I live in the NYC Area and i really want to go to west point ill do anything to be able to go, however i know i probably wont get accepted. my gpa is about a 3.0 with minimal extracurriculars compared to the other students who are probably applying. im going to retake the sat and act next month to increase my grades on it im looking to get over a 1350 on sat and over 29 on act. Im going to try anyway but in case i dont which i probably wont what can i do so that i can get into west point in the future 1 or 2 years? My plan was that if I dont get accepted i would attend college (CUNY or community college?) for a semester then join the army guard and go to basic and AIT as a 25S then reapply after that. Could that be possible and would that work out? my low gpa was solely due to some laziness in high school which i regret knowing that i couldve gotten into west point easily if i tried, but that does not matter. what should i do? so for like the fall of 2017 should i just go to normal college but keep applying every year while getting my grades up. im really really bummed out and sad that i know i wont make it even though im going to try any recommendations would help me greatly. Also i graduated high school june of 2016.
Does extracurricular and sports in college count as ec during the application?
Also can someone please explain how do i go about with ROTC
Unfortunately no. West Point is very selective and your GPA is too low. In order to apply you must have an endorsement from a member of congress or other government official. They get so many requests that it’s unlikely you’ll get the sponsorship from them ending the application process right then and there. Enlisting in the hopes of getting selected for the special programs to enter a service academy is also slim to none. I would attend a normal college you can get into and join ROTC. There are non and commitment programs in ROTC. You’ll have to research them. Basically you’ll be a normal college student with military life baked into it. Also West Point takes only freshman. If you want to be an officer rotc is the way to go. You’ll still be commissioned a 2nd LT. Plenty of successful officers came through the ROTC, OCS, and Direct Commision route. West Point is not the only way to military success. Best of luck.
Did you even apply to WP this year? One route for many candidates is through the academy prep schools - MAPS & NAPS. But you have to have applied in order qualify for that. Transferring after a year at a regular school is feasible. My plebe year roommate actually transferred from The Citadel so he had two plebe years in a row! But you will have to go through the normal process and apply for a nomination. Doing well with a challenging freshman year curriculum can help offset your HS grades - particularly in math & science which are the courses that most plebes struggle with.
@active17: You say you graduated from HS a year ago. What have you been doing since then? Are you taking a gap year or taking classes as CC? You will need to explain this gap if you have not been in college.
Many apply to service academies from their current colleges. They join ROTC units and mirror the courses they would be taking at the academy (you can check the course curriculum on the academy website to see what a Plebe schedule looks like), and try for top grades. Some apply multiple rounds; you just need to be under 23 before reporting for R Day. As @HazeGrey stated above, no matter how many years of civilian college you have under your belt, you will start as a freshman at the academy.