<p>Hello I just wanted to know how would you get your LOA before the interviews for a nomination? Because most people say, you get a better chance of getting a nomination if having an LOA.</p>
<p>You can get an LOA by having a competitive application and by making sure that you have everything done really early! This is a must if you want an LOA before the interview time. </p>
<p>In addition- don't worry if you don't get an LOA; most people don't and they still get appointments.</p>
<p>I didn't get an LOA (I didn't turn my stuff in early... my package was complete in mid-December) and I still got my Rep's principal nomination. A lot of different things can happen but if you walk into a nom interview with an LOA in your hand, from what I understand it can help you get their nomination because it shows them that the Academy "wants" you, and that you were smart enough to get your stuff done early (unlike me).</p>
<p>If I apply for the USAFA within the first month of when the Precandidate questionnaire is released, when would you think I will receive the Candidate kit?</p>
<p>The entire application is done online now. I forget when the official candidate app opened up but I'm pretty sure it was shortly after I got home from summer seminar, which would've been mid-June. Your PCQ counts as your SS app if memory serves me.</p>
<p>zachogden- I think you're right on both accounts. I believe I was made an official "candidate" in June and you don't have to fill out the PRQ at any of the service academies (I believe) if you applied for Summer Seminar. As far as a Candidate Kit- it is all online, I think you just get a notice in the mail saying that admissions thinks that you are competitive enough to be deemed a "candidate".<br>
With the application though, don't rush it, as it is extremely important! I didn't have my entire app done (for USNA though) till mid October because of a teacher recommendation and I was kind of putting the essays off until a "moment of inspiration". I still had an LOA in hand by January. I'm not trying to tell you to wait until October or later because I wish that I had done it earlier as I hopefully would have had word from the academy earlier. But don't rush the essay.</p>
<p>Also, be careful who you pick for your reccomendations. You don't want anybody who is so-so about you as a person. Make sure they are enthusiastic about you being in an Academy before you entrust them with a reccomendation.</p>
<p>My s fillled prq in Mar. He had the letter @ how to start the application process in mid-June. Met with his ALO by end of June and Dodmerb qual by July. We had to slow down the rest of the process until Sept. b/c neeeded school things. (Didn't know about the teacher/gc recs, and thus, they didn't get them in until October....every kid needs them for college and ED/EA is due in Oct. also, so they typically at our school took precidence since there was a must have by date, acad has must have by Jan.31)</p>
<p>I would go b4 the end of the yr and get the email address for the two teachers you want us recs, when you receive your applicant status you can email them and ask them to submit their recs (they have to do it online, you will never see the rec, it just shows up). Also get your gc's email, since they have to do it too.</p>
<p>Meet early on with your ALO, ask your gc if they have a contact for your area ALO and contact them. ALO's also give recs.. Our ALO was very hands on and met with our s several times, 1x for interview process, the other times to review his personal essay. I am pretty sure he re-edited each essay at least 3 times to finess it. Our ALO reviewed it ea time...submitted when he had his final approval. You must submit 2 essays, they take time and count towards your PAR</p>
<p>For now go and get a great SAT/ACT score. The avg score is @1300. Take the hardest classes that you can. Remember the AFA has a score that if you don't get you will not become competitive (their way of saying thanks, but no thanks)</p>
<p>Practice the cfa...so you can max out the points. Many kids have problems in the pull-up and bb throw arena. I believe that SLS gives the cfa.</p>
<p>Which state are you from? For NC, we didn't hear about his noms until January. However, there are states that submit their nom list in Nov. If you get a principal which is rare, you can have an appt for AFA by Nov. If not the AFA has to wait until everyone on the slate has submitted their file, at that pt the person with the highest CFW will be appt.</p>
<p>Our s's friend who is a state swimmer has already heard from the swim coach (back in Oct). He did not contact them, they contacted him. He is currently a JR. and is being recruited, he is also a child of a retired military member, so if he is recruited he will get an LOA and could be appt by Oct.</p>
<p>So the long and short the process will be different for everyone. Our regional told my ds that they only give about 100 LOA's out, most to athletics.</p>
<p>Most appointees never get an LOA, so don't sweat it. I recommend getting the app. in as early as possible (unless you have something to improve upon in a short time). I delayed my app. to score better on the CFA, because I was really out of shape. If something like that does not apply to you, get the app. in fairly early.</p>
<p>
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Our regional told my ds that they only give about 100 LOA's out, most to athletics.
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</p>
<p>Only 100? Wow, we had 4 LOA's in our town (2 high schools) this year and none are for athletics.</p>
<p>All of them, however, were for highly qualified candidates (1400+ SAT / sports captains) who had applied to two or more academies.</p>
<p>Sometimes, LOA's are used as a "preemptive strike" to make a candidate feel wanted, to possibly turn their head away from other schools, to keep them focused on that academy rather than have them pursuing other opportunities.</p>
<p>Are you in a comp. area for the AFA? We had none in our entire county. The last one we had one was 2 yrs ago for USMA and athletics. Our ALO can not recall one in the past 4 yrs for AFA, but he said USNA and USMA are more common. There have been several for USNA and USMA at our school alone in the past couple of years</p>
<p>Our regional also said that many LOA's are given as a preemptive strike to compete against the other SA's for highly qualified candidates applying to more than 1 SA.</p>
<p>G*d Bless our regional, she is the nicest person in the world, and has personally called him several times to inform him he got another nom, b4 it showed up on the site or we had the letter in hand. She has been very supportive in every manner, even has emailed him when he sent her a question.</p>
<p>Let me clarify ...I wrote scool, but meant county...sorry fingers and mind operate independently and I guess I should read before posting. Our county has 11 HS, but the town is a good old southern city, where someone, knows someone, who knows someone :D</p>
<p>My d received an LOA (AFA) I suppose for high SATs. She hadn't applied to any other SAs or colleges. Here in TX (at least our area) MOCs do not interview. She did get her app in early and was DODMerb qual in July. She is the only one in the county (that we know of) that has been accepted into a SA and the first one in 4 years to be accepted from her HS. Of course our area is sparsely populated. The town where she attends HS is less that 20,000 people and is the largest town in our county.<br>
From the time we started the application process for SS until now we have had 3 different ALOs so we have had to figure out a lot of this for ourselves. Thankfully we have friends whose d just graduated from USMA. They gave us a lot of good advice along the way.</p>
<p>WOW 3 different ALOs? Ours has been in this position for close to 10 yrs. Did they mistake what region, or did the ALOs just resign? What was SAT if you don't mind me asking, if you do I apologize for being nosy...Our s was 1390...ACT was 33 comp</p>
<p>Yes, LOA's are not that common compared to the majority that actually wind up getting appointments to the academy. In our state; in the last 4 years; we've probably only had 2 loa's. In the last 2 years we've had 2 immediate appointments early. (Both had presidentials, so they received appointments in october/november). The others just got their appointments in the March time frame. No LOA given prior. They went through the MOC nomination process and waited.</p>
<p>That is probably the hardest part of getting into the academy. You hear a lot, especially on the army USMA forum, of people being 3Q'd or Triple Qualified. They refer to being academically, medically, and CFA qualified. That doesn't mean you get an appointment. Also, you can be on your rep/senator's list of nominations, and also not get an appointment. Unless you are the rep's primary nominee, there is still a chance of not getting an appointment. Even those who get a Presidential or Vice-Presidential nomination aren't guaranteed an appointment. Even if they are 3Q'd. Remember; the air force academy is going to offer approximately 1600 appointments and know that about 300 are going to turn it down. When all is said and done, they are going to admit approximately 1300 individuals. It is quite possible to have hundreds of applicants who have passed the CFA, have good Grades, medically qualified, and are on a nominator's list, and still not get an appointment.</p>
<p>For that reason it is always better to complete your application as soon as possible. My suggestion to Juniors who are applying to the academy, is to contact your guidance counselor in the spring of your Junior year while they are still at school. If you've applied to summer seminar, that's another reason to contact the GC. Let them know your plans and intentions. Many school employees work part of the summer. Arrange to be able to get your transcripts, school profile, etc... prior to summer vacation. My son's school had no problem with giving us "Official" stamped transcripts and senior class schedule. They even gave us school addressed envelopes. We contacted the 3 teachers before summer vacation and they gave us their personal email accounts. We were able to fill out the online app when it became available in June; Mail in the transcript, profile, etc..., provide the 3 teachers names and email addresses, (They received the email and completed the recommendation online). We then were able to contact the ALO (Who contacted us PRIOR to summer seminar). She interviewed my son immediately. Called and scheduled the medical. The ALO did the CFA. Everything was complete, including medical, by mid-July. The entire process was done 100% and online by July 19th. The online app showed complete and done a week later.</p>
<p>When the academy looks at the early appointments/loa's, they are looking at historical data of past cadets. When they start the panel reviews of the apps, they know where you stand compared to the historical average applicant. Your only competition is historical. If you aren't selected for an early nomination, you are kept in the pool and continually compared to the other applicants that are completed week after week. If you are a strong candidate, it's better to do it early.</p>
<p>^^^^ I agree </p>
<p>However, here is a caveat for rising seniors and their parents. Our ds was selected for "JUMP START", the school has parameters, gpa, references and absentee record (cannot miss10 classes in hs career of 9-12). We thought that b/c he was academically excelled this would equate in his gpa as AP....WRONG. He took Calc and Eng. Calc at the College was given a weight of 4.0 (school offers AP Calc at 6.0, nobody informed us of the difference, we assumed that the weight would be the same...and we all know what assume means), the irony is if he took basket weaving the course would be a 4.0 .... same as Calc. English was given as honors at 5.0. (he also took honors Eng IV, in the fall and AP Eng for the spring = 3 English classes) . We learned the lessons, and for 2nd semester we made sure that it was a 5.0 class (once in jump start you cannot leave it) His final semester he is taking AP Euro for 6 and 2 World History for 5.0, (jump start) with sociology honors.</p>
<p>Due to the fact that we enrolled him in Jump Start, he could not receive his transcript until school started, whereas, if he took Calc and another course at the school and did not do JUMP START his gpa would be higher and you could have the transcript sent in the summer, b/c the school is in control of the transcript</p>
<p>If you are serious, sit down with the gc. Our son did the questionaire in March, but his eyes wereset on Notre Dame (AFROTC), only in the summer while the school was closed he decided he wanted a military oriented education.</p>
<p>LESSON LEARNED....GET EVERYTHING DONE FOR THE ACADEMY NOW, MY PERSONAL OPINION :)</p>
<p>Our school did not send out the transcript until mid Sep, and GC could not send out until mid sept. also due to JUMP START. Teacher recs were not sent until Oct. b/c EA/ED were due b4 Oct 1 , whereas, the acad due date is Jan. 31st. It all depends on your school</p>
<p>Bulletandpima wrote "WOW 3 different ALOs? Ours has been in this position for close to 10 yrs. Did they mistake what region, or did the ALOs just resign? What was SAT if you don't mind me asking, if you do I apologize for being nosy...Our s was 1390...ACT was 33 comp"</p>
<p>The ALOs changed, retired or resigned, I don't really know. We had a difficult time even finding out who the ALO was in the first place.
My ds SAT scores were 1400. And I don't mind you asking, I'm quite proud of her and her twin sister as I'm sure all of the parents here are!</p>
<p>I can imagine, when I saw ds scores I was so proud...I think if he hit over the 1400 marker I would be screaming from my roof. Off topic...where is your other daughter applying?</p>
<p>Ok, let's say I'm applying for the class of 2012 and I submit my PCQ in March (The first month of when the application comes out), with only my PSAT scores on it. Since the SAT I is first available in October, how will I send the scores in after I submitted the PCQ?
Will I still get the Candidate kit even without the official SAT score?</p>
<p>What do you mean the SAT I is first available in October? I took my SAT in March and my ACT in April, and had both scores by the first week of May. I had my scores sent in with my official transcript (my school includes them all together) early in the fall.</p>