Anybody think they will ever raise the amount of LEAD slots for both direct appt and prep school? It would make sense seeing as more Airmen are applying to LEAD each year, myself included. But with them force-shaping it seems very iffy.
Last year, USAFA did a great job of getting the info out about the program. Now, Airmen are applying like crazy. This year, I know of quite a few that were turned down because they didn't have room. Also, is it legal per se to just cut the LEAD slots if they are mandated by Title 10 of the US Code?
I understood that they cut the class size this year, limiting the number of LEAD slots, just hoping they will allow some prior service to go direct instead of just forcing us to get to the prep school. It's kinda crazy though, when I saw they only had 85 for direct and 50 for prep school, I thought it would make it easier to go direct, guess I was wrong
The LEAD program allows 85 slots for Active Duty Airmen, but also an additional 85 slots for Air Guard and Air Force Reserve. Typically only 50 LEAD candidates can be appointed to the Prep, whether they come from AD or ANG/AFR. The Priors coming from Prep take slots from the AD allocation or the ANG/AFR allocation. So it is theoretically possible that there would be more than 35 direct entry slots available to Active Duty Airmen, if some of the Prep graduates came from ANG/AFR. That being said, ALL candidates must be qualified and there have never, ever been enough qualified applicants to fill all the slots allocated, at least not in recent history. The qualifications for Direct Entry are extremely high.From my understanding, those 50 prior-enlisted that are just graduating from the prep school count towards the overall 85 direct entry. So there's really only 35 slots.
I'm not sure if that is actually how it works, though.
I don't think they will increase the spots but I've heard the class will be larger so more LEAD spots may be used. A friend in admissions said my son should reapply if he doesn't get in this year. He still had not received a decision yet.
Hoping for s positive answer next week. He is young enough for prep school but meets the LEAD direct admissions standards.
Skymom
These guidelines are minimum standards. With the competition expected to be as fierce next year as it was this year, I would not recommend anyone counting on these parameters being sufficient.They don't seem that high. It certainly isn't as competitive as trying to get in straight out of high school
Guidelines for Direct Appt: SAT Verbal 580 and SAT Math 560. ACT English 24, Reading 24, Math 25,
and Science Reasoning 25. Top 20% of high school class or about a 3.50 GPA if school does not rank.
Candidates should have taken a college preparatory curriculum in high school which included mathematics
through pre-calculus and should have also taken a high school chemistry course. College work at the
community college level or higher which makes up for missed high school curriculum can compensate for some
weakness in the high school record and will be considered. See the admissions website at
http://www.academyadmissions.com for more information on suggested college preparatory curriculum.
Guidelines for Preparatory School Appt: SAT Verbal 480 and SAT Math 500. ACT English 20,
Reading 20, Math 20, and Science Reasoning 20. Top 40% of high school class or about a 2.70 GPA if school
does not rank. Candidates should have taken a college preparatory curriculum in high school which included
mathematics through algebra II. Pre-calculus and a high school chemistry course are strongly encouraged.
College work at the community college level or higher can compensate for some weakness in the high school
record and will be considered. Candidates should consider taking math and science (with a lab) courses. The
time since high school graduation and whether an airman is currently taking or has taken college level courses
will also be evaluated in determining suitability for direct entry to the Academy or entry to the Preparatory
School.
These guidelines are minimum standards. With the competition expected to be as fierce next year as it was this year, I would not recommend anyone counting on these parameters being sufficient.
I apologize if I seemed to be arguing. It was not my intention. I believe that every Airman who desires to pursue this path should do so vigorously.Yea, sorry I thought we were talking about the minimum qualifications. Certainly a LEAD applicant will need higher stats to be competitive, I just don't think it is as competitive as trying to get in right out of high school. LEAD only compete against LEAD, right?
Anyways, I'm not trying to argue. Good luck to all 2017 applicants!
IMHO...
On average direct entry priors have trouble going from the Operational Air Force straight into a college/ service academy environment. There's a lot of reasons and effects of the transition, but USAFA BCT and four degree year is better at taking civilians and making them military than it is at taking airmen and making them students. The Prep aims to turn strong airmen into strong cadets. It sucks for the airmen that are too old, but the admissions team gives an airman the best chance at success by routing them through the prep school first. When it's time to cut slots, admissions has to look at data from previous classes. There were 17 of us DE priors that started in 2010, and before that numbers were very low, like raimus said, they didn't fill the slots. With so few numbers, each cadet has more of an affect on the picture of the whole. If the direct entry prior applicants are looking for someone to blame its me and other direct entry priors whose grades, and pft scores didn't outperform their prep-school classmates.