How do former students from my school affect my chances?

Well, 5 years ago the girl that was first in her class fresh-junior year and a minority was accepted to USNA. Last year my friend who was top 10% and a very athletic minority was accepted to NAPS. They both got 31 on the ACT. My grades are a lot better than his, but I'm not a minority and I'm not on as many varsity sports.

How many students have to go to USNA from my school to give me an advantage? I heard that if it's a lot then it can help, but 2 doesn't seem like a lot.

Hard to say, but it is probably totally irrelevant.

I suppose how they did at the NA is what's important to admissions. If they performed well that reflects well. If they performed poorly that probably reflects poorly. Think about it - admissions sees your application and says "Fantastic we've got another candidate from the same HS that produced Joe and Mary who did so well."...or "Uh oh, we've got another straight A student from the same HS that produced Joe and Mary, neither of who could cut it here."

But I'd guess that that evaluation is pretty far down the list of things they look at.

All you can do is to put yourself in the best possible position and not worry about things that are beyond your control.

My son has been appointed to the Class of 2017. He will be the fourth student from his high school that is currently attending the USNA. There have been several graduates of USNA from his school but next year including him there will be a Plebe, two Youngsters, and a Second Classman.

A great thing considering his school only has 1300 students attending. All four of them have played varsity sports, have been in the Naval ROTC (which is the current National Championship Unit) and have been active in far more clubs, organizations and community service, not to mention high test scores and GPA's. I think, in his case being from his school may have been helpful.

I would say that it has 2 effects. First, if your school doesn't rank, USNA can look to prior students from your school and see how you compare with them in terms of grades, etc. It's not a perfect analogy but it would provide some data points.

Second, if folks from your school have done well at USNA, it could help a TINY bit in that it shows the academic program at your school prepares students well for USNA.

Beyond that, probably no effect.

Helping Hands

I also think it can impact your chances from the standpoint of being prepared for the rigours of the application process and the importance of starting your 'resume' early on and building that resume.
Meaning, if you come from a high school that has had several appointments and a staff/teachers familiar with the SAs, they often can help you through the steps greatly, as can former students who are not at USNA. This support may be just emotional, but that still makes a difference on your end.

In terms of actual admissions, this may be incorrect, but a BGO told us that when a high school has a good track record with the USNA, that is noted and it does help because they know the student they are getting is prepared academically and on other fronts.

S

Minority Status Fixation

ESLGuy said:

Well, 5 years ago the girl that was first in her class fresh-junior year and a minority was accepted to USNA. Last year my friend who was top 10% and a very athletic minority was accepted to NAPS. They both got 31 on the ACT. My grades are a lot better than his, but I'm not a minority and I'm not on as many varsity sports.

How many students have to go to USNA from my school to give me an advantage? I heard that if it's a lot then it can help, but 2 doesn't seem like a lot.

Click to expand...

Answers to questions like yours are impossible to answer accurately without having in hand all the information IRT the records of appointees. You should focus on what you can affect, GPA, class ranking, ACT/SAT scores, academic record, ECAs and so on. The minority status of you and the appointees before you should not enter into your thoughts regarding your own competitiveness. Cheers.

I'd say it really just depends on a number of things, most of which you probably don't even know about the people that went to USNA from your school...I know at my school the vast majority of those appointed to USNA (I'd say about 4 of the 5 I know that have been appointed in the past 7 years or so) have gone to Governor's School, which is something in Virginia that kids who are very math/science oriented can go to in the mornings to take advanced math/science classes before going back to their respective schools to take their other subjects. I, on the other hand, am not in Governor's School. So even though the people before me did well in school and at USNA, it speaks almost nothing about me since I'm in a different situation. Point is, little things like that can make it so that just because they got an appointment, doesn't guarantee anything for you.

Basically, your goal shouldn't be to say, "Well, I'm at least as good as Mrs. USNA, and better than Mr. USNA, but don't have as many sports, so I should probably get an appointment though," because it's impossible to predict, really.