<p>here is a great piece of advice i once got about applying to USNA, "the navy doesn't need a bunch of eggheads and astrophysicists. it requires leaders" meaning that you can have perfect scores, all the clubs and stuff, but if they don't feel confident that you can lead, then they dont need you. a part of leading is athletics and that is why it is required in applications. it is nice to have "VP positions" and "math honors society", but the academy wants to see much more than just that. they need student athletes so that they can train you for battle. this is more than just a free education at a great school. this is preparation for warriors. remember that when you apply. it is your choice to play varsity sports or not but remember what you are applying for, who you are applying against, and when you are applying. this is a post 9-11 time. we are in the midst of a war and our academies cater to that.</p>
<p>all of us who just applied are about to take an oath in less that 80 days to "support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies". we aren't your typical soon to be freshman. the mids arent your typical students. the academy is not your typical college with typical standards.</p>
<p>^^^ out of the mouth of babes!!!! ;)</p>
<p>Maybe I can get good enough at soccer over the summer to play varsity... probably not though. I'm decent, but I've never been excellent.</p>
<p>Powerhawk</p>
<p>As others have said many times before you can’t game the system; you can’t become someone that you are not 6 months away from your application. If you try too hard you may end up coming across as insincere. If someone really wanted to build the “right profile” you’d have to start back in 9th grade. </p>
<p>I’m sure you can speak to your experiences in teamwork and team building in other areas if you lack much experience in athletics. Keep that in the back of your mind when you write those essays, stress the issue with the individuals you ask for letters of recommendation. The ability to lead can be found within you if it’s there whether or not you’ve lead a team on the playing field. If it’s there and people have noticed it, they will be able to speak to it in the context of their letters of recommendation. </p>
<p>
[quote]
the navy doesn't need a bunch of eggheads and astrophysicists
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</p>
<p>I’m sorry but that’s a load of crap…this is the same Naval Academy that brags about the number of Rhodes Scholars they have each year with those individuals front and center in much of their PR. This is the same Naval Academy that is increasing the emphasis on technical majors. If you were 5’-2” tall and weighed 260 and couldn’t manage a single push up, then I doubt your academic record would allow you to prevail; fortunately that is not your situation. </p>
<p>If you are in a very competitive area and you have the misfortune to go up against another applicant with your scores and academics along with 26 Varsity letters and some state records…. you may be toast. (or you may just end up in the national pool and still get in, who knows.) </p>
<p>Given the level of technology utilized by our armed forces, technical and academic achievement is not something that should be looked down upon or belittled in terms of the importance of good grades and high or in your case outstanding SAT scores. </p>
<p>Do well on your CFA and if you can work it in, play a sport, at the worst it will help to get you into shape. </p>
<p>One last thing, don’t frame your approach to your application based on the advice you get here; factor it in with a healthy dose of skepticism, but use as many other sources for information as you can. Once you have a BGO, talk to him/her. Talk to Mids, grads, I’m sure you’ll get lot’s of advice. Keep up the academics and class rank and don’t forget to enjoy your senior year. Good luck.</p>
<p>are you kidding rjrzoom? i am not belittling academics or the necessity for technical majors but i am placing an importance on being well rounded. if you didn't catch that in my response then i may not have made it clear enough. i understand that we need to be smart to lead on the battle field in the military and a strong education is important BUT what I am saying is that being smart is not everything. you can not just be some person who can only do differential equations and not deal with people or stress or lack the ability to lead. THAT is my point. by egg head I mean those people who cannot lead. and correct me if I am wrong but the academy desires leaders not people who can only work in a lab. you have mistaken my words and pulled off on some tangent. the academy produces rhodes scholars nearly annually, one of which (correct me if i'm wrong) a few years back became a SEAL. obviously academics is important, but it CANNOT be all you have on your resume because the academy needs well rounded people that are leaders.</p>
<p>I know for a fact that if I was an enlisted Marine I would want a smart and well rounded officer in charge of me instead of somebody who cant do a single pushup and should be in a lab somewhere because they are an egghead.</p>
<p>Got accepted to the summer seminar</p>
<p>on the subject of school sports, do they care if you letter or not? what if you are in good shape, you've played many sports for all 4 years of high school, but just haven't been quite good enough to earn a varsity letter?</p>
<p>Each school has different letter qualifications, too. Some schools give letters for showing up and having a happy attitude, while others have stringent standards. I wonder how they look at that?</p>
<p>for a letter, i think they require that you both be on the varsity team (and not junior varsity) and also meet a standard. but i think that generally, everyone on the varsity team meets that standard, at least it was that way in my school, which has about 2500 students. for a very small highschool, it might be not enough just to make the varsity team, but require a higher level of performance also- otherwise in a small high school, everyone who signed up for a sport would end up with a letter! but definitely the difficulty of getting a letter changes based on the popularity of the sport. at a high school with a very competitive football team, it can be tough to get on the varsity football team.</p>
<p>At my DS' school the standards vary by sport. For example, Varsity football players have to play a certain number of plays. Swimmers have to swim a time that is half way between a county and state qualifying time. Divers have to score a certain score on a 6 or 11 dive meet. However, marching band basically shows up for all practices and they letter. Check w/ your school and you can find lettering standards. Our school posts them on individual team websites. In a smaller school it may be different...but it's tough to letter in sports here where there are 4000+ students in the school.</p>
<p>The short answer is "yes." Good luck, get lots of them.</p>
<p>What's the academy's gym like? Does it have a good selection of free weights?</p>
<p>there are several gyms for lifting. i've only been in macdonough, and i thought it was pretty good, but i'm used to a pretty limited selection up here.</p>