Hello. I am currently a high school junior at a competitive high school in California.
I was wondering what my chances of getting admitted to the West Point SLE are, given my statistics.
SAT: 1540 (first time)
Math: 780
English: 760
Essay: 7-7-7
ACT: N/A
GPA UW: 4.00
GPA W: 4.64
Coursework:
Freshman: English Honors 1, Band, Spanish 1, Alg2/TrigH, Track and Field, BiologyH, Human Geo AP
Sophomore: English Honors 2, Spanish 2, PreCalculusH, Track and Field, ChemistryH, World History
Junior: English Honors 3, Spanish 3, Calculus BC AP, Chemistry AP, Psychology AP, US History AP
So far, I have gotten a 5 on every attempted AP exam (Human Geo). My current projection for my junior year is a 5 on the Calculus and Psychology exams and a 4 on the Chemistry and US History exams.
Sports:
Track and Field (2 years)
Taekwondo (8 years, second degree black belt)
Community Service/Extracurricular
Boy Scouts of America (4.5 years)
Eagle Scout Candidate (currently working on service project)
40+ service hours accrued from scouting opportunity
Trombone, school band (4 years)
Please give me your honest input. I appreciate your time.
(Edit: I am an Asian-American male. Just a side note.)
SLE is just a marketing tool that has zero bearing on admissions and does not resemble a day in the life of a West Point cadet one iota. The purpose of SLE to reach a broad diversity of students who might not have much exposure to or consider a career in the military. It does enable attendees to open their candidate profile and complete a CFA if they wish (but not mandatory) as well as see the garrison if they have not seen it before. Because it is just a camp, “chances” are based on available slots. However, your chances are best if your profile describes a person who is less likely to consider an academy than the bulk of applicants the academy typically sees and you apply early while there are still spaces. It is not an honor to attend SLE any more than it is an honor to attend any other summer camp. Remember, most appointees do NOT attend SLE and attending SLE is not counted in the Whole Candidate Score (WCS) used to determine appointments.
So, apply if you want to spend a week at the fort, but don’t lose a wink of sleep if you don’t get a slot due to space restrictions; it won’t affect your application one whit. Our son, who is a cow (junior) at WP, didn’t even apply because a) he wasn’t interested in the camp program and b) he didn’t need to spend any time at WP to know he wanted to go there.
I am USMA '87 grad. Based on your info, you have a strong profile. In the dark ages, when I applied, WP used a “whole person score”. No idea what the metrics were. What they want to see - strong academics, leadership experience, sports. The % of cadets who were Eagle Scouts was pretty high. I agree with ChoatieMom - SLE is a marketing thing. If you want to learn more about the academy, I believe admissions offers an overnight stay visit. Ask your school counselor to put you in touch with the WP Admissions Liaison Officer. They can tell you more.
John. I see that from your call sign you are Korean American. Go to summer program at SAs. Your numbers are very strong for all top schools. So that is good to go. So spend your time building the rest of your Apps. Your ECs need more dedication and diversoty on other things outside scouting. Your service hours are thin. And shows you just did the min needed. To any colleges you don’t want to give the impression that you’re doing things to check the boxes instead you do things with purpose and true curioustiy. You can improve your hours with 100 per year. Do service hours with organizations outside your comfort zone where you can make a long term difference. This means something outside your local Korean church where things are bit easier for you culturally. I did 700 hours traveling through 5 countries over 3 years. I don’t expect you to do that if you cannot but if you can you should travel outside your town in less fortunate areas to serve others. I’m an Eagle Scout with 11 Eagle Palms. So I didn’t do min to pass my Eagle board. I seriously leveraged the program exploring STEM and others with diverse interest in Merit Badges. There are many Eagles out there, at least 10% of the WP class are Eagles. So show the best dedication you can demonstrate.
Do more team sports. Culturally Asian applicants usually do individual sports. Koreans all do Tae KWON Do black belt. Show the Academy you’re different. Take up boxing swimming MMA. You will get top Athletic points at WP if you can swim well and box in your Plebe year. Tae Kwon Do will not help you at the Academy. Maybe it can on hand to hand combat somewhere in combat. And you will need to be at the Master level to have proper skills. But not at West Point. Take up Juijitsu. It is closest thing to Combatives. I have 1-Dan in TKD from the Workd Tae KWON Do Federarion Kukkiwon in Seoul. When it comes to a real fight TKD is inferior to combination of Juijitsu with Boxing. You will get seriously beaten.
If you’re from CA you will be competing against bunch of Koreans. And to stand out you need to fit into the WP Model. SAs look for team leaders. Do another Varsity level Team Sports. Best if you can do 1 per season.
Work on leadership by being a good follower first, integrity, veritas, character, true desire to help others. Remember SAs want Scholar Leader Athlete and Service oriented Cadets who want to serve their country. SAs want to make officers who are mission ready as they leave the Academy. If you’re serious about serving you should also apply to ROTC Scholarship and programs at the Top 20 Schools. They are all different in depth and commitment to students.
I applied to all SAs and got accepted by 2 out of 4 so far. Just waiting for another Nom source from Senator. I am also touring and attending academic and ROTC classes at ROTC BNs and Units at Harvard Brown Yale Princeton and other schools. You will have to request and they will consider and invite you. Other great ROTC units at top 20 schools are at Duke Columbia and Cornell. Among these schools it appears Harvard has the weakest admissions commitment, even though student interest on campus is strong and ROTC Units are highly supportive. All other schools select 50-60% of ROTC candidates to their schools who have top stats ECs References Essays and won the National ROTC Scholarships. Based on 2015 Harvard PhD report on top school ROTC Admissions and school practices, about 30-50 apply to the Top 20 programs each year. You have to assume they are all the same candidates who got their First Board ROTC National Scholarships. I got my National ROTC Full Scholarshop on the first board to Army Navy and Air Force. With your stats you have a good chance too. But you need to write great essays for Army and Navy and get top references have top ECs with top CFA like scores.
Applying to ROTC is the same as applying to another SA with higher academic threshold because the pool is more competitive in their top 10% pick which is the first board passing. I would imagine most have 1500 SAT or 33+ ACT. To be on safe side should have 1550 SAT and 34+ ACT to come out on top 10% of the Forst Board. Even though most passing the first board will have top GPAs, GPA not so important but class rank is. They will review the quality of classes you took and must have taken all the college prep core classes in rigorous programs. For Navy and Air Force recommend AP Calculus and all 3 year science lab classes including Physics by end of Junior Year.
Also need to be DODMERB Qualified to draw down the Scholarship. Air Force does not require essays. They also prefer to give Scholarship to STEM and Language Specialists.
There is down side to ROTC Cadets vs SA grads. SA grads will autmatically get priority in branching. Including Pilot slot from USAFA. All USAFA can be conserved to be a Pilot regardless of their Majors and GPAs. Not for ROTC Cadets. In fact it is extremely hard to get Pilot slot with ROTC unless you are a distinguished grad. This is what the Admissions at USAFA said who is ROTC grad. Cadets compete equally only if they have superior overall national rank compared to SA grads. And going to Harvard Yale does not give you superior academic point to someone who went to City College. You will be equally evaluated on your GPA 60% from your own school your athletics 10% and military leadership 30%. This mirrors WP admissions whole person Score which is not a coincidence.
These are all great intel for you and others. And they are very current to this year admissions cycle. Things can change next year but I expect very little to change YoY.
Good luck to all prospective candidates to SAs and ROTC entering class of 2019. For the class of 2018 these info maybe too late to help you plan yours but I was able to learn it on the job that has been tremendously helpful.
One more data to help Prep for Asian Applicants. The reality is that you are competing against another Asian in your district, not Caucasians Hispanics or African Americans. More specifically with another Korean applicant if you are Korean ancestry. Academies have to select candidates close to national ethnic breakdown. Asians are always well respected by 2x the National break down. So Asians are very well represented at SAs.
So think about how you measure up against your Asian peers who are usually academically very well prepared but weaker in Leadeeship ECs and team sports Athletics. Each year an estimated 80 Asian candidates are selected nationally at each WP Navy and Air Force Academy. 80-90% of these Asian are Korean ancestry. So you are competing against a very thin window in your district. Majority come from CA NY VA MD PA TX in order. This is demographically fairly correct. And most Asians have high academic stats like you. SAs and Congressmen and Senators will need to differentiate you among other highly qualified Asian applicants in your district and state. I think I made Point very clear.
I am not Asian but I lived in Asia for a decade in military communities so I know Koreans very well. And they are all super achievers. And I respect the Koreans very much, in their respectful culture, education, hard work, and the respect they have for the military service.
Have humility throughout the process, don’t assume you have the best qualifications. Someone else does too. Set your coordinate and adjust as needed along the journey. There are many with numerous National level awards including Congressional Gold Medal Eagle Scout National Academic honors, etc. And many 4.0 Unweighted GPA with 1600 are rejected from the Top 20 schools and SAs because others with less academic stats bring higher quality to campus. You will also have to Qualify DODMERB, CFA, and Nom. DODMERB and Nom you cannot control. I feel for candidates who pass all but DODMERB due to hereditary medical issues and food allergy. It is absolutely devastating for candidates who otherwise can qualify. But SAs want a 360 perfect candidate when building their class. Good luck to you all.