<p>Avelardo: Get that Smallwood book. We didn't get it until about Dec., of Sr. yr. ,long after my son had gone through most of the appl. process.
When he first decided he may want to try for the academy, I took him to Annapolis to one of the briefings, about March of Jr. year. Before we went, he had applied for the summer seminar that someone had told me would be good for him to attend if he wanted to try for USNA. When we went for the briefing in March, they looked him up and told him he was accepted for NASS. We got the letter when we got back home. He had taken the ACT and SAT before Dec. of his Jr. year because my friend told me that if he wanted to get accepted to NASS then he would have needed to have taken those tests.
Before NASS he had started the application process, writing to congressmen, etc., contacting his Blue and Gold officer, and upon returning home he wrote his personal statement. We didn't realize how important the personal statement was at the time. He wrote it and read it to us. We thought it didn't sound very good and told him so, but he couldn't think how to improve it, so he sent it. Looking back at what he wrote after I read the Smallwood book, I realized how it probably got him good marks because he was frank and
you could tell he had written it himself. He was truthful and said he had never thought about wanting to go into the military until the end of his sophomore year when he decided he wanted to become a Navy Seal. He talked about at first wanting to do a certain activity because it would look good on a resume (horrors!) then taking part in that activity and having an epiphany of sorts.</p>
<p>My son proceeded to take the most challenging courses his school had to offer, and got A's in them Your math, science and english teachers must write evaluations to send, so hopefully those would be good. My son's physics and calculus teacher was also his assistant football coach, so he wrote an evaluation which I believe must have been very good, judging from what he wrote in a letter of recommendation to one of our senators. I think demonstrating an internal drive that is evident in every activity helps display the qualities USNA is looking for.
He also continued to keep studying and retaking the SAT to get his score the highest he he could get it.</p>
<p>My son wrote a nice letter asking one of our senators for a nomination and I noticed that senator was coming to town. We made it a point to attend that function and when the occasion arose to meet the senator and shake his hand, I introduced my son, told the senator what he wanted to do, and we handed him the letter. I agree with Peskemom, you have to keep putting yourself out there so they will remember you.</p>
<p>My son was not involved in any military activities, nor were we, so we wondered if this would hurt him in his chances. It apparently did not.
As people have said before, they know what they are looking for and they will uncover you layer by layer to see what is underneath. If it is not what they want, you won't get in, no matter what you do.</p>
<p>Looking back on what I thought was a poorly written personal statement, they saw something there that indicated my son would succeed and they picked him. If we had helped him write it the outcome may have been different.</p>
<p>I must say, most of the things my son kept track of and did himself, meeting deadlines, etc. because I was busy with work, but I helped with buying nice paper to print the letters he would write to the congressmen, mailing things for him, and sometimes he would reach an impasse, like when he couldn't get the regional coordinator to call him back or e-mail him back because he didn't understand something and had a question, I called the guy at USNA and left a message. That's when he returned by call and told me over the phone that my son had passed the scholastic review board. Talk about happy...!
Anyway, sometimes I would get involved like this--like the senator sent a letter saying they didn't have his college board scores. Well, I realized that when he registered for the test, he didn't realize that you could have scores sent directly to the MOC. I immediately had the scores sent to their offices and called, myself to make sure that they had been received. Well, after I read the Smallwood book, I was horrifed and thought that I had ruined his chances of getting in because I had gotten involved. So it is a very tense process.
Take a back seat and let him do the communications part.
That's one big thing I can tell you to do. Just oversee the process.</p>
<p>So this is some advice from someone who has been through it. I know if is different for everyone, but do read that book!
Good luck!</p>