Amount of things to do

[AF Perez]

Let's say I will do wrestling for all four years, except that I didn't stay for the whole season on the first year because I needed to get my grades up, but this year I decided to make a commitment.

Let's also say that I will be Kitty Hawk Air Honor Society commander for three years straight (since my sophomore year, which is now), Deputy Corps Commander for one or two years, a flight commander for one to three years (again, since my sophomore year, and this depends on my schedule), and the National Honor Society president or vice-president.

My questions are:
1) Would commitment to one sport all four years be more important than being in two sports? What if I got a state title in wrestling? Would that be outstanding?

2) Would that amount of leadership activities be considered outstanding? Also, I aspire to become drill team captain, but that's decided on my senior year.

The thing is that after reading all the requirements to be competitive for becoming a candidate for selection I've been striving to do meet those standards by doing many things, so I just want to know if you think I need to do more or if you have any tips concerning the matter.

 

[Christcorp]

If you've read many of the posts, you should have realized by now that the air force and the academy want "Well Rounded" individuals. As I and others have said before, we know individuals who were 4.0gpa students with 35+/- ACT and/or 2300+/- SAT who did NOT receive an appointment, because academics is all they had. We've seen individuals with all the boy scouts, CAP, JrROTC, etc... type leaderships you could imagine, but also didn't receive an appointment because they didn't have any sports.

The academy isn't stupid. They can tell the difference between the individual who does a sport just their senior year in order to beef up their resume, and the individual who has done sports for a long time. If the academy sees a particular sport for MORE than one year, they consider the person somewhat committed. Especially considering they only really look back through your 4 high school years. If you have more than 1 sport, for more than 1 year each, that looks even better. Making All-State, Champion, etc... is even better.

Now; take these athletic accomplishments and add leadership, academics, social involvement, team involvement, and fitness; and you've got the recipe for a competitive application. If you are missing any of these areas and you are less competitive. Does that mean you can't receive an appointment? No. There are some who receive an appointment while not becoming the completely well rounded individual that I'm speaking of. But the academy looks at the entire candidate. Maybe they were home schooled and didn't have the varsity sports available. Maybe they only did YMCA soccer for 5 years. Maybe the population of their town is 245 people; (We have plenty of towns in my state around that size); and maybe they didn't have the opportunity to take AP or IB classes; or scouts, CAP, etc...

Bottom line: Take all the opportunities available to you; participate or take advantage of all the opportunities you can do successfully; and maximize your potential to combine that with leadership and athletic skills. Do that, and you'll be fine. This is why the academy requires a copy of your school's profile. They want to know what the kids before you did; what colleges/type of colleges they attended; etc... No one here can tell you if what you're doing is satisfactory or not. There's too many variable. Some, but not all: Taking ALL AP classes and holding a 3.2gpa might not be as good as taking half of your classes AP and maintaining a 3.8gpa. Doing 1 sport and being captain of it can be seen as BETTER than being in 3 sports and not being all state, captain, all conference, etc... This is where you have to decide for yourself what you want to do. Sorry; but there's no magical checklist that says: Complete these items, and you receive an appointment.

Now I've mentioned the individual level. But I didn't mention the most important thing....... "YOUR COMPETITION"!!!! On average, most senators and representative can only nominate 10 people. Of those 10, the academy will generally only pick 1 person for an appointment. The other 9 will go into a NATIONAL POOL, where you'll compete against approximately 2000 applicants for about 500 slots. What are all of these people's resume and scores look like. You could be a 3.8gpa with a certain amount of leadership and sports, and one of the other people on that list of 10 from your senator or representative could have a 3.95 and is captain of their varsity team, all state champion, attended Boy's state, class president, eagle scout, etc... On the other hand, your application could be the best of the 10 nominees. All you can do is "YOUR BEST". If you try and meet certain standards, you'll fail. If you always try and do your best; (IN EVERYTHING IN LIFE); then whether or not you achieve certain goals, you'll be able to say you did your best. Most people DO NOT DO THEIR BEST!!! They try to play the game and do what they THINK is what they need to get by or to win. Only you know if you're doing your best or if you could try harder.

Best of luck. This post was not intended to discourage you in any way. It's sole purpose is to have you evaluate yourself, your abilities, your capabilities, your motivation, your desires, and for YOU to be your own judge. Best of luck. Mike...

 

[Spud]

Once again, CC has hit the nail on the head. I would suggest the mods make this a sticky as it could not be said better.