Early Action - Interesting Perspective

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USNA21hopeful

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I attended an admissions brief today at the USCGA. The admissions officer who ran it gave her opinion on early action. She said she was not a fan of early action and discouraged us from applying for it. Her reasoning did make a lot of sense. She stated that submitting the app that early can do more harm than good for the applicant's chances. Since the deadline is only halfway through the first quarter of senior year, the admissions board only has the applicant's transcript up until junior year to go off of. Someone who only had the option of taking honors pre-calc their junior year would be competing with someone who had the opportunity to take AP Calc their junior year. She also mentioned that very qualified early action applicants could still be put on the waitlist so the admissions board can wait to see what other diversities apply for regular action. This long story is a lead way into my question: would it be wise to wait to complete my application until the end of my first quarter so that I can send an updated transcript with my first quarter grades? I am taking many STEM courses, so would it be in my best interest to wait?
 
DS struggled a bit with this question when he was in the application process for Class of 2019. After getting advice from a few folks (including his admissions rep at CGA), he decided to apply EA. I think it requires some honest self-evaluation prior to hitting the submit button. I suspect that the candidates who deem themselves to be on the higher end of the objective categories (GPA/class rank/standardized test results/CFA) will lean towards EA - so the pool gets pretty deep with highly qualified candidates. If you feel like your application might lack in an area which you could improve over the first semester senior year, then EA may not work best. Admissions seems to offer ~50% of the available appointment offers during EA. However, a more interesting statistic might be the percentage of EA appointment offers which are actually accepted. IMHO, candidates who are offered appointments during RA remain the majority of offers accepted for the entering class of any given year.

Bottom line - if your particular objective qualities exceed the class profile averages by a comfortable margin, EA may work for you. If you are closer to the class profile averages, RA may be a better plan. In either case - the intangible qualities that admissions look for in order to build a class are hard to quantify (leadership, cultural background, life experiences, artistic ability, demographic data, etc.). Make sure your application captures information about what you can bring to the Coast Guard.
 
Agree with Cidgrad130.
This is not an easy answer as the acceptance process is more than just academics.
If you are better than the average for EA 2020 year's stats then it might work. If you need to strengthen your application then it may make sense to hold off.

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php?threads/early-action-statistics.46339/

EA also gives a candidate first access to coaches.

My DS was at average for EA, got waitlisted and then declined.

For 2020, 350 appointments were given but class only 290 - meaning that 60 did not accept or did not pass DoDMerb. 196 were EA. So that means during regular admissions, a further 154 were given out - including to reapplicants and scholars.
 
I think approx 30 can be scholars of the 290, I don't know if those are selected as part of EA or RA.
 
I did not apply early action because of that counselor's reasoning. I was taking my most rigorous course load my junior and senior year, and I wanted admissions to recognize how I was doing in my senior year with more advanced math and science classes (Calc & Physics, respectively.) Unfortunately, by the time regular action was due, my senior year grades were still not ready by the deadline (Jan 15) because my finals were a week later than that, and even then it would take a week or two to get in my mid-year transcript. However, USCGA makes decisions between mid-to-late February to April 1, and my mid-year transcript was ready mid-Febuary. I was able to get it sent to USCGA and they had it in time for my transcript to have an impact on my application, and I found out I got in early March :) I think honestly admissions may have rejected me if they only had my junior year grades to judge me off of - having the senior year grades showing how on-top of things I was, as well as how great I was doing my more advanced STEM classes, benefitted me; it will do the same to you more than likely.

Additionally, when I applied, there was an option to attach my resume. I attached it, of course, and in it I had scanned and inserted my first quarter grades to show them how my progress in my senior year classes were so far. So if you can do that, do it. And depending how your finals schedule up, try to get your mid-year to them as well if you're excelling in your classes. Good luck!
 
Chuck20 said:
For 2020, 350 appointments were given but class only 290 - meaning that 60 did not accept or did not pass DoDMerb. 196 were EA. So that means during regular admissions, a further 154 were given out - including to reapplicants and scholars.
Click to expand...

350? I heard over 500!

Where did you get that number?
 
USCGA accepts more students for EA, but you can be denied or wait listed. Strange why wait listed kids don't get rolled over to Regular decision. I guess unless you are a top canidate/student EA is risky?
 
Thank you all for your input! I think the best route for me is what objee2020 did. I am taking my most challenging STEM classes senior year, so I will apply for regular action so admissions can see my grades for those classes. I really appreciate everyone's input! Good luck to all!
 
After you submit your application, can you update any scores or is the application unchangeable after you send it in? If you can, is it only standardized scores or also PFE?
 
My understanding from my DS experience is that until the application has been reviewed/prior to application close date the applicant can send updates to the assigned admissions office for their area and the AO should include them in the applicant's file.
If applicant ends up on the wait list, they can then send additional informational until the applicant has final review.
 
LLJ said:
What does everyone mean by "scholar" in this thread?
Click to expand...
Someone who attended a prep school through the USCGA Scholars program. During admissions, people are awarded prep school if they are deemed to be qualified candidates who may benefit from more academic preparation prior to entering the academy. However you do not have to be appointed to prep school in order to attend, sometimes candidates who were denied admission the first time will 'self prep' so they can increase their chances.
 
LLJ said:
What does everyone mean by "scholar" in this thread?
Click to expand...
DS applied EA last year and was granted a scholars program appointment. He's in New London attending summer orientation currently. In my opinion from going through the whole admissions process there are many benefits to applying EA. It seemed that the majority of the class is made up from EA candidates for various reasons.
 
Very surprised that the admissions event speaker would say those things about EA. Obviously EA is not for everyone but the majority of the class is made up from that pool. You really have to weigh if waiting is significantly beneficial knowing that there are less spots available for regular admission than EA. Agree with other posters- if you know you can't get your semester grades/updated test scores by the RA deadline what good is it to wait?
Last thought is there will be applicants from an extremely wide range of schools that will offer varied types of levels of classes. The admissions at CGA will get a school profile from your high school- this gives them a gauge of the caliber of classes offered and a sense of what your GPA is compared to others. A 4.0 at one school is not the same as a 4.0 from another.
 
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