New to site - Sophomore son :)

CHS11111

5-Year Member
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Apr 14, 2012
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Hello!! I have been lurking a bit on this site for the past few months and thought it was time to join! My son is a sophomore in high school and has had dreams of USNA since he was about 8 or 9. I am really proud of all of the work he has done so far, but the more I learn about the process, the more frightened I get. I know that all we can do is do our best & pray for good results! He is a 3.9 gpa student, Varsity letter winner in 3 sports, Student Council, VP of his class, community service, youth church group, and Sunday School teacher. He will be attending HOBY this summer and probably Boys State next summer, and will be applying for Summer Session as well. He just took his first ACT Saturday. Fingers crossed. Should he take the SAT as well? We live in a small, rural community and my concern is that he will not have the same opportunites for advanced classes as some in bigger schools have. He does have some AP classes that he can take next year, hopefully that will do the trick. He is in Algebra II this year and will take Calculus next year. I know that geography plays a role in how many are picked, does that mean that less population/state gives you a better chance or not necessarily? I hope to learn much more about this process in the coming months. One question, I know I saw a link on here in the past for an abbreviations post that listed them all -- could anyone guide me to that post again? I have tried searching, but in vain. TIA!!!
 
congressional nomination

hi tia,

there is a lot of info on this forum concerning the congressional nomination. i would think since you are from a small area your odds may be pretty good.

our area is highly competitive and when dd applied for a congressional nomination she could only pick one academy to apply it toward. it's different for a smaller district often times they can use their one nomination and apply it toward as many sa's as they want to apply to. when we appied for the senatorial nomination he was holding several session all over the whole state and had a huge number of people applying for his 10 spots. in our congressional district my there were only 20 people trying for 5 spots at usma. most of the others were there for the naval or air force academy spots.

there is a whole section devoted to the nomination process. read up on it and get out there and meet your representatives.
 
Sorry for my delayed response -- we are in East Central Iowa - 3rd Congressional District. Harken & Boswell had a Service Academy Day in Des Moines a few weeks back that was very informative.
 
He will be attending HOBY this summer and probably Boys State next summer, and will be applying for Summer Session as well.

I am not familiar with HOBY. Summer session is a good experience. However, it does not contribute to a candidate's WCS (Whole Candidate Score) in any way. Boys State, on the other hand, is looked upon favorably by all the SA's. Doing both is great, but if he can only do one, Boys State is the better option from an admissions perspective.

Should he take the SAT as well?

He should take both the SAT and ACT. USNA will use the higher score of the two. The two exams are different in design. It is common for a student to score significantly higher on one than the other. He should also consider taking them multiple times. I believe that USNA superscores. That is they will take the highest score from each section from multiple tests. There is no penalty for submitting low scores so send them all in.

We live in a small, rural community and my concern is that he will not have the same opportunites for advanced classes as some in bigger schools have.

USNA understands that academic opportunities vary for different candidates. Your DS should take the most rigorous schedule of classes that he can. Take whatever AP classes that are offered. His school counselor will provide a profile of the school to USNA. School profiles are used to level the field among candidates with different academic opportunities.

I know that geography plays a role in how many are picked, does that mean that less population/state gives you a better chance or not necessarily

Geography does play a role, but there is nothing that you can do about this. By law, appointees will come from every state. Each Congressional district is similar in size but can vary greatly in the level of competition. As a rule, districts with a sizable military footprint tend to be more competitive. For instance, Northern VA is crazy competitive due to its close proximity to the Pentagon and multiple bases. But being from Iowa will make getting a Senatorial nomination easier than the more populous states since your DS will be competing against fewer candidates across the entire state for those two nominations. However, do not spend lots of time trying to figure out the probability of receiving an appointment. This is an extremely complicated process. The best strategy is to figure out what needs done and do the best at each component and then . . . wait to hear.

Two additional issues for your consideration. First, having a B plan is critical. Many candidates with impressive credentials did not receive an appointment this year. Second, your DS should consider applying to USCGA and USMMA since both are great institutions with a maritime focus.

Welcome to the Forum!
 
Welcome to the forum, hope it proves helpful. Common topics get discussed EVERY year, so if you search back, you can quickly find answers to the questions usually being asked. Remember this is an online forum, so you will get lots of OPINIONS along with the facts. Some can't see to tell the difference, but the perceptive participants quickly separate one from the other.

Those 'stickies' at the top of each forum page also contain a lot or really basic information that gets asked each year. Good to review those to quickly get up to speed on various topics.

No one on here can evaluate one's chances for getting an appointment, but it never seems to stop people from asking. We won't get to inteview your son, so we have no way of evaluating how well he does when speaking to his BGO or MOC committee when applying for a NOM. Those are also important elements of the application process. Even he won't get to see the submitted teacher evaluations/recommendations, but those are also considered in the overall process.

Practices do tend to change from year to year at the academy, so what was true 2-4 years ago may no longer be current practice. Remember that when some offer their advice about what does/does not take place.
 
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