<p>hey guys, i'm new here. anyway, i'm a junior in high school and recently sent in my preliminary application. i'm not exactly sure what the academy's looking for in applicants, and i'm a little worried. my grades are good and i play multiple sports, but am not involved in any leadership positions in any clubs or student council. do you think this will hurt me? if my grades are really good and i keep playing sports will this be enough to overcome my lack of non-athletic activities? now that my application is in and junior year is nearly over, is it too late to start getting involved in school clubs and activities? like i said, i'm worried that i haven't done enough non-athletic activites, and i just want to hear what you guys think. thanks.</p>
<p>try not to worry about what the academy is looking for... the only way to do well is to be yourself. i had never held any sort of leadership position in student council type groups or academic ECA's. like you, i play multiple sports (different sport every season). do you have leadership positions in your sports (captain, co-captain), or do you expect to have a leadership position next year?
it's never too late to get involved in something that you're interested in. but you should only join any activities that you're interested in. has your class voted on president, vice pres, treasurer, etc? you could trying running for one of those offices.</p>
<p>Are you in scouts? Any way you could finish Eagle? That is HUGE.</p>
<p>i think lots of people put a lot of emphasis on scouting, and i was really worried about it when i started the application process because i was never a girl scout (so i obviously never earned the gold award). if you ARE a scout, that's great, but don't worry if you're not one, either.
i think what they're looking for is lots of community service hours, which is mostly/partly what being a scout is about. i know to make eagle scout/gold award you need to have done a big community service project.
some schools put community service hours on transcripts since they require a certain amount. for example, my school requires at least 30 hours per year, and they put the total amount that you finish on your transcript which the academy will see. if your school doesn't put your community service hours on your transcript, there's a place to enter information about that on the application, too.</p>
<p>From the Class of 2011 profile, only 11% of the 1200 entering Mids were eagle or Gold Star Scouts.</p>
<p>Rambo-</p>
<p>My son never had any leadership activities...his BGO said she was going to put the academic spin on his packet. He did play sports and had extremely good grades. Needless to say he immediately received an LOA in September (one week earlier than his sister did and she had both leadership and athletics) and full appointment packet in November. Now that we are going through this process for this a 3rd time with our youngest daughter, who is also a junior, I know that they look for Calculus AP and Chemistry AP. Also they look at your class ranking. Contact your BGO and see if there is anything they recommend for you to do. Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks for the replies. i was a boy scout for many years when i was younger, but stopped around middle school. i don't suppose this counts for anything since i wasn't a scout during high school, though, or does it? i took honors chemistry sophomore year, am taking ap calc and ap physics next year, and my ranking is pretty solid, in the top 10%. anyway thanks for the reassurances.</p>
<p>No, I doubt they care to hear that you were a scout when you were little...unless you made eagle at 13...!</p>