Chances for Re-applicant

H2Opolodude

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
85
Hello everyone!
Thank you all for your help throughout the past year--I've truly learned a lot since I began this journey.
A little about me: I am currently taking my second-year in community college. I applied to the USAFA last year, but was not offered an appointment since I was late in the year for nominations and only was able to apply for the VP nom. On the bright side, my ALO said that I had a very impressive resume and would have had a good shot if I had started in time to apply for some nominations. I got an early start this year and have applied for my local congressional nom, as well as both senators and the VP again.
Here are some major components of my resume:

SAT: 2010
ACT: 31

High school:
4.0 weighted gpa
ranked 22/~450
4 APs, 4 Honors courses
President of Engineering/Robotics Club
President of Interact Club
Men's varsity Water Polo Captain - MVP and all-league 2nd team
Varsity Swim Team

College:
3.92 gpa
English, Philosophy, Economics, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, C++ programming, Engineering, and a few more electives.
Men's Swim Team - MVP
Men's Water Polo - MVP, Captain, All-conference First Team
Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society

EC's:
I went to Russia last summer with four other graduates from my high school Interact Club as student representatives on behalf of our local Rotary Club. We fundraised for about a year to pay for this trip and spoke before a couple rotary clubs in Russia, along with meeting with the students and helping them start a community service club. I also taught English at a camp there.

I have an engineering internship for a fuel cell company that manufactures mobile fuel cells for the military and for other civilian uses.

I've been a lifeguard for about 3 years.

and I have probably 1000+ hours of misc. community service

--Sorry for such a long post!--

Anyways, I would just like to find out if I'm on the right track since last year (I am doing everything I can to make sure my application is even stronger). Also, I have a concern with my current semester in college: due to budget cuts, there was a limited availability of classes and because of the available times, I was only able to enroll in Chemistry and Calculus this semester. I will do the best I can to finish with straight A's, but if I end up with two B's or even one B, will that be detrimental to my application? It would mean that this semester I could have a GPA of 3.0 or 3.5, which I believe would look bad...BUT I'm hoping that all of my other efforts will bolster my application, along with a solid CFA score.
What do you think?
Thank you in advance for your replies!
 
Good looking resume. Focus on your grades this semester. One B is not the end of the world, but a 4.0 GPA sends a strong message that you can handle college level work. Get a tutor if that's what it takes.
 
I agree with Blackbird. Focus on the grades.

My DS didn't have a lot of community service. Maybe 20-40 hours total in all of high school. More importantly than anything else, they want to see A's in difficult classes while under a lot of stress like playing sports, working (to a lesser degree), leadership rolls, etc. If you get A's while taking difficult classes, it shows admissions that you can better handle 4 years of this intense pace. You are right on track but don't let those B's sneak in! :thumbdown:

Realize that the average GPA at the USAFA is only 2.7! That's because the classes are harder and the Cadets are incredibly busy. I understand there to be an unfairshare of 2.0 GPA students once they hit this fast pace. As you might guess, Calc and chemistry are tough for a lot of students. That is why they want applicants to prove that they can handle the technical courses.

To illustrate my point, only 5 students out of the 1000 freshman class got 4.0's on the midterm reports. The Academy has no shortage of high academic achievers. But the pace as well as many mandatory technical classes make it rough for many students that are not science oriented. So if you get B's (plural) at a community college especially on the technical classes, you can see what their perception might be. Scale back to zero on community service, travel, and work. You need to figure out a way to nail those courses. Ask your professor for extra credit, (explain what your sincere goal is and never underestimate the importance of how that can help if it is done properly).

Back to community service... That's much more important at the Ivy's. They want proof that you will give back (in the form of endowments) later in life.:wink:
 
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only 5 students out of the 1000 freshman class got 4.0's on the midterm reports

Wow. We had heard that the freshman average GPA was 2.7, but we had no idea that 4.0's were such a rare creature as DS doesn't provide us with information at that level of granularity.
 
Wow. We had heard that the freshman average GPA was 2.7, but we had no idea that 4.0's were such a rare creature as DS doesn't provide us with information at that level of granularity.

I was told that the GPA destroyer is Chemistry. It's a well respected department (think MIT caliber).

The largest additional barrier for getting a 4.0 GPA (for the male Cadets) is boxing. It's required. Rumor has it the boxing team members rarely get A's. So those 4.0 midterm male students have not taken boxing yet.:shake:

I love the fact that the USAFA doesn't have grade inflation.
 
H2Opolodude - It looks like the only barrier to your app last year was your lack of a nom. Of course, it does depend upon the competition from your cong. dist. and state. As was mentioned, keep grades up and continue with your high powered ECs. Best wishes. :thumb:
 
Thank you all for your advice!
I am definitely trying to keep my grades up this semester--I have just never been so great at Chemistry. The only problem this semester is that my internship is very time-consuming and gets in the way of study time a lot. Plus, they have given me engineering projects that I need to be accountable for, with due dates and design reviews, etc...
 
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