LEAD applicants for Direct Appointment and Prep School

RE2012USAF

Richie
5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2014
Messages
20
Hello! Looking to connect with any fellow prior enlisted applicants who have applied under the LEAD program for direct admission and/or prep school. I am currently enlisted in the NY ANG.
I am wondering what others had for SAT/ACT scores, volunteer work, etc. Also if anyone has heard back on an appointment to either. I have heard that appointments for enlisted personnel are in late May. I was under the assumption that appointments were given between 1 March and 31 April.
Looking forward to connecting with some of you prospects!
 
Nothing yet I'm still anxiously waiting myself. I check my portal day and night waiting for an update. I got a call from the admissions office about a clarification on my application, but while I had them on the phone I tried to extract information on when prior enlisted boards meet and the expected timeline to follow. I was told the Prior Enlisted boards begin meeting beginning-middle of April. The anticipation is eating me alive... Whats waiting another few weeks at this point?

How was your "LEAD" application experience? And what are you doing with your time if you don't mind me asking since your also ANG? (ex. Full time student, full time technician or AGR at the base?)

Glad to know theirs other enlisted airmen going through the same process as me. Good luck with receiving an appointment. Hopefully we will get to both meet up with each other next semester in Colorado.
 
Hey guys! Another enlisted airman here. I got offered a slot to the prep school just yesterday. It came to me as a surprise cause i thought the enlisted packages are reviewed around April. But regardless, i got it! Be on the look out for yours!
 
I actually just received my appointment this morning on 14 March! Accepted it just a few minutes ago and am starting online paperwork and such.

My LEAD experience was good! I had a Lt.Col. who was a former grad help me out a little bit actually. My Commander gave me a great letter of endorsement. I studied my but off for my SATs...AGAIN. Did lots of volunteer work which I would of done anyways because I love helping people. DODMERB was smooth. My ALO interview was exceptional. It all went very well. Hardest and longest part was my CO finding the time to write my letter of endorsement and fill out the 1786.

As far as what I'm doing, I'm actually a track and field coach. Head of varsity sprints and pole vault. I work construction siding and roofing houses from about 0730-1430. Then I coach from 1500-1730. After that I train myself. I stay busy. I know you're sighing in your head that I work construction but it pays my bills. And it reminds me more than ever how much I want to pursue my dreams at the USAFA. I keep myself very motivated for the future. I'm already thinkning ahead to bust my butt for an appointment to the Academy in 2015 and working hard to walk on to the track and field team.

Any questions guys...PM me! I would love to connect via social media and/or text message. Looking forward to a solid 10-12 months at the prep school followed by 4 incredible years at the USAFA.
 
I received my appointment to the Prep School yesterday 03/14/14 also! I'm pretty excited to see what the future holds! I've been checking my portal 4 times daily and I finally opened up an email this morning from the USAFA that said to check my portal.

We report in early July so we get to have a bit of a summer which is cool too.

Are we still up for consideration for direct entry or are we limited to the prep school? (I am ecstatic about my appointment so don't get the wrong idea, just keep curious that is all)

Anybody know much about the prep school? (living arrangement, payment, daily life, freedoms, opportunities, class size?)

Good luck to the rest of the LEAD applicants!
 
Good luck everyone.

I went through the LEAD program to the prep school and finally the academy. It's a long road but definitely worth it. Keep your eyes on the prize.
 
I hear ya chocksout!
Same thing with me. It eventually got so difficult to check it each day and see no change that I went a few days before checking again. Haha. And like we said, got an email anyways so that was nice.
I know a little bit about the prep school. I have been talking to a preppie recently. We will be living in dorms there obviously but I'm not sure how many people it is to a room. I'm assuming two. Pay is pretty awesome...we get paid our enlisted pay so for me that's E-3 with less than 2 years of service but June 1 marks two years so that will go up. If you're a direct to the prep school you get paid 35% of an O-1 pay which I calculated out to be like $1100 I think a month. Give or take $100. As far as an appointment to the USAFA goes...this is it. The board considered us and decided the prep school would be the only feasible route. Which I'm ok to get back in the swing of things. I called my admissions counselor at the USAFA to ask him to make sure I didn't accept an appointment and then get a nomination to the actual Academy. I know that us priors report a week earlier than the directs because we are a leadership figure for the directs and need to switch gears from AD if that's where you were. And that came straight from the prep school commander (My friend is a LT. Col. and knows her). As far as anything else goes...I'm still researching!
I planned on participating in an open Track and Field meet in August to try to walk on to the team. But now that I'm not direct to the Academy I need I contact the coach again and see if I can still tryout and maybe redshirt a prep school year or if I have to train on my own and then tryout summer of 2015.

If you have gained admissions to the prep school, feel free to send me a personal message and we'll connect a little before July.


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Really?! I didn't really know that about us reporting a week early due to us being priors. That is pretty cool news to know, really looking forward to this!

I'm SrA as of next month with about 3 years service so I'm calculating the pay as not so bad... I'll be leaving NJ ANG as a guardsmen, but being a full time college student so I wouldn't mind getting back to AD life such as tech school in preparation for the academy.

I'm a bit curious as to what we will be doing in the prep school academically speaking. I've been in engineering school for the past 2 years and I'm gonna be essentially restarting my academic career, wiping a clean slate, which is no problem by any means just curious what sort of classes we will be in.

Good luck on the track and field team walk on opportunity, that would be excellent if you did that!
 
The prep school starts with algebra and trig and then moves on to Calc I the last quarter. If you're a good student you can take calc I on the hill for AFA credit.

4 quarters of english: creative writing, argumentative writing and literature. If you're a good writer, you can take the freshman core English class on the hill as well.

4 quarters of chemistry. These help a lot with freshman chem.

2 optional quarters of physics granted your grades are good enough.

1 quarter of engineering mechanics.

There's a good chance most of the school work will be review for you. Once you get to the academy then you can talk to the Registrar about transferring credit from other colleges. I was able to clear 4 or 5 classes from academic schedule by taking a year of college before hand, so you're not necessarily starting from a completely clean slate.
 
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Wow this was really encouraging to read! Thank you so much for my informative response! I'll have to speak to the registrar when I get out there. Chem is the only subject I wouldn't mind reviewing a bit... but now at least I know I haven't wasted the past two years of my life studying. Have a great night.

Thanks again!
 
If anything...you will be well prepared and score a very high GPA at the P school! Additionally you'll be able to help a guy like me out once we get more towards the pre-calc/calc stuff. Haha. I too have a desire to pursue an engineering field, specifically mechanical. I am NY ANG; however, I have no college experience (LONG STORY). Looking forward to working hard though. I think I should fair pretty well in the course load at the P school. Going to work hard to take a class or two at the AFA but at the minimum I just want to score well with the required classes. I'm looking forward to meeting you! I'm pretty sure I sent you a personal message the other day but it may not of went through, if you're looking to connect and have a Facebook feel free to look me up-Richie Evans. Otherwise we could get in contact via text or email. It would be nice to have one or two friends as a base before arriving.


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RE2012USAF and chocksout, i was doing a bit of research a while back and came across this. it gives details of what classes we could be taking at the prep school along with other stuff you might think is useful. check it out!
 
I received my appointment to USAFAPS on 13 March 2014 by phone. Then the next day, all the required paperwork and the official documentation of my appointment appeared on my portal. I honestly just made my account this weekend in order to get acquainted with others before July.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns I'll be glad to help!
 
Really?! I didn't really know that about us reporting a week early due to us being priors. That is pretty cool news to know, really looking forward to this!

I'm SrA as of next month with about 3 years service so I'm calculating the pay as not so bad... I'll be leaving NJ ANG as a guardsmen, but being a full time college student so I wouldn't mind getting back to AD life such as tech school in preparation for the academy.
The week prior this last year was used as a tool to allow the Priors to help teach the directs because we didn't have Cadre from the Hill this year. We basically helped teach marching fundamentals and how to keep our rooms cleaned up.
And realize, just because you're Prior Enlisted that you're not above the direct entries, we found that out right quick during Basic when we got beat just as much as the directs. You'll learn to love and hate them, trust me. Some of my closest friends here are directs, and you have so many memories to share for years to come.
Just a heads up seeing as you're ANG/Reserve, you don't get SrA pay if you're guard or reserve, you actually end up getting shafted and end up with E-1 Pay. Only Active keep their pay grade, this came as a surprise to two of my reserve classmates when they started seeing their paychecks drop by quite a bit.
Also, congrats on everybody who gets a slot to the Prep School, I'm finishing out my last quarter here, we find out about our appointments this month or the next.
And if you have questions about the Prep let me know on here or through email. Mbourdeau92@gmail.com.
 
Thats a really bummer concerning the pay. Owell money isn't everything. I'm here for a world class education in becoming an officer in the United States Air Force. I'm extremely excited regardless of what the circumstances are. I'm going in the Prep School completely open minded towards all other prep school cadets. I want to learn, cooperate and excel with every one of them. Thats the point of the prep school and the academy is to succeed as a team and become great officers.

Can you elaborate a bit on your PS experience?
 
time frame before applying for LEAD

RE2012USAF and chocksout,

Hey guys, i just have a question for the benefit of my youngest son. How long do you guys have to be with the reserves before you are allowed to apply for the LEAD Program?
 
Socaldaddy,

There actual is no specified amount of time. You could enlist in the Guard/Reserve out of HS and apply right away to the Academy. Granted you do want to establish some rapport with your Commander as well as your unit and supervisors because they play a big role. I fortunately hold a strong resume and I am very good with words and expressing my goals and aspirations. I transferred from maintenance to civil engineering and the first time I talked to my CO was an "interview" for him to write my a letter of endorsement for my Form 1786. I researched the LEAD program extensively so I am rather well versed if you have more questions.

If the USAFA is your dream and your grades aren't stellar and you aren't a stud athlete...honestly enlisting could be a bold move but it looks good applying to the USAFA. Granted chocksout and I both were appointed to the prep school but the USAF has already invested a lot of time and money into you. The way they see if you are a permanent asset looking to better Mother AF. That looks pretty good on an application. I worked my tail off on my application and made sure I put 100% forward. If I didn't think it would get at least selected for the PS I wouldn't of filled out the application but I was confident in my extracurricular activities being extensive in volunteer work, charity and leadership at a young age. And my academics were fairly reasonable.

But back to the original question, there is no black and white time amount you must be In service. It would probably be about 4-6 months until you're to your home unit after BMT and tech school. Could have a two week tech school. Could be over a year for something like a crypto linguist.


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As previously answered above, there is no specific amount of time necessary before you can apply to the USAFA through the LEAD program. How ever to give you some insight on my timeline:

Graduated high school in June

Enlisted in October (due to quite a few communication and logistical complications with the recruiter.)

Participated in "student flight" for 7 months at the base. More or less I'm required to attend UTA weekends but cant actually do anything because I haven't been to BMT or trained, so we usually either worked the chow hall or filled sand bags or worked ceremonies on base or something.

Left BMT in May which as you know 8.5 weeks
Bused from Beautiful Lackland AFB to my personal favorite Sheppard AFB..... in July

Tech school July-October (This varies with every single job! My job happen to be a 3 month tech school.)

On the Job training for three months (Oct-Jan) at my home base 5 days per week to apply what I learned in Tech School.

Began my college education that semester in Jan (the week after my OJT orders expired) thru this present moment and I leave for USAFAPS this summer.

My timeline is in no way ordinary or usual since there isn't a real timeline. But you can see the amount of time it took in between high school and applying through the LEAD program, so I hope your candidate is up for that challenge.

I wouldn't Enlisted into the USAF for the sole purpose of trying to apply for the USAFA under the LEAD program. Its the wrong reason to join and you would be miserable the rest of your contract if things didn't go your way and your stuck for another 5 years enlisted. My back up plan was already in action as a full time college student by now I've diverted back to Plan A at the USAFA!

Hope this helped give you some understanding about the LEAD program and the timeline of the enlisted member and how long it would take to actually be eligible to apply. You need enough time to build a positive reputation in the Wing or in your shop or a relationship with your commander. Your first meeting with your commander shouldn't be about your aspirations to leave the wing.

Any additional questions I'll try to help the best I can. Good Luck!
 
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