What are your chances? Class of 2021+

SeanBrom

HN Brombosz, USN
Joined
Apr 10, 2016
Messages
68
I, as well as many others I'm sure, am curious to see what our odds are of getting accepted to the United States Naval Academy. So this thread will serve as a question answer forum where people can put what they have going for them in terms of what is going on there application. Hopefully some current or former mids. can drop in now and then to let us know if we are on the right track. Feel free to add what you have, and give help to others.
 
I, as well as many others I'm sure, am curious to see what our odds are of getting accepted to the United States Naval Academy. So this thread will serve as a question answer forum where people can put what they have going for them in terms of what is going on there application. Hopefully some current or former mids. can drop in now and then to let us know if we are on the right track. Feel free to add what you have, and give help to others.


First, brush up on your grammar. I'm not trying to be mean, but this will be really important in your essays.
 
Odds of getting in, otherwise known as acceptance rate: 7.9%.
Might be lower now. The number of accepted seems like it's dropped and the number of apps this year seems to have risen significantly, or maybe I'm misreading the threads.
 
While I completely understand the thought behind this question, NO ONE on this forum can really be of any help to you. No one knows the magic formula the Admissions Board is using, and none of the Board Members are on this forum. Thus, no one can tell you, with any degree of certainly, what will/not increase your chances of an appointment. We are all whistling in the dark. As FALgarand says, all you have to do is look at some of the recent threads to get a sense as to others' qualifications. This has been an especially tough year, with many superbly qualified candidates NOT being offered an appointment. As socalfan notes, your odds, at best, are 7.9%.

What would probably be helpful to you is to meet with your BGO and/or a school counselor and/or your local congressman's Service Academy coordinator, and ask any or all of them to take a look at your application. They will be able to tell you the areas in which you might seek to improve.
 
Might be lower now. The number of accepted seems like it's dropped and the number of apps this year seems to have risen significantly, or maybe I'm misreading the threads.
Your odds are a lot better than 7.9% if you simply complete the application. Unlike most schools, USNA counts everyone that starts an application as an applicant and factors that into that 7.9% number. If you get 3Q'd, you get a nom, and you complete the entire application your odds become a lot better than 7.9%.
 
While you're gathering data, consider checking some of the recent threads on denied applicants and the astonishingly impressive profiles many of them presented. It will sober up any discussion of "what are my chances".
I haven't seen anyone post the workings of their entire application. It's not hard to make yourself look impressive and mask your underlying weaknesses. I was rejected. I have 35 Math ACT, 35 English ACT, a 4.4 GPA, I played varsity football 3 years, I was a basketball team captain for 3 years, I was a JROTC officer for 2 years, I went to Boys State, etc etc etc. If you look at it probably makes it look like it's insanely hard to get into this school. But what you didn't get to see was all of the weaknesses in my application. My mile time on the CFA was 8 minutes. My class rank was barely in the top 20%. I took 10 PE credit classes in high school. My essays were crap. My BGO interview was crap. When people say they were rejected, I only see them bring up the good things. I don't see them bring up their weaknesses, and I'm sure everyone's application has some somewhere. Were the some of people that got rejected all around studs? Probably. But I don't think looking at people writing about how great they are and how they still didn't get in will do anything but cause unwarranted panic. I could have just left this in a post: "I was rejected. I have 35 Math ACT, 35 English ACT, a 4.4 GPA, I played varsity football 3 years, I was a basketball team captain for 3 years, I was a JROTC officer for 2 years, I went to Boys State, etc etc etc." and it would have probably caused a bunch of people to think "OMG this guy has a 35 ACT and he's athletic and blah blah blah blah I'm never gonna get in!!!" when in reality I wasn't all that great of an applicant, and there is a good chance the person reading post is a better applicant than me even if their ACT is 5 points lower. There are good ways to gage your chances, but looking at the surface of people's applications that got rejected is not one of them in my opinion. If you do that you're not getting to see the full picture, you're just getting to see the highlights of someone else's application.
 
I haven't seen anyone post the workings of their entire application. It's not hard to make yourself look impressive and mask your underlying weaknesses. I was rejected. I have 35 Math ACT, 35 English ACT, a 4.4 GPA, I played varsity football 3 years, I was a basketball team captain for 3 years, I was a JROTC officer for 2 years, I went to Boys State, etc etc etc. If you look at it probably makes it look like it's insanely hard to get into this school. But what you didn't get to see was all of the weaknesses in my application. My mile time on the CFA was 8 minutes. My class rank was barely in the top 20%. I took 10 PE credit classes in high school. My essays were crap. My BGO interview was crap. When people say they were rejected, I only see them bring up the good things. I don't see them bring up their weaknesses, and I'm sure everyone's application has some somewhere. Were the some of people that got rejected all around studs? Probably. But I don't think looking at people writing about how great they are and how they still didn't get in will do anything but cause unwarranted panic. I could have just left this in a post: "I was rejected. I have 35 Math ACT, 35 English ACT, a 4.4 GPA, I played varsity football 3 years, I was a basketball team captain for 3 years, I was a JROTC officer for 2 years, I went to Boys State, etc etc etc." and it would have probably caused a bunch of people to think "OMG this guy has a 35 ACT and he's athletic and blah blah blah blah I'm never gonna get in!!!" when in reality I wasn't all that great of an applicant, and there is a good chance the person reading post is a better applicant than me even if their ACT is 5 points lower. There are good ways to gage your chances, but looking at the surface of people's applications that got rejected is not one of them in my opinion. If you do that you're not getting to see the full picture, you're just getting to see the highlights of someone else's application.
Or, in some cases, and perhaps in many cases, the resume is as solid in all other respects as well, as the kid with the 35 ACT, high class rank, captain of the varsity teams, may also have a great CFA, and is otherwise an outstanding candidate, but gets rejected for subjective or other reasons entirely out of that candidates control. Sometimes academies don't take the best candidate, as this is not a perfect selection process all the time. On the other hand, mostly I suspect they get it right, and as far as the original poster is concerned, all you can do is put yourself in the best position to be awarded an appointment.
 
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I haven't seen anyone post the workings of their entire application. It's not hard to make yourself look impressive and mask your underlying weaknesses. I was rejected. I have 35 Math ACT, 35 English ACT, a 4.4 GPA, I played varsity football 3 years, I was a basketball team captain for 3 years, I was a JROTC officer for 2 years, I went to Boys State, etc etc etc. If you look at it probably makes it look like it's insanely hard to get into this school. But what you didn't get to see was all of the weaknesses in my application. My mile time on the CFA was 8 minutes. My class rank was barely in the top 20%. I took 10 PE credit classes in high school. My essays were crap. My BGO interview was crap. When people say they were rejected, I only see them bring up the good things. I don't see them bring up their weaknesses, and I'm sure everyone's application has some somewhere. Were the some of people that got rejected all around studs? Probably. But I don't think looking at people writing about how great they are and how they still didn't get in will do anything but cause unwarranted panic. I could have just left this in a post: "I was rejected. I have 35 Math ACT, 35 English ACT, a 4.4 GPA, I played varsity football 3 years, I was a basketball team captain for 3 years, I was a JROTC officer for 2 years, I went to Boys State, etc etc etc." and it would have probably caused a bunch of people to think "OMG this guy has a 35 ACT and he's athletic and blah blah blah blah I'm never gonna get in!!!" when in reality I wasn't all that great of an applicant, and there is a good chance the person reading post is a better applicant than me even if their ACT is 5 points lower. There are good ways to gage your chances, but looking at the surface of people's applications that got rejected is not one of them in my opinion. If you do that you're not getting to see the full picture, you're just getting to see the highlights of someone else's application.

This is probably the single best post I have read on this forum! I wish I had time to research frenzymando. Have you been accepted at other SA's?
 
......NO ONE on this forum can really be of any help to you. No one knows the magic formula the Admissions Board is using, and none of the Board Members are on this forum.

I agree. While there are all kinds of variations on this forum on the basic question of 'what are my chances?', no one here can answer that. You might just as well read all of the various prior threads on this topic. We also won't know what your teacher recommendations might say or how well you do at your BGO or MOC interviews.

USNA publishes official stats on the current class, which is really the only factual information that may be of help to you.

http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/classPortrait/
 
Congrats Frenzy on the appointment. Glad to see your hard work paid off and it was Navy's loss. You are quite right that this forum and the candidate doesn't see the whole picture. To give a real life example, I had a candidate that was a real water walker: ACTs in the 30s, a jock and team captain in everything, so many extracurricular activities and leadership positions that the only thing left was town mayor, looked good, smelled good, great leadership presence, just been written up in the paper for a state athletic award........the real deal. In the course of the interview I asked him about his plan B and after identifying State U. I asked about ROTC or OCS. He wrinkled up his nose like he smelled something bad, shook his head and said "Not interested". Now that was special. He previously had earnestly gone on and on how he wanted to "serve his country", yadda yadda, but evidently not if it entailed ROTC or OCS. It was not hard at all to mark him " average" on interest and motivation. The admission board agreed as he is going to State U and probably mystified as to what happened.
 
While I completely understand the thought behind this question, NO ONE on this forum can really be of any help to you. No one knows the magic formula the Admissions Board is using, and none of the Board Members are on this forum. Thus, no one can tell you, with any degree of certainly, what will/not increase your chances of an appointment. We are all whistling in the dark. As FALgarand says, all you have to do is look at some of the recent threads to get a sense as to others' qualifications. This has been an especially tough year, with many superbly qualified candidates NOT being offered an appointment. As socalfan notes, your odds, at best, are 7.9%.

What would probably be helpful to you is to meet with your BGO and/or a school counselor and/or your local congressman's Service Academy coordinator, and ask any or all of them to take a look at your application. They will be able to tell you the areas in which you might seek to improve.

I myself wasn't asking for help, I just thought if people had questions in terms of what they think they are stacking up against. Like not only grades, but all around, just so people can get a rough idea of what other people are putting on their profile.
 
I'm sorry that I don't use my best grammar skillz for a web forum
This was an honest answer. I don't care if you use casual lingo but you should use the correct form of their-there-they're and not get bent out of shape about it.
 
I sat a lot of statutory/admin boards at BUPERS over the years as a recorder, voting or senior member. There was usually one guy with the laser pointer who was the sanity check on board group think, pointing out something unique or an anomaly that might be explained differently in an individuals service record.. I don't have any insights into the USNA admission board process, but after an unsuccessful appointment attempt with my son this year, I do wonder if there is some guy, recently from the fleet who says, " I see the great record but would I want that kid as a JO in my squadron, ship, submarine..."
 
This was an honest answer. I don't care if you use casual lingo but you should use the correct form of their-there-they're and not get bent out of shape about it.
Would that include using a comma to connect two independent clauses?
 
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