Advice Please!!!

S

SHJ516

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
9
Hello everyone, i just came upon this forum and thought that it was a great place to seek some advice. I really want to join the Naval Academy and it would truly be a dream come true to gain admission. I'm still in high school so i think i still have a bit of time to improve my application so any advice or tips would be helpful. All suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

- I am currently a sophomore in a nyc high school.
- I am Asian-American.
- I take all honors courses and one advanced placement course (world history). I have a 93 average and i'm working on improving it. I will also take several more a.p. classes before applying.
- I am president of the freshman/sophomore honors program, i am a staff-reporter for my school's newspaper (i'll hopefully be an editor by next year), i am in the student council, and i am the main double and electric bassist for my school's jazz band.
- I am active in my school's JROTC and i am currently one of the few staff sergeants in my year (most sophomores are corporals or sergeants). I also work in a JROTC staff sector that deals with personnel management. I am hoping to be a major by senior year but it may not happen.
- I am definitely not ready to pass the Naval Academy's physical fitness examination and i am working hard towards being physically ready. I was on the junior varsity swimming team in freshman year and i'm on the varsity golf team this year. I am trying to join the JROTC raider team, a physical fitness team that requires members to be able to perform 50 pushups in 2 minutes, 50 sit ups in 2 minutes, and a 2-mile run in 15 minutes.
- I currently have a little over 50 hours volunteering in the therapeutic recreation department of a rehabilitation pavilion and i will have a lot more hours before i apply. I also volunteer for the special olympics a few times a year through my dad's company.
- I'm not sure how well i'll score on my SATs but i took a practice SAT before and received a little over 1700 (i was told that this was pretty good for a sophomore...true???). I am also planning on taking 2-3 SAT subject tests.

Sorry for the long post...please give me advice on what i need to improve upon. Some advice on how to receive a nomination would be awesome too.
 
The normal advice is to take the toughest courses your school offers and excel. Your focus should be on math and science. APUSH is fine but doesn't carry near the weight as AP Calc or AP Chem do.

Regarding sports; try to find one that you enjoy and that doesn't have cuts. Cross country and track are two that come to mind.

Your 11th grade English and Math teachers will be critical to your admission. Impress them with your effort, work habits, timelness, etc. and of course - with your performance.

Take the SAT as many times as you can until you're satisfied. Try the ACT too. Some do better on one than the other. The NA wil take either and does superscore. Take a prep course and study on your own.

The only guarantee in the whole conversation about getting into a SA is: you will not get if you don't apply.
 
How high will I need to get on my g.p.a and SAT for me to be a competitive applicant? I'm Asian American so would that work against me (because of affirmative action)? Do i need to score higher than regular applicants because of my ethnicity?
 
That seems a strange

remark to suggest ethnicity would work against you. I think not. If anything it'd be the opposite given diversity expectations. But surely a level playing field at the very least. Being Asian, et.al. should have nothing to do with it imo.
 
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Get the PT up

Academically, you sound like you are on the right track.
Make sure to get your physical fitness up. The raider group that you described is the minimum standard here at the academy. Keep working hard on that, and I see no reason why you shouldn't have a very good shot.
 
^ Agreed, physical fitness is very important and needs to be kept up with or your time at the academy will be painful.
 
Okay, i will definitely work on physical fitness...thank you for the advice.
How hard is plebe summer? I'm not really awesome at running for really long times. What should i work on to be better prepared for plebe summer??
 
You should work to become awesome at running for really long times.
 
+1, and it's doable. Don't just run for long periods of time though. Although it's helpful it won't help you improve, or improve more quickly. Mix it up. Do sprint intervals. Run uphill. Do uphill sprints. Stew Smith has a bunch of running plans for beginners. Perhaps start here: http://www.stewsmith.com/linkpages/ALLrunningplans.htm
 
If your school has an indoor and/or outdoor track team, look into joining. Great workouts and you never know-you may love it and you may discover you are competitive.
Most high school track programs are open to anyone who is willing to devote the time and it's better to run a coach-run program rather than just do the same runs every time-you'll notice more measurable improvements that way.
 
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