<p>Anyone else irritated at all of the essays? I'm going to Europe in 2 days and I'm trying to get them all finished by then but ahhh. There are 5 for NROTC, 1 for USNA, plus 2 for all of my Senators and Congressmen. I think I have spent the whole day at this dumb computer attempting to write them. Atleast they're similar.</p>
<p>Welcome to senior year of HS. Yes, USNA admissions is like 3 colleges applications in one, but thats one of the things that separates those who really want to go to USNA from those who don't. </p>
<p>I feel your pain and wish you all the luck with ALL your admissions essays.</p>
<p>Hi Glitter, I just wanted to thank you for your NASS updates. My son didn't take a cell phone so I heard nothing except what your mom shared enthusiastically with us.</p>
<p>My son had to do two essays when he got home - for a different opportunity he is pursuing. He was up till 1am and then had to be up at 4:30 to fly out to AFSS. So all of the USNA and NROTC writing will be waiting for him when he gets back. </p>
<p>Just do one essay at a time. It sometimes helps to take a breather when you're stuck - just don't do anything boring or you'll fall asleep.</p>
<p>Have an awesome time in Europe! Are you going with People to People?</p>
<p>Yeah the essays definately aren't fun, but just get them done so you don't have to worry about them later. Luckily, USNA was the only school I applied to that needed an essay. The others only needed an essay for the honors colleges, but I just reused my navy one and one from school. I got lucky.</p>
<p>Sealion- Thanks for keeping my mom company and good luck to your son over at AF. I'm going to Europe with an exchange program through my school and backpacking through the Netherlands and Ireland by myself. 2 more days! </p>
<p>I'm almost done with the NROTC and USNA ones. Just a few more to go... Any english teachers on here that want to edit?</p>
<p>Depends. What are the topics?</p>
<p>I'm not an English teacher, but I can write quite well, if I may say so.</p>
<p>Essay idea</p>
<p>Last year my daughter - for no reason - just because she is a natural writer, we're from a large family/extended family and everyone wanted to know about her NASS/USAFA Summer Seminars - and because she wanted to 'journalize' her memories....</p>
<p>wrote an 8 page single spaced essay all about her experiences at both summer seminars, comparing the experiences, critiquing the Squad Leaders, giving her summaries of the strengths and weaknesses of both school's programs, and then explaining with clarity and firmness why NAVY was superior to Air Force. </p>
<p>She then sent dozens of copies to everyone who wanted one....and also to her BGO. Without our knowing it, the BGO forwarded it to the Regional BGO, he forwarded it to USNA Admissions, they called in our daughter's Squad Leader ( she praised him highly in the essay) and the Squad Leader contacted our daughter to tell her that the Admissions people were highly impressed with her writing. This took 8 days to circulate from her and back!!!!!</p>
<p>So the candidate's experiences, hopes, dreams,realized or not, from their Summer Seminar experiences is indeed great fodder for writing material when you have an essay to produce for school/scholarships/letters to counsellors or congressman, etc. </p>
<p>We never dreamed her writing would have the impact for her that it did. I still think it was a huge factor in her receiving an LOA on Oct. 3rd last year.</p>
<p>And another weigh in on all the paperwork ahead for you Class of 2011 young people...</p>
<p>you need to think about ALL your assignments for Colleges, Academies, Scholarship applications, ROTC applications, etc. etc. etc. as a complete part-time job for you. This applies to ALL your senior year. It takes as much work and dedication as any part time job. Yes, this is ON TOP of your hours of AP study, volunteer work, church commitments, sports, etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>If you are annoyed at the work before the start of your senior year - I highly encourage you to GET OVER IT. It will be a L.....O.....N....G... senior year if you start with this attitude.</p>
<p>Just expect to be swamped. Expect to function on 4 hours sleep many nights. Expect to be brain dead at times. Expect to feel like driving off a cliff at times. Expect to telling friends : "no I can't hang out, I've got homework or essays or study or a test or a volunteer committment or a job"....I can't tell you how many activies my daughter missed with school friends who weren't taking anywhere near the load she was...and to whom she had to say she couldn't join them in a friday night movie outing, or a beach day or a trip to Disneyland, etc...because of her needs to study or keep her responsibilites to her Civil Air Patrol Squadron or sports team or church.</p>
<p>The USNA accepted young person shows the utmost committment to stressing themselves, yet still personally achieving their best. A future military officer who intends to serve in our Country's defense of a War on Terror has to be able to deal with it, or else don't bother applying for a military appointment.</p>
<p>I can't tell you the times I did my kid's laundry this past year, or never asked her to clean her room, or even changed her bed sheets - stupid little stuff that I never let my other older 4 kids get away with - because the need to prioritize the BIG picture was what was needed. She took 6 AP classes, varsity swim, yada, yada, yada and was routinely up past midnight, up at 5:30 am all senior year. Yes there were times of tears, frustration and stress - but since she knew her goals, and we parents knew her goals, we just dealt with it.</p>
<p>It is still somewhat of a dreamstate for my daughter and her dad and me to realize that SHE MADE IT THROUGH SENIOR YEAR! And not only made it - but achieved her goals.</p>
<p>It can be done.</p>
<p>It will kill you and your family at times.</p>
<p>In the word of advice from her BGO last spring, at her interview:</p>
<p>P E R S E V E R E !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
wrote an 8 page single spaced essay
[/quote]
</p>
<p>wow! I guess the compare/contrast format hit a nerve!</p>
<p>For those of you who are starting your essays, however, I would add to peskemom's advice the following:</p>
<p>Our son, too, started with an essay about 2800 words or so (2 pages)- not good when the USNA requests a limit of 500 words! So trim he did- and got it down to 1000...and when he asked a favorite teacher to review it, scrawled on tht top was the following response:</p>
<p>"if you can't follow simple directions, what makes you think they will trust you with a billion dollar submarine?"</p>
<p>He got it down to 500- exact.</p>
<p>Suggest sticking to what is asked. If it is 8 pages, by all means write away. If it is 500 words, start cutting and make each and every one of them count.</p>
<p>PS....And just when our son thought he got mission accomplished, the senators office wanted no more than 350- and the other senator even less than that- "optional, but if you must write, limit it to 50 words."</p>
<p>Not easy being succinct- but most essential. They will spend only a few minutes on your initial review- make sure you give them what they are looking for- up front and easy to understand. Desire-motivation-committment-WHY they should PICK YOU. YOU HAVE LIMITED TIME TO SELL YOURSELF ON PAPER!</p>
<p>Best of luck to all the young scribes out there! ;)</p>
<p>Peskemom, I want to copy your message and email it to my kid. Just one question - Did your daughter have the presence of mind to realize what you were doing for her? I guess I don't want to be in the position of an enabler. My dh has the notion that if you do too much for children they'll end up on welfare. I have several other younger children, as well, so where do you draw the line?</p>
<p>Just to add a little gasoline to the fire Peskemom started....</p>
<p>For those of you who may be agog at the hoops you have to jump through in the applications process, and just how difficult it is to get an appointment to USNA....</p>
<p>Trust me. Getting the appointment is the EASY part. Try GRADUATING from USNA. </p>
<p>Think about it.</p>
<p>Zaphod out.</p>
<p>In response to sealion....yes, my daughter and I were always talking about what are the "big' things vs 'little' things that we were going to focus on. I guess having raised 5 kids, by now I've learned what are the 'hills to die on' and what aren't. I see so many of my friends making a heck of a lot of parenting mistakes with their teenagers over issues that to me, just wasn't the main thing. The main thing was getting my kid through senior year with the course work SHE chose to do. And the proof is now in the pudding for us, thanks be to the Living and great God of this universe!</p>
<p>On the essay questions...just to clarify...that 8 page stuff was NOT the USNA essay response. She answered each and every essay request meeting the requirements for every one....whether AP exams, SATs, Senator/Congressman's stuff, USNA stuff, etc. etc. etc - the 8 page report was something she did 'just for fun'. ( That should give you an idea of her idea of 'fun' eh??? )</p>
<p>OK, now to sealion again:
"Where do you draw the line?"</p>
<p>My answer is that by the time you have a teenager - hopefully you have established a relationship with your child that they know you 1) MEAN WHAT YOU SAY and 2) SAY WHAT YOU MEAN. </p>
<p>I used to watch and still watch parents in stores battling with their 2 year olds. "come here" the parent says, and is ignored. "come here is repeated countless times and the child continues to ignore". Then comes the infamous "One....two..." counting of the parent. In my family's case after the first "come here" my kid had better be moving in my direction or they would have gotten a discipline immediately. Yes we spanked. ONE swat and ONE swat only on the fanny. Usually not in public - this kind of stuff started at home so by the time I had my kids in public - they knew I meant what I said and I don't think I ever had to publically spank one of my kids to get them to obey. Oh, and I can count on 1 hand the numbers of times each kid of mine got a spanking. I am a really strong personality and I simply don't tolerate kid's not listening to me. They know I love them passionately and they know I would lay down my life for them. I modeled servanthood and kindness and love and obedience for them in my marriage, in our church service, in my immediate family. I am a strong Christian and intended to show my kids that either Jesus was real and true and reliable, or else not worth the time to believe in and I never ever was afraid to challenge my faith, it's precepts to see if they were something I could depend on.</p>
<p>So that background of authentic Christianity, authentic adulthood, honesty at our humanity ( we're ALL miserable failures at times) coupled with a husband who modeled servant-leadership, who loves me and is a devoted father....gave our kids a great foundation to build upon.</p>
<p>It was with that background of steady parenting and truly loving each of our kids with the gifts and talents God gave them....that we hit the waters of adolescence. Child #1 just happens to be a very compliant, bright, hardworking, talented musically kid. He was pretty easy to parent and that's not really due to us, but his nature that he was born with. However, his example really set the tone for his siblings to see that hard work, discipline, and teamwork really works!</p>
<p>We also had by the time our kids were teenagers worked out some of the issues like : clothing: NO you won't look like Madonna. NO you won't have tatoos in your teenage years NO you won't have more than simple ear piercings until you are 18. It was simply a NO. We also set a standard of :'NO SINGLE DATING' in high school. All dating was in groups. I can tell you my first 3 kids ( only 34 months apart) at first complained in high school about this - but each and every one on graduation day THANKED me for this rule. They had seen so many of their friends go through emotional hell because of their 'break ups' again and again with some person they decided to date. My kids told me they were SAVED countless tears because we held our standards for them. In college - they were very choosey about dating and now all 3 are happily married, successful adults and all three tell me they will have this same standard for their kids. We looked for alot of "YES's" to say to them as well. Yes you can take that band trip to Australia. Yes you can save your job money for what you would like to buy. Yes you can hang out with friends all day at the beach. Yes do can stay home and watch TV instead of coming to Aunt Linda's for a family gathering when you really just want to be home and quiet.</p>
<p>On the subject of 'hills to die on'. We never had many arguments about clothing or hair - because once again - my kids saw how so many of thier peers looked like SLUTS in their clothing - sounded like SLUTS in thier foul language and acted like SLUTS in their dating routines. It was a choice they made to see that to 'act like the crowd' didn't enhance them, but diminished them as people. My kids were the strong ones who set the high standards at their schools for decent dress, decent speech, and great study habits. Countless teachers and students looked up to them as role models. </p>
<p>I know I sound like I'm the best parent on the planet and I don't mean to say that we never made mistakes. Frankly - I don't have a great explanation as to how and what a parent needs to do in deciding what are the big issues and what are the little ones - other than start early with your parenting desires. Be as consistent as possible. Be honest with your kids and let them know when you make a mistake in a decision. Encourage your kids to come to you when they feel you are wrong and they disagree with a decision. Love your kids - have their friends over to the house often and make YOUR home a haven for them - pray night and day for them - keep homemade cookies around all the time :-) - and actively look for their personal talents and gifts so that you can encourage them to become the person God intends them to be. I can't tell you the numbers of parents that decide their child has to play a certain sport, or take a certain class, or study a certain instrument, or apply to a certain college - when the young person truly has NO interest in the thing and it's all a parent-ego trip. Don't fall into this trap. Let your children lead YOU in their interests and do all in your power to help them. When child #3 wanted to play the oboe in middle school my husband was out of work for 11 months. We simply did NOT have any money to fund this ambitious project. I went to the middle school teacher and asked her about this desire of my child. The teacher informed me that not only would the school help me with providing the instrument - but since they rarely have a kid interested in this instrument - there was a scholarship for lessons and equipment for the first year! We were stunned! This child now has her Master's Degree in Oboe Performance and is a professional musician. Had I simply told her "No. you can't, we don't have the money" instead of exploring options like I did - maybe her life story would have been completely different. But I was someone who really tried to meet my children's desires and they knew that.</p>
<p>So with all this rambling, I hope I've given you a sense of the approach my husband and I had in our parenting. We have been blessed with 5 intellectually gifted children. If you ask my kids what one sentence I have instilled in them, all 5 can tell you : Luke 12:48 where Jesus says: Where much is given, much is required.</p>
<p>We just happen to be blessed with amazing kids. They are not on this planet for a great ego trip, or to become stars. They are on this planet to make the world a better place, to love others, to be servants, to model good behavior. </p>
<p>I guess therefore it should have come as no surprise to me that on Sept. 11, 2001, my youngest daughter told me she was going to serve her country, and in the same breath told me where to bury her.....In her 12 years of life she was simply responding to all we had instilled in her heart.</p>
<p>In 15 days, that little girl who I brought into this world and loved and cherished...is joining the Brigade of Midshipmen with the goal of serving her country.</p>
<p>Sealiondad and all you other parents. We're the luckiest parents in the world to have these kinds of kids to call our own.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I changed my handle (formerly bmoyet). Thought all you guys had fancy monikers, so decided to give myself one. MOS was really 0351, but already taken. Man can you write and say the things I feel about my daughter. As you know she returned home from NASS I and is all excited about continuing the process toward securing a LOA. Thanks to all for the heads up on the essay. She works on it as I write. Keep up the good work.</p>
<p>don't mean to sound rude, but your interest should be securing an appointment, loa's being relatively unimportant. one of my roommates was given one two weeks after her FIRST EXPRESSED INTEREST in the academy- that being a phone call to the cross country coach towards the end of september of her senior year. she had the loa at the end of the first week on october. she was a recruited runner, my point being that while they are an added assurance, loa's are by no means the prize. the appointment is.</p>
<p>The LOA doesn't do much good if you can't get a nomination or pass the DOD MERB. Our DD had an LOA back in September, but she got a rejection from DODMERB in December. The two months waiting for the waiver were excruciating. When she got it I think I cried with relief for a day. </p>
<p>Always, always, always have a Plan B!</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Peskemom, your post made me smile. Here's one for you. We were at a steak house about a year ago with my mother and there was a three year old, jumping up & down and screaming in the booth directly in back of us. This went on for about five full minutes. My Mom (nicknamed The Wicked Witch of the South by my brothers) turned to the parents & said, "Give him what he wants or give him what he needs. I suggest however, you do it immediatley." It was soooo funny. And this woman loves babies. She just doesn't tolerate craziness in booths when she's trying to enjoy her meal. </p>
<p>Marine0311, enjoy! The wild ride begins for you NOW. I think I can guess just how proud you are. When you become an academy parent, you grow two more hearts to hold it all so no worries. ;)</p>
<p>I agree with Wheelah44.</p>
<p>However, LOAs can help you get a nomination.</p>
<p>beachmom: I knew I needed waivers for my orthotics and my eyesight, so I knew that DoDMERB was going to yellow card me. It was like hearing a train before it came. When it came, I just got all the papers together, faxed them, and prayed every single night, every single morning, and every single moment of the day. When the waivers came, I was so happy. Now I just hope no medical issues see me on I-Day. If they turn me away, rejecting a waiver, I will...I don't know...maybe cry a little and run away to a convent.</p>
<p>Hi Peskemom thanks for the thoughtful, inspired response. I'm such a slow thinker that it could be days before I can respond appropriatley. Psalm 15 ( we made our boys memorize it) was a key I guess to our philosophy in rearing them.</p>