USAFA Chances?

Bradyl13

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2015
Messages
25
Graduation Date: May 2016

Unweighted GPA: (grades 9-11) 3.73

Weighted GPA: (grades 9-11) 3.73

2015 Year GPA: 3.83

Standardized test scores:

ACT Test Date: December 2015

English 27, Math 26, Reading 31, Science 27

ACT Test Date: April 2015

English 25, Math 25, Reading 32, Science 26

I will be taking the ACT again in September.


Employment History:

Shift Leader at local Restaurant; March 2014 to September 2014

Cashier and worked in the accounting sector of a local grocery store; September 2014 to June 2015

Full time CNA at State run nursing home; June 2015 to present; Job duties: Providing care for 6-10 residents a day (assisting with ambulation, toileting, feeding, and post mortem care)

Honors and Awards:

2013-2014 National Honor Society Member

Danville Area Community College College express student board as a Junior in high school

One of two Illinois Boys State attendees from my town (won elections for City Mayor, County Sheriff, while placing second for state comptroller)

2014-2015 Danville Symphony Orchestra Instrumentalist of the year

Class Load:

Freshman Year: Honors World History, Honors Spanish 1, Honors World History, Honors Geometry/Algebra 2, Religion, Honors Chemistry.

Sophomore Year: Honors American Lit, Spanish 2, Honor Algebra 2/Trigonometry, Honors Biology, Modern World Issues, World Geography, String Orchestra

Junior Year: AP English Lit/Comp, Health Occupations(class at Community college for student with good grades and behavior), Honors Precalc, AP U.S History, Psychology, Symphony Orchestra

Upcoming Senior Year: Speech, AP English Language and composition, AP Psychology, Symphony Orchestra, Delegation (show choir), AP Calc, AP Micro/Macro economics.

Athletics:

High School Soccer (2012-2014; Varsity 2015-2016)

High school Basketball (2012-2015; JV team captain 2013-2014 Varsity 2012-2013 & 2014-2015)

Vermillion County Home school basketball team (Team Captain 2015-2016)

Traveling Basketball (2010-2015)

School and Community:

American Legion Boys’ State (June 2015) City Mayor, County Sheriff, Part of the Leadership program and Element Leader for my county.

Certified Nurses Aid in the state of Illinois (June 2015)

Student Council Member (2012-2015 Vice president 2012-2013)

UPwards basketball camp Councillor (2012-2014)

Danville High Basketball Camp Councillor (2013-2015)

Head of Model United Nations at Danville Highschool (2014-2015)

I regularly shadow the city mayor (2015)

Active Speaker and sit-in at county board meetings (2014-2015)

Danville Madrigal Holiday Singers (2014-2015)

Danville Delegation (2014-2015)

Upcoming Election Judge for my county in the fall of 2015

My Application At the USAFA has also been deemed competitive as of June 8th.
 
Your extracurricular activities are pretty good but your academic profile is weak. Your ACT is below average by service academy standards and you have no physics. You may even be academically disqualified for not having physics(I think there's a very high chance that you will be academically disqualified for not having physics).

I don't understand how you were on the varsity basketball team freshman year but then sophomore year you were a JV captain.
 
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I'm actually going to getting my classes finalized so I can add physics if you believe it would be good, on the topic of basketball, I've attended two different high schools, the first of which, with about 150 students, a largely academic school, I started varsity there, when I transferred I transferred to a school of 1600 students and at the time sophomores were only allowed to play JV, I practiced with the varsity but never played until my junior year. Also, I did take, and pass two years of Spanish at my high schools I am in the top 8% of my class, but besides physics what would you recommend?
Your extracurricular activities are pretty good but your academic profile is weak. Your ACT is below average by service academy standards and you have no foreign language classes or physics. You may even be academically disqualified for not having physics(I think there's a very high chance that you will be academically disqualified for not having physics).

I don't understand how you were on the varsity basketball team freshman year but then sophomore year you were a JV captain.
 
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Thank you! I will get physics on there, aswell as some other computer classes. Like I said I'll also be taking the ACT again, in which I hope to do a lot better then my previous two.
 
You should also take the SAT. Sign ups are now, so look into it. Some students do better on SAT versus ACT. They are different types of tests. Keep taking them both as much as you can. Agree with Frenzy to take the classes AFA recommends.
 
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Ok I will also do that, I have an appointment Monday to get the classes and I will sign up for the SAT soon aswell
 
Don't rely on "your school" to schedule ANY test for you. It's no big deal that you didn't take the PSAT (my kids did not bother); it may have kept you from being a National Merit finalist - but that's water under the bridge.

Have you contacted your ALO? He should be consulted IMMEDIATELY as a rising senior, and HE can tell you if he suggests Physics and any other coursework. While we can suggest Physics for you (or in the case of Frenzy, A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ;-) ), your ALO is the person you should talk to, and do so soon.
 
Yes, I am in contact with my ALO, I'm forwarding him my official senior year transcripts as soon as I get them this week. I have also, as recommended, signed up for the ACT again, as well as the SAT
 
It might behoove you to get some test prep help, especially in Math. If not available in your school maybe someone at the Danville CC can tutor you? A prof or other teacher there?

It might help us guide you better if we knew your actual grades. Is your GPA our of 4.0? I don't know that I have ever seen an unweighted and a weighted GPA the same!
 
Yes, it is out of 4, i hadn't noticed that! I used a prior post as sort of a template, so I must have been paying little attention when I filled in both, as for my school, we are unweighted. My grades have all been A's besides a few classes freshman year, (where my GPA was weighted)
 
Don't rely on "your school" to schedule ANY test for you. It's no big deal that you didn't take the PSAT (my kids did not bother); it may have kept you from being a National Merit finalist - but that's water under the bridge.

Have you contacted your ALO? He should be consulted IMMEDIATELY as a rising senior, and HE can tell you if he suggests Physics and any other coursework. While we can suggest Physics for you (or in the case of Frenzy, A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ;-) ), your ALO is the person you should talk to, and do so soon.
Actually I talked to my counselor today and got my schedule changed so now I will get 2 foreign language classes by graduation.
 
That is great to hear, Frenzy. Do your best! Get a tutor if you need one!
 
Regarding taking a physics class, the USAFA prep school has students take English, Math, Physics, and Chemistry. The prep school is for people who are academically DQ'd. Based on that, I would guess that not having enough English and/or math class is an academic DQ, and not having physics and/or chemistry is an academic DQ. There are no foreign language classes or computer science classes at the USAFA prep school(at least the website doesn't say that there is) so I would be very surprised if not having one of those is a DQ.

That being said, it probably helps your chances if you take foreign language classes and a computer science class.
 
Not quite right on the prep school, there, Frenzy. There are lots of reasons why people go to the Prep School, and many times, it is a deficiency in academics. But to say they were "disqualified" and so were sent to the prep school is incorrect. It's not as if one is disqualified by USAFA so one is then sent to the prep school. One is offered the prep school. Someone rejected from USAFA is just that - rejected. There is no offer for Prep School.

There should be no disappointment in the Offer from the Prep School. It is a golden ticket. It means that a nomination and appointment are yours the following year, and therefore, yours to lose as well.
 
Not quite right on the prep school, there, Frenzy. There are lots of reasons why people go to the Prep School, and many times, it is a deficiency in academics. But to say they were "disqualified" and so were sent to the prep school is incorrect. It's not as if one is disqualified by USAFA so one is then sent to the prep school. One is offered the prep school. Someone rejected from USAFA is just that - rejected. There is no offer for Prep School.

There should be no disappointment in the Offer from the Prep School. It is a golden ticket. It means that a nomination and appointment are yours the following year, and therefore, yours to lose as well.
I wasn't trying to say every academically disqualified person gets to go to the prep school.

I've never heard of someone getting into the prep school that wasn't academically disqualified, so I assumed that all prep students were academically disqualified. My bad. Nevertheless, the prep school does not offer foreign language classes or a computer science class. It would be silly if the academy were disqualifying candidates for just not having foreign language classes or a computer science class and then they were sending(offering) those same candidates to the prep school, where they won't take foreign language classes or a computer science class. It isn't silly for the academy to disqualify candidates for not having physics and then sending those same candidates to the prep school, where they will take physics classes.
 
It is different if one comes from a high school where such courses as Physics are not available. Simply not available. We took our kids to the local university where they studied Physics and other subjects which are difficult to tackle at the kitchen table.

I know of many many students who were at the prep school who graduated in the top 100 at USAFA. Hardly "disqualified." Many Div I athletes and priors are offered the prep school because their uber demanding schedules made taking such coursework, especially with labs, impossible.
 
Frenzymando, drawing that conclusion is a bit of a stretch. Why take any other class in HS that's outside of the four you've mentioned? Why take gym, band or an Art class?

Also based on your logic if a HS didn't offer a Physics class is it an automatically DQ'd? And trust me there are some rural HS that don't have anyone to teach the class so it does happens.

And by taking your logic to the next step; you can take them and fail them since the Prep school doesn't offer them so it won't DQ you?

I know that's not realistic because states have requirements where you have to take some combinations of classes to graduate.

Also I openly discuss why my son got a Prep slot it wasn't a lack of academics. Prep is also for prior enlisted to get back into the academic world. So before you draw any conclusions from the Prep school you might want ot research it a bit more.
 
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