Diversity Visitation Program

bendaddy

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The Diversity Visitation Program is a program that the USAFA holds once every month for candidates of diverse ethnicities. They fly about 100 candidates to the Academy for a 3-day visit for free. A few weeks ago, my ALO informed me that I had been recommended to take part in the Diversity Visitation Program in January. Just yesterday, he told me that the application he submitted for me is now under review.

Q: Have any of you taken part in the Diversity Visitation Program/Diversity Recruitment? If so, how competitive is it to earn a slot in the Diversity Visitation Program?
 
Who do you contact to get recommended (if this is a free visit, definitely want to go)?...ALO, admissions, both?
 
I personally didn't have to contact anybody. My ALO told my parents that he had recommended me to our area's head Liaison Officer who then contacted **EDITED** (the head of the Diversity Recruitment Program) at the Air Force Academy. I'm sure you could inquire your ALO about the program and he may recommend you as well.

Here's some info I found online about the program:
https://admissions.usafa.edu/USAFA_Admissions_Diversity_Focus.doc

**Edited to remove name**
 
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I was a member of the November visit, and let me tell you, you're in for a great time. You'll be there along with around 25 other high school seniors, and you'll each be assigned a cadet to escort you around the academy until Saturday morning. The escorts volunteer to do this, so they're usually pretty cool. Mine was awesome, very down-to-Earth, answered all my questions and showed me around the Academy. You'll also get to know the other seniors, and if your group is like mine, you'll stay in touch with each other, which is cool for me cause it's starting to look like a lot of us will be going to the same academy, and it's nice to know some people going in to Beast. As far as what this invite says about your competitiveness, I've stayed in touch with six kids from my trip, and we have ALL received LOAs or appointments to either our first or second choices. So...it's a very good sign, IMO. And BTW, something real cool is gonna happen right before you sit down for lunch in the mess hall on Friday. Not an LOA or something like that, but it'll still be pretty awesome...
 
Thanks for all the info. And BTW, congratulations on the LOA! I'm really, really looking forward to the visit and now that you've told me about it, I'll be looking forward to that "real cool thing" that's going to happen at the mess hall during lunch someday!

One question though, is there an actual competition between applicants to take part in the visit? Or is it just a "get a recommendation and then attend" type of thing?
 
Well, my LOA and appointment is not to USAFA, but USMA (you may have noticed I said "Beast", not BCT). But thanks anyway, I'm really excited. To answer your question...Cpt. Clodwick told my group that some of us were recommended by our ALOs and some of us were simply picked randomly by her off a list of highly-qualified applicants. For the record, even though this is the "Diversity Visitation Program", 20 of the 25 people in my group were white males. She said that they weren't using the traditional race or religous definition of "diversity" but instead diversity of backgrounds. So, do you compete to get picked? If your ALO recommended you, maybe; and you do compete to get on that list she picks names from, but to me, it seemed to be mainly luck of the draw. I know for a fact my name was simply randomly picked. :)
 
Luck of the draw, assuming you meet the qualifications, which are to be very highly qualified, with some type of unique background.
 
Gotcha. Thanks for all the useful information; I'll be looking forward to all the things coming in the months ahead as well. Also hope to someday see you cry when USAFA kicks USMA's behind come fall!

Best of luck.
 
I actually took around DVP kids around and is there any specific information you would like to know?
 
As of right now, I don't have any major questions about DVP. However, I have heard from a friend that attended a previous month's DVP that if you are accepted into USAFA's DVP, you are guaranteed a Letter of Assurance. I find this hard to believe, but is this true?

I know for a fact that if you are unable to receive a nomination from your district, the USAFA Diversity Recruitment Program will attempt to nominate you from a district with a less than maximum number of nominees.
 
Neither I nor any of the kids from the DVP that I have stayed in touch with have received letters of assurance, nor any appointments to USAFA yet. It's looking like a good bet that one of us will soon, but the rest of us have either not gotten a USAFA nom, or USAFA is not our top choice and we didn't apply for one. upatel23...I noticed that out of the DVP kids on my trip, literally maybe 10% had USAFA as their first choice. Does the DVP specifically target kids who are interested in the other academies more than USAFA?
 
Bendaddy,

I believe that rumor is false because not all kids get a LOA and the kids I had, have not received a LOA. I know that one female received her acceptance while on the trip and that’s the only case I know of someone from DVP getting accepted. My friend whom did the DVP was not accepted to the USAFA but the prep school. The DVP kids don’t have a guaranteed seat but the AFA is showing interest in those kids. Some of these kids like futurepilot said “10 %” have USAFA as their first choice.
 
Thank you upatel23. This all seems to make good sense to me. I just hope I will be endowed the same fate as the girl who was offered an appointment during her DRV. My DRV is scheduled to be from 28-31 January. Looking forward to it!
 
Well I'll see you there bendaddy. I am also going to the January Session. Hope we get something good.:biggrin:
 
As of right now, I don't have any major questions about DVP. However, I have heard from a friend that attended a previous month's DVP that if you are accepted into USAFA's DVP, you are guaranteed a Letter of Assurance. I find this hard to believe, but is this true?

I know for a fact that if you are unable to receive a nomination from your district, the USAFA Diversity Recruitment Program will attempt to nominate you from a district with a less than maximum number of nominees.

My son attended the DVP program, received an offer for the USAFA Prep school earlier this month, and now today he has received an offer of appointment to the USAFA. Good luck with your future endearvors.
 
magtalas192, NICE! :smile: Hope I have the chance to meet you there.

ccfletch, thank you, and congratulations to your son! I'm excited to have been given the opportunity with DVP to follow in his footsteps as well.
 
I emailed my ALO asking about doing the Diversity Visitation Program but he has yet to respond and it has been a couple of weeks. Should I re-email the question again or wait and hope he reads it?
 
You won't be offered it until your senior year, so he may just kind of be ignoring it since he's busy with other stuff and figures he has plenty of time to worry about it for you. You've let him know about your desire to participate in it; now I'd just reiterate that each time you do have a reason to contact him - SLS, or whatever. If you didn't give him your PSAT scores yet, maybe send him those and just another quick reminder about it but I think your goal is just to remind him that you're interested in it over the next year and a half and whenever you do your interview for real (probably summer before senior year), then ask him to try to look into it for you at that point.
 
DVP eligibility

Are sophomores eligible for the DVP? Because if I go to the summer seminar, I can not apply for the DVP. So I was considering applying for it sophomore year...
 
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