Class of 2020 cadet willing to answer questions

hey literally a few months ago I was still a candidate and cadet candidate so i am willing to answer any questions you have about west point or the application to maybe soothe your concerns.

catlover2 said:

hey literally a few months ago I was still a candidate and cadet candidate so i am willing to answer any questions you have about west point or the application to maybe soothe your concerns.

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What were your stats? ACT/GPA/Class Rank?

Congratulations on becoming a Cadet! How do you like the education style of the classes? Is there enough time in the evenings/weekends to get all of the 'pre-learning/homework/studying' done?

Do you recommend joining a club or hobby sport?

Do you have to do company sports in addition to club or hobby sports?

Do you know anything about the following clubs and their time commitment levels:

-Powerlifting?

-Rockclimbing?

-Orienteering?

-Sandhurst?

Thank you for your service and best wishes to you!

Which sport are you involved in?

The education style of the classes is great but it is a slight adjustment if you aren't used to the thayer method. The first week was rough because teachers give you their syllabus and pretty much expect you to be ready for class with the assignment done and ready to be discussed. Even though most of the subjects I am taking now, I took in high school, it is still hard because I am actually understanding and analyzing the material. In high school, you kinda just glance through and do well enough to get a good a grade and West Point has made it really hard to do that. You'd be amazed at how full the teachers room are already for AI.
A lot of the stuff you do is online/digital. Once you get in a system it becomes more than manageable. The teachers here are really good and actually prepare you for everything you need to know for tests. There is a good amount of time to get your work done especially on the weekends if you don't have training. If you manage your time and off periods well enough during the school day you can get ahead pretty easily. I am just in the beginning of the school year so granted it will get more hectic but you are definitely in control of how much you get done if you are willing to put in the work. Sometimes its easier to choose to take the nap at Dean's hour instead of do work but you have to schedule your priorities and stick to it. Just this past weekend I did about 8-12 hours of homework and still had time to workout, watch netflix, go to a friends room, nap, and do more homework for both Saturday and Sunday so I could get ahead.

@padre101I recommend joining a club or hobby sport if you are interested in it and committed. Depending on the club, it can take up a lot of time but it makes it worthwhile to do if you like it. Don't just join a club because everyone else is and you don't want to be that one kid. If the club you are participating in has athos, then you are exempt from company athletics and drill but if not then you have to do company athletics which is twice a week. Most clubs meet one or twice a week max so you can assume it won't have athos unless of course it does. Although I am not sure about the time commitment for powerlifting or rock climbing I do have three people in my company that are on the orienteering team, one who is my roommate and she practices everyday for about 2 hours max. They are getting ready to start traveling and competing right after labor day so I'll have to see how much more hectic it gets for her. For company athletics, I was placed on sandhurst because of the shortage of girls. We start on September 12th so I will have to fill you in later on that as well. I was actually surprised at how competitive the club teams are here. I did not make debate team and there was about 100 applicants and only three or four spots to be filled, boxing tryouts have been going on for almost three weeks and they still have a couple more to go. Don't let that shake you down but it was not as easy as I thought it was going to be.

@qmanswimsI am not on a sports team here. I am however on Sandhurst for company athletics but we don't start practicing until September 12th.

Sandhurst is cool if you are into that sorta thing, did it last year.

Who did you use for your recommendations for your nomination? Teachers, bosses, etc.? Could you share the lowest scores that you have heard of in terms of the CFA?

Thank you for your time and insight, nice to hear about the experience you're having.

Thanks for the response! If possible, how and when does a cadet getting the following while still attending USMA:

-Air Assault qualified

-Airborne qualified

-German Armed Forced Badge for Military Proficiency

-Sapper qualified

Air Assault and Airborne are summer training options. Sapper school is not open to cadets.

mmb5 said:

Air Assault and Airborne are summer training options. Sapper school is not open to cadets.

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Can a cadet get these options in successive summers?

What do you need to get selected? PT score? GPA?

mmb5 said:

Air Assault and Airborne are summer training options. Sapper school is not open to cadets.

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Are you sure? I know it was open, then they closed it to cadets, but I believe they had a couple of cadets attend just this summer. Check the Sapper FB page, it had rosters.

To wit, roster #'s 4 and 35. And Class 011-16 had USMA cadets in it, too.

Sledge said:

Are you sure? I know it was open, then they closed it to cadets, but I believe they had a couple of cadets attend just this summer. Check the Sapper FB page, it had rosters.

To wit, roster #'s 4 and 35. And Class 011-16 had USMA cadets in it, too.

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Wow, the passing rates are super low.

I was told USMA sent 12 this summer, 6 of whom tabbed.

catlover2 said:

@padre101I recommend joining a club or hobby sport if you are interested in it and committed. Depending on the club, it can take up a lot of time but it makes it worthwhile to do if you like it. Don't just join a club because everyone else is and you don't want to be that one kid. If the club you are participating in has athos, then you are exempt from company athletics and drill but if not then you have to do company athletics which is twice a week. Most clubs meet one or twice a week max so you can assume it won't have athos unless of course it does. Although I am not sure about the time commitment for powerlifting or rock climbing I do have three people in my company that are on the orienteering team, one who is my roommate and she practices everyday for about 2 hours max. They are getting ready to start traveling and competing right after labor day so I'll have to see how much more hectic it gets for her. For company athletics, I was placed on sandhurst because of the shortage of girls. We start on September 12th so I will have to fill you in later on that as well. I was actually surprised at how competitive the club teams are here. I did not make debate team and there was about 100 applicants and only three or four spots to be filled, boxing tryouts have been going on for almost three weeks and they still have a couple more to go. Don't let that shake you down but it was not as easy as I thought it was going to be.

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My son is a 2020, and is trying out for boxing. He really likes it and hopes to make the team, but says the workouts are brutal. And they are every day except Sunday. Takes a lot of time and energy. He really likes the guys on the team though, and enjoys what he is doing.

WakaFlockaAlan said:

Who did you use for your recommendations for your nomination? Teachers, bosses, etc.? Could you share the lowest scores that you have heard of in terms of the CFA?

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For my recommendations I used my english teacher, math teacher, chem teacher, and pe teacher. Pretty much the ones that usma wants us to do. For my congressman apps, I got one from my principal and athletic director. For the CFA I haven't heard of too low of scores like completely failing but I know of people that got minimums or very close to it in one event or so and are here at West Point. Also, there are definitely people that fail the APFT here though.

fkhs2017 said:

What were your stats? ACT/GPA/Class Rank?

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4.2 gpa
As far as classes I pretty much took all AP classes available (chem, physics, calc, history, govt. Microecon, lit+Lang composition etc.)
Test scores: math and English:29 writing:29 reading and science:28 ( probably my biggest struggle for some reason but this was my third try and my RC told me to stop taking it in September once I got the LOA.)
Cfa: (I'm a girl) 1 mile: 7:27, pushups:33 situps:78 pullups: 2 bball throw :50 ft shuttle:9.1
Basketball, track, and cross country
8 letters 4 bball and 4 track
3x state finalist in shot put and discus for track (one year for shot put and the next for both)
Rotary champion bball
MVP for basketball and track senior year
Honorable mention track and bball 2 years in a row
All academic first team both sports 2 years in a row
All star team senior year ( all state in defense)
Girls state
Key club, NHS, international awareness club, and interact club ( these were more so fillers for me, it's not my strongest area but I just wanted to stay involved)
Lastly, I worked all the four years full time at Rudys BBQ about 35hrs a week ( you're from Texas so you should know be familiar with it)
I didn't go to SLE because I wasn't too interested in WP at the time I was really pushing for AFA since its in my city (it's an ironic story of how I changed my mind) and I didn't have the money.
I applied for five noms and got one from my congressman( VP, presidential, 2 senators+congressman)

Really all of this rubbish now. Everything here has its own sets of challenges and me and my classmates were just saying how humbling this place makes you. I know kids that were in differential equations or some of the hardest classes and came from some of the top schools and now we are all together in MA103 struggling with some seemingly basic concepts. I am definitely not as smart as I thought I was before I got here