<p>After browsing numerous forums, I've concluded that each year candidates become more and more reserved during their senior year, rarely talking to each other unless they already have some sort of relationship, or perhaps they want to check out other person's stats, to see what the competition is like.</p>
<p>C'mon people! We're all in the same boat! It just happens that our boat is leaking... Anyway, the point is that we should all spend the time to get to know one another-- in thirty-two weeks some of us will be meeting each other, and others will be meeting as well; other others too (now that would be a coinsidence worth to experience)! </p>
<p>So, post your nick, where you're from, and a little bit about your personality. No RAP sheets please (aka Rank-ACT-Prospectus)! I'll kick this off, hoping that at least 0.001 of the applicants respond to this thread.</p>
<p>My name is Arkadiy, Ark for short. I live in Philadelphia, my ethnicity is Korean, I was born in Uzbekistan, but my native language is Russian. Pretty cool for a guy who's going to turn seventeen a few months before the I-Day (minimum age for eligibility), and who got his passport on 08-08-08!</p>
<p>I suspect most USNA candidates simply have more important, and many more things to do than sit and compare stats and stuff; but it's not about secrecy, I don't believe. The profiles of past classes are readily available to lend individual perspective and potential. </p>
<p>Good luck and congrats on your recent passport. Sounds like you'd lend lots of "diversity" to the USNA pool, which is the flavor of the month there and many campuses.</p>
<p>I used to have the profile posted up on my wall, but I took it off after I realized that it's not about being better than everybody else, but instead being better than myself. So now I have a wall full of mediocre SATs surrounding a poster of the academy, ha-ha.</p>
<p>As far as my diversity goes, it is not without its own downfalls. I always stand out in practically any group, which sometimes makes me feel like an outcast. If I am in a group with asians, they always make fun of the fact that I don't know my own language; if I am in a group with russians/ukranians/poles (who dislike each other), I'd be the only one with radically different comlexion; as for americans, well, I am not considered one of them either.
So you see, being legible for affirmative action doesn't improve your social status, rather provide an incentive for what the majority has, and you don't. Although I am not the one to advocate this policy-- I believe that it somewhat provides an excuse for underrepresented population to work at 95% of their potential, making those 5% that much more difficult in the future.</p>