I'm gonna piggyback on Mike's comments, which are dead-on accurate!
A little more "information" from a guy that's had the opportunity to observe a selection or two over the decades.
When your finished packaged is all nice and neat and put together for the board members to review, it is packed with printed copies of everything you did on the web. It also has your transcripts, the school information that your counselor sent up, SAT/ACT scores, letters of recommendation, etc...etc...etc...
It's a BIG file!
And the board members do NOT have a lot of time to review it, they have literally hundreds to go through!
SO...what do you think they see when they open the folder?
(I'm probably getting the order backwards but you'll get the idea)
On the LEFT side: Your "synopsis" as in: GPA, Class Rank, SAT/ACT, CFA, etc. In the AF when an officer is up for promotion, we're given a copy of our "Officer Selection Brief." It's a one-pager of our career! This is what your package has on the one side.
On the RIGHT side: Your ALO's evaluation of YOU
Underneath those are the "rest of the story." In other words, those TWO pages can make/break you immediately. If either or both is ugly...they won't look further. If they're GREAT, AMAZING, AWESOME...they may or may NOT look further. But they'll like what they see.
This is why I tell every candidate I work with: "I'm the greatest artist in the known world. I can paint the most amazing picture of a candidate, one that old Mr. Van Rijn would be proud of! BUT...I need paint and canvas. I have the magical brushes and talent.
The CANDIDATE needs to supply the canvas and paint. This is why Mike says "We ALO's can't MAKE you..." YOU have to do that, but we'll present you in the best possible light to make that "image" amazing!
Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83