<p>I am a junior in high school and class of 2010 hopeful at the AFA. I was just wanting some feedback on my credentials and what you thought were some strong/weakpoints. They are listed below:
Athletics:
-3 years varsity golf, captain my junior year
-2 years varsity track
-1 year varsity basketball
Academics:
-4.0 GPA
-28 on ACT
-ranked 1 out of 164 in my class
Community:
-4-H: health and safety officer as frosh., treasurer as soph., and president as junior
-Church youth group
-Church sound technician
Those are the basics. Also I was accepted and will be attending Summer Seminar session ‘A’. I was accepted into this early (end of January), and was wondering if that was a good sign.</p>
<p>ACT should be higher, but otherwise it looks good. Other VERY improtant factors: what classes are you taking (answer: all the math, sci, english, and forlang you possibly can). I assume that when you say you've done two years of track and one of basketball at the Varsity level that means you're still competing. Starting something, then not completing it over 4 years of HS is NOT seen as a good thing. Again, another important factor is your congressional district--how competitive it is (see other posts). This is a HUGE factor.</p>
<p>Have fun at SSS, and good luck!</p>
<p>Once I graduate high school I will have taken 5 years of math, 4 years of english, 4 years of spanish, and 4 years of science. As far as my ACT I will be taking it again in April. Hopefully it will go up quite a bit since I have taken it once in June after my sophomore year. My congressional district is in Northwest Ohio. I have been to many meetings and there doesn't seem to be many kids there, so I'm not sure how many applicants there actually are and how competitive it is. Thanks for your feedback though.</p>
<p>Hey aforce06, I'm from Northwest Ohio. My MOC who nominated me for West Point was Gillmor. I didn't get into West Point this year, but I did have a presidential nomination to all three schools so not all is lost. You'll probably have a good shot at getting an appointment, just be sure to get all your stuff in on time. I'm almost positive I was rejected out of hand for my medical status, so don't worry. But of course, don't be over-confident, the interviewers hate people like that. :P</p>
<p>There are a few more non academic factors you need to know that are considered in Academy admissions. If you've read any of the other posts on this board you've probably heard of them but if not here ya go.</p>
<p>After being selected your going to take a Department of Defense Medical Review Board (DODMERB) physical. This physical looks at your medical history, vision, hearing, urine test, and a head to toe exam.</p>
<p>The service academies want candidates to meet USAF Flight Class Physical III standards which basically mean you can become a pilot, navigatior, or special ops warrior. The biggest disqualifier here is that your vision must be under 20/70 uncorrected (without glasses or contacts). Other applicants can and have made it in, you just have to have better scores to make up for this problem.</p>
<p>Nowadays the AF offers PRK (special type of laser surgery) for people with vision that can be corrected and want to do this stuff. PRK is awesome!</p>
<p>If you want more info on this I would talk to your ALO (Academy recruiter dude) because he would probably know the most.</p>
<p>Vision worse than 20/70 isn't a disqualifier and these days, and doesn't require a waiver. It isn't much of a big deal since only about half of each USAFA class goes to pilot training anyway. It may require slightly better numbers than the PQ crowd, but not by much. Correctable to 20/20 is more important, plus if you're color blind that can disqualify you for a wide variety of operational career fields (pilot, nav, space, spec ops, etc). Lack of depth perception is another limiter on pilot qual.</p>
<p>I know you can't have lasik and some other types of eye surgery if you expect to be a pilot or navigator. If someone was to get PRK before his/her physical or before they went to the academy would it still be disqualifying or is that type of vision surgery acceptable? Also, what does PRK stand for? I wouldn't mind doing a little research on it myself.</p>
<p>As far as I know, doing any type of "improvement surgery" to your eyes is one of the worst medical disqualifications they have. From what I have gathered, do nothing to your eyes on your own. Get into the academy with bad eyes and let THEM fix them FOR you once it is time to become a pilot. They will only trust what they have done themselves.</p>
<p>ryan</p>
<p>falconflyer22 is right on--they won't take you at this time if you've had corrective eye surgery prior to arrival at USAFA. They have to do it for you after you arrive. PRK for pilots-to-be and either PRK or LASIK for all others.</p>