Illinois Boy's State

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Victory17

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I'm a Junior and have asked my guidance counselor about Illinois Boy's State, but she had no idea what the program was and had never heard of it. I then tried to contact my local American Legion post but got no response from them. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do next?
 
Keep trying to contact your local American legion. Call everyday if necessary. Did you find a contact number on the American legion website?
 
So I don't need to be sponsored by a post or my high school? I just send in the registration form?
 
Varies by state. There is a FAQ list posted on #4 above that contains most of the info you are asking about.
 
My son's original contact was his government teacher. He connected us with the American Legion post and within 2 days my son had a full ride scholarship to attend. But some schools are highly competitive for boys state.
 
Victory17 said:
I'm a Junior and have asked my guidance counselor about Illinois Boy's State, but she had no idea what the program was and had never heard of it. I then tried to contact my local American Legion post but got no response from them. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do next?
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A lot of schools do not participate in Boys State. That's OK. You can still go by arranging it yourself. The next step is to find a post that will sponsor your application. Some posts are not very active. Depending on your geographic area, you may have more than one post you can contact. The other thing is that some posts may be fine with sponsoring you but may have budget constraints as far as paying anything for your participation. That is fine, too. Just tell them you will fundraise the entry fee. This way they should have no objections to sponsoring you.

Keep on it and go to a meeting or stop by the post if you have to. A lot of the info on their websites is outdated. Google is your friend. Do some sleuthing and you should be able to find the current contact.

Edit to add: Print off the app from the boys state website. Some of the AL posts have not sponsored someone for a while and have no clue what to do. Fill out the app and have them sign where appropriate if they don't know the process. Also, I would contact the boys state contacts if you need assistance with app or finding a legion to sponsor you.
 
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And don't forget, your application to any SA will not be jeopardized if you do not participate in Boys State. Don't worry about it. If you are interested, motivate yourself and do the leg work.

I find it very difficult to believe that a high school guidance counselor doesn't know about Boys State. The stone age is over, after all.
 
Thanks for the response jebdad, I'll keep calling them and also might try going to one of their meetings.


fencersmother said:
And don't forget, your application to any SA will not be jeopardized if you do not participate in Boys State. Don't worry about it. If you are interested, motivate yourself and do the leg work.

I find it very difficult to believe that a high school guidance counselor doesn't know about Boys State. The stone age is over, after all.
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Almost no one from my high school applies to the service academies. The second time I talked to my guidance counselor about it, she said she had researched it but only found out about the Samsung scholarship from the American Legion;nothing about Boy's State. She said she had never heard of it. Maybe that's because the American Legion isn't as active in my community, as I said I've had trouble contacting them.
 
I will even go so far as to say that a guidance counselor who does not know about Boys' State will probably not be much help with West Point or service academies in general.
 
She didn't. When I went in there to talk about applying to West Point with her, I knew more about the process than she did.
 
The fact that your school does not have a Boys State elected rep is a good thing. Attendance at Boys State will basically be up to whether you want to do the leg work to go, not whether you are picked by your school. While not going to Boys State may not sink your application to an SA, my child's N=1 sample size would indicate that WP really likes to see it. DD's admissions rep recommended it. Frankly, she was in a situation just like you and going to Girl's state was low hanging fruit in terms of things you can do to really bolster your app with WP. While there she was active and won a couple awards. It really helped the leadership component of her app.
 
Might make a nice essay later: "Why I had to do all the work to get into USMA."
 
My sons loved Boys' State and got so much out of it. They made great friends and enjoyed learning about state government.
 
My son did not attend Boy's State (he chose to attend SLE over Boy's State) and also did not have any help from a guidance counselor ( he was homeschooled and his father and I knew absolutely nothng about how to apply to a service academy) so it is quite possible to get into WP without Boy's State on your application and without the assistance of a guidance counselor. You can learn about everything you need to know online and then it's up to you to simply follow the directions.
Good luck!!
 
On the http://illinoisboysstate.org/about/faq/ website, it says that there is no limit to the number of people that can go, and that anyone can sponsor you. Why then does Boys state look so good to service academies if there is no competition to get in? I thought the reason Boys state looked so good was because it was competitive to go.
 
As I posted earlier, that varies by state. In some states is it VERY competitive to get selected to attend (everyone who applies does not get selected) and that is part of the reason SA's consider this of value. I can't speak to how many states are selective vs. not. If it becomes something that the majority can attend just by submitting an application & paying a fee, then SA's will probably reassess its value to them.
 
time2 said:
As I posted earlier, that varies by state. In some states is it VERY competitive to get selected to attend (everyone who applies does not get selected) and that is part of the reason SA's consider this of value.
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I agree----my state is extremely competitive and it is a very big honor to be selected. SLS does not carry this kind of weight.
 
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