of classes are different.</p>
<p>At least at USAFA, you can talk to the departments if you don't do well on placement tests, show them a transcript, and they'll let you in something else.</p>
<p>For instance, at USAFA, they let about 8-10 people (not by choice but just because there are so few) straight into Diff. Eq. That puts you ahead. It opens more doors for more learning or a lighter course load.</p>
<p>Call all the departments and talk to them. At the SAs, people are almost begging to have a nice, long conversation. They were there for my questions, and I talked to several people in the math department to make sure that I was making the right choice. They'll tell you the same thing that when you get there, you have three choices: re-take some classes or go for the harder ones, or something in the middle.</p>
<p>Also, just because you validate a course does not mean you can't take it there. They leave the choice to you. And just because you don't validate it doesn't mean you have to take it, you can go talk to them.</p>
<p>I re-applied to USAFA and here's what my resume looked like:</p>
<p>Several jobs: lifeguard at the school rec, co-op with a utility in engineering reliability, co-op with same utility at a nuclear power plant.</p>
<p>Fraternity: service chairman fall semester, organized around 600 community service man-hours, got about 45 myself. Talked about the events I organized, etc.</p>
<p>Also, naturally they still asked for my high school record.</p>
<p>The big thing I did was I wrote down everything I did. I included my resume as well as a few pages describing everything I've done in high school and in college. I had my employers write letters of recommendation, as well as my college advisor (who, per above, really liked me because I worked hard and showed dedication, I never saw his letter but I believe it was a big help).</p>
<p>Finally, your LOA plays a huge role. I know that my LOA and the head LOA for the region both liked me. They asked me straight-up why I wanted to re-apply, and I told them straight up: I had matured and realized this is my calling. They believed in me and, from what I can tell, recommended me highly. So, if your son is serious, tell him not to hide it.</p>
<p>And finally, MAKE SURE he stays in shape. My LOA had doubts about my physical abilities. I told him I ran 3 days a week and lifted 6, but I could see the doubt. That was until he saw my CFT scores. Then he believed me.</p>
<p>It's the whole person. Show them that you're serious academically, physically and leadership-wise, and they'll believe in you.</p>
<p>Slack in one area, thinking your high school sports will let you slide in, or your grades or your leadership, and they'll put the final nail in the coffin.</p>
<p>Remember: in college one good leadership role will trump a bunch of little things. Don't take on too much. Find something good you enjoy and go for it. Stay in shape physically and challenge yourself academically.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The recruiter asked him "What did you do?"</p>
<p>"I was a pilot."</p>
<p>"How many direct reports did you have?"</p>
<p>"Just a few."</p>
<p>"What was your major?"</p>
<p>"Music. I wanted to fly."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You know, after 10 years, I gotta wonder....</p>
<p>Am I the only one thinking this guy wasn't playing on the level? Can a MUSIC major even MAKE it into flight school?</p>
<p>Hmmmm.....</p>
<p>Well, regardless. He was DEFINITELY a Music major and he DEFINITELY was brushed off. Of that, I have ZERO doubt.</p>
<p>Zaphod goes off to take some Ginko Biloba...</p>
<p>tactical nuke, i think loa means a different thing to usafa than to usna, because to us it stands for letter of assurance.</p>
<p>I meant ALO.</p>