<p>Who here has or will apply to the Naval Academy Summer Seminar? For those who applied last year, how long did it take to hear back? How difficult is it to get in? What was it like?</p>
<p>From my son's view:</p>
<p>He applied first day, heard mid-March.</p>
<p>It is academically competitive, plus they want a good geographic representation there.</p>
<p>He was disappointed the first day, since he got there so late in the afternoon. The next day, it was just what the doctor ordered. He LOVED it. When he came home, it took us about an hour drive, he talked non-stop. Then another three hours after he came home. It was exactly what he wanted and where he wanted to go.</p>
<p>The day has finally arrived. I can't believe it is our classes time. Finally! I didn't really listen to a word anyone said at school today, I had my mind on the academy all day. Rushed home, and the application for SS wasn't there! I was using Firefox and it didn't show up lol. Opened up IE and it was there. Now the waiting game begins. I hope I get in. So class of 2012, are you guys as nervous as I am about the next few months, or years even?</p>
<p>Yes, it is your time. And what an incredibly exciting time it will be. Good luck. Persist. Learn and practice patience. Do what we say, not necessarily what we've done. Seek wise counsel for a complex and often perplexing process. And let me reiterate what I believe may be the simplest, yet one of the most important things we've learned in pursuing appointment to the USNA Class of 2011 ...</p>
<p>Attend to every detail and get it all done as early as possible. Rolling admissions says you've got to be qualified and timely. This is very different than other highly selective institutional admission processes that use 1 or 2 or 3 admit dates, which allow them to gather the applicants and look at them all at once. </p>
<p>Look at it this way ... there were 1200 seats in the Class of 2011 one year ago at this time. You've the same #. Now there are fewer than half, that # and the official deadline for admission materials was yesterday, I believe.</p>
<p>Don't wait. Get it done early. Give yourself the best possible shot.</p>
<p>What might others with more experience offer as their "ONE THING" for you?</p>
<p>Whistle Pig has good advice.</p>
<p>Make sure your scores on your SAT's are competitive.</p>
<p>Boy's/Girl's State</p>
<p>Extra-curriculars.</p>
<p>CWjones- I sent in my app. @ 12:13 AM on the first. Yes, it took me 12 minutes to fill out. I couldn't stop thinking about it all the month of January. I am definately looking forward to NASS (and W.P. SLS) in June, assuming acceptance.</p>
<p>I sent in my application at 12:31am on Feb. 1. I doubled checked it several times, I was so nervous that I might have made a mistake.</p>
<p>I did the exact same thing. I think I submitted it at like 12.20 on Feb 1st and I was so worried that I messed something up.</p>
<p>I think it's kind of ironic that my appointment came in on Feb 1st as well. Pretty awesome if you ask me. :)</p>
<p>Hah, it took exactly one year then.</p>
<p>Glitterhairdye Congrats! I sure waiting around to hear if you were accepted must have been excruciating.</p>
<p>GHD-</p>
<p>That is soooo cool. You'll never forget this date as long as you live!</p>
<p>This time last year I didn't really know anything about USNA...</p>
<p>I think it was the middle of Feb. when I applied to summer seminar. I read about it, thought it would be cool, asked my mom if it'd ok to spend 350 bucks or so during the beginning of June and applied. </p>
<p>I then forgot about it until mid march. </p>
<p>I got a letter, and was pretty excited that I had been chosen for Summer Seminar session 2 June 10-15. I started running every day, and doing push ups and such. If I recall correctly there is a routine type thing that comes with it, but I didn't follow it.</p>
<p>Fast forward to june 3rd. My friend and I are joke-fighting, and I break my fifth metacarpel (hand bone). It was a total freak accident, and I was really really upset. I started worrying that I would have a horrible time, people would think I was an idiot etc, until I decided i would just have to make the best of it. I packed my bags, boarded a plane, and got there that saturday, pretty early in the day. </p>
<p>The first day I just sat in my room, doing a whole lot of nothing, waiting for my other room mates. That night I think we watched some instructional videos. They told us to start using naval terms for things (bulkhead for wall, head for bathroom etc.). We started wearing nametags, shirts of the day, and using Sirs and Ma'ams.</p>
<p>The second day is where the fun began... woke up around 0500, did some light PT, and then ate. That day we were scheduled to do that Candidate Fitness Test (A required part of the application.) Remember me saying how I started running when I got my letter? You should too. A lot. Push ups, sit-ups, pull ups, shuttle run, and basketball throw should become daily routine. Why? This CFA administration is WAY easier than a private one with a coach, because there are 600 kids trying to do things, and you get way more time to rest and a whole lot less one on one supervision. If you do really well at the Academy it A. Impresses the Mids, B. Gets one part of your TRIPLE qual out of the way. Unfortunately for me, my hand was broken, so I just kinda chilled with my squad (Charlie 4th platoon 4 squad) and did the mile run. Oh yeah, it was really hot so get used to that. I ran a 5:46 mile, which is pretty good (top 10% there easily) but everyone else had just exhausted them selves doing the other activities. After that we ate lunch, had a little nap, and that night learned about the honor concept (no lieing, cheating, stealing). We also played some serious ultimate frisbee later on, a whole lot of fun, even with a broken hand!</p>
<p>Day three: Woke up 0500, and took the PRT (Physical Readiness Test). This is pretty much the same as the CFA, with a few modifications. It is the test that mids (and all military members if I remember correctly) take every year. After that we started our classes. I remember going on a Yard Patrol Boat... it was rainy and reall cold so that kind of sucked, except for the Radar. You could see the bridge a half mile away, and buoys in the water. I also had a cool physics class where they did some impressive demos. That night we had a member from each branch of Navy service (and marine) come in a tell what they liked. This included a disgruntled prop pilot (angry he didn't fly jets), a Proud Marine, crazy but cool Submariner,and a hilarious Surface warfare officer. </p>
<p>Day 4-5 We woke up earlier and earlier, did PT and went to our classes. I discovered one thing already: Sleep is a precious commoditity at USNA, and It was hard to stay awake during some of our class sessions. The Oceanography guy is NUTS, and the history class turned into a bragging fest between one "classical prepatory" private school kid (I go to a 1000 per class public school) and the professor. Needless to say, everyone else took a nap.
Between classes we would go on field trips or did activities and such (we went to Iwo Jima Marine Memorial) At night we would have a movie or a speech presented to us.</p>
<p>The cool activities I remember were the mini-Sea trials. You get dirty, a little tired, and have a whole lot of fun. We did some really COOL "games" at night (don't want to spoil it) that left us getting 2.5 hours of sleep. The highlight of the experience was the mock indoctrine night, where we got yelled at for a half hour. A ridiculous amount of a yelling. Some kids actually started to freak out, which I thought was a bit odd considering this IS a Service Academy we're talkin about here.</p>
<p>Another thing I want to add, the amount of bonding that occured in ONE week between my room mates and I was amazing. At the beginning of the week we didn't know each other at all, and by the end we were comfortable walking around naked frantically changing. I can't imagine the friendships that plebe summer builds. Most people were really nice, and nervous just like I was. Some were "My dads an admiral, blah blah" but those kids didn't any better than the rest of us.</p>
<p>In Summary:
-It's physically easy... we never ran for more than three miles, not at all "mentally challenging" , I would wager that its 1/100th of plebe summer.
-Still be in good shape for the CFA though.
-Food was alright.
-No sleep. (doesn't matter)
-Some boring classes, Some cool classes.
-Don't be intimidated or worried about how you will perform, the rest of the kids aren't SUPER ATHELETES, and the ones that are were generally nice.
-Be respectful, and ask questions, as you ARE being graded by your squad leader.
-And for god sake, don't forget to take your cover off when you enter a building :)</p>
<p>Mine was sent in at 12:28, then another questionaire for athletics came up, so that wasn't finished till around 12:35.</p>
<p>I'm just glad to finally be doing something instead of waiting around. Can't wait fro those application packets to come in July. (July, right?)</p>
<p>Empire-</p>
<p>All of your application is done on-line. Except for the dodmerb exam, all of it is done via computer. Even your CFA scores are entered this way.</p>
<p>I can't wait to find out if i got in. I was wondering what everyone put for their top choice in the classes part.</p>
<p>I put the foreign language thing first.</p>
<p>I went with the mechanical engineering then the navigation course.</p>
<p>Foreign language was fun, but that's only because I did well in it. Most people thought it was boring. Physics was awesome.. and I really enjoyed Naval Arch. You'll see when you get there, I really liked summer seminar and the profs are really cool. Just don't fall asleep in class...</p>
<p>I put the economics one first, then foreign language.</p>
<p>I put foreign language first too... but that's all I can remember, considering I was exhausted that night and went to bed with my alarm set for 12 A.M. after a grueling volleyball practice. :P</p>