Nomination recieved

[flyusaf93]

Ok here is my situation,

I recieved a call, actually my brother took the message , from my representative informing me that he is nominating me to the AFA.

I recently completed my CFA and scored well above average. In addition, I just sent my most recent SAT scores, which are significantly higher than my previous scores.

I recieved a letter updating me on my app. status which informed me that I still need to take the CFA. this caused some confusion, but I assume that my recent activity has not yet been completely processed yet.

Should I be worried?

 

[Christcorp]

Just hang in there. Nothing to worry about. It takes time to update you application. Give it until monday. If it hasn't changed yet, give your counselor at the academy a call and ensure that they have the CFA scores and that they're included in your application. Also ask if everything in your application is 100% complete, or if there is anything missing. Best of luck, and congrats on receiving a nomination. mike...

 

[flyusaf93]

Thank you,

so if my App. is complete and I have a nom. is it possoble to recieve an appointment earlier than march?

 

[Christcorp]

Thank you,

so if my App. is complete and I have a nom. is it possoble to recieve an appointment earlier than march?

Sure, it's possible, but it's not something you should count on. 70-80% of all appointments are given out in March. Just because you've heard of early appointments and LOA's (Which CAN lead to an appointment), doesn't mean that is the "Norm". They aren't the norm. They are rare. A lot of people get discouraged because they didn't receive some sort of notification by Nov-Dec. The truth is, if you receive an appointment before March-April, you are in the minority. Don't sweat it.

Hopefully you have applied or are applying to other colleges/universities. Whether via ROTC or traditional school. The air force academy averages about 10,000 applicants. of those, approximately 6000 are more than qualified. Of those, the vast majority of them will receive a nomination. (453 representatives and 100 senators equal approximately 5530 nominations). A little less because some individuals will have multiple nominations, but then there's also presidentials, vp, rotc, and other nominations. Of those 5000+ with nominations, only 1300-1400 will actually receive appointments and attend the academy.

This isn't designed to discourage you; just to let you know that the actual selection rate is around 13-14%, similar to other high end selective universities. Meaning, they can't accept everyone. No matter how qualified you are, so is most of the others. The "Average" GPA of an appointee is 3.86 with 31ACT and 2000+SAT. So definitely have some additional schools lined up. Don't settle just for the local community college. "Unless that's what you want". There's a lot of college opportunities out there that you can afford. Make sure you have backups. Best of luck to you. mike....

 

[jetset15]

When the Academy says their "average" GPA is a 3.8, does that mean before or after they've done their own reconfiguration?

 

[flyusaf93]

That's a great question becuase I have been enrolled in IB classes for 4 years and the GPA they have on my file is the unqeighted one! I hope they weight it with my IB stuff!!

 

[Christcorp]

It's the class average GPA of that listed on the application. But it all works out in the wash. Some people's gpa goes up after admissions re-weights them. Some go down. Some stay the same as their high school. I've seen all of them. FWIW: My son had a 4.0gpa in high school. He was in the IB program. All his classes were IB. He was in the program all 4 years of high school. (Our state starts high school in 9th grade if you're in the IB program). He was class ranked #1. The school doesn't weight classes and GPA. But they do weight class ranking, so a 4.0gpa IB student is higher than a 4.0gpa state minimum curriculum. Anyway; his GPA stayed the same with the academy. It didn't move at all. But that has to do also with the school profile and such. IB is probably the most "Standard" of academics in the country. Actually, it's standardized world wide. But some times even an IB student will have their gpa weighted by the academy depending on their electives and the school profile.

Anyway; that's how they determine the "Class GPA". It's after the academy weights them. And again, it all washes out in the mix. So the class gpa is still very close to even an unweighted class. mike....

P.S. On your application; the part you DON'T SEE; part of your WCS (Your TOTAL score on EVERYTHING in your application), there is a section they grade you on for academics. You get scored on ALL your academics. You get "X" amount of points for your GPA, "Y" for your SAT/ACT, "Z" for the difficulty of classes; e.g. IB, AP, Honors; "W" for class rank; etc.... So there's a lot more to it than saying one person had a 3.9 gpa, one had a 4.0, and another had a 3.8. One may appear to be much better than another, but they really aren't in the scoring process. Where you "GAIN" or "LOSE" a lot of points is on the "Difficulty Level" of the classes you DID take vs the "Difficulty Level" of the classes available to you. I.e. They will NOT penalize an applicant who didn't take IB or AP or Honors classes if they or that program wasn't available to them. However; they WILL penalize you if such classes were available, and you didn't take them. In other words, a 3.8 gpa IB applicant will most likely get more academic points than a 3.95 gpa applicant who didn't take IB/AP classes and they WERE available at their school. But again, there's also a mixture of the SAT/ACT, ranking, school profile, difficulty, etc....