Odd Resume

[ParkCore]

Greetings all,

I have an odd resume as of lately. Junior year I decided to do what I wished to do and built an airplane. It's a single place Star duster SA-100.

It's not your typical 17 year old thing to do. I did it, it was solely me, and I have the builders pictures to prove it to the Academy.

In April, I received my PPL at 103.4 "legal" hours. I did a lot of ride alongs. I'm planning to receive my commercial before June next year.

So, my school work was off focus. I received a 3.4, rightfully so. I didn't care about the grade, however I did enjoy the classes and did well on the tests. I had many missing assignments dropping me down. I had a 3.8.

I have a 29 ACT.

I maintained clubs: JSA, NHS, Ambassador, interalliance, and a few others.

I received AP credit for APUSH and English.

How do I explain this on a resume?

 

[ParkCore]

Senior year:
AP Calc
AP Chem II
AP English IV
AP Frenh
AP Gov
Religion IV
Art I
Study Hall (possibly Programming III

 

[ParkCore]

 

[Cerberi]

It's a nice story. But you will be competing with people with much higher GPAs, test scores, and athletic involvement. Their stories will include how active and involved they were while still maintaining better grades and taking on more leadership roles.

The positive side - it is a unique story and that will not hurt you. In the end, it all comes down to who you are competing with for the nomination and the appointment.

 

[Pima]

I agree that your PAR is a tad low overall. Keep taking that ACT and try the SAT too. The median superscore for the ACT is over 30, closer to 31. For AFROTC scholarship where they only do the best sitting, your score is still below the average for type 7. As stated by Cerberi it is going to come down to the competition pool and nobody here can tell you how you rack and stack in that pool.

Do you have any leadership positions in your resume? Any sports? Any other ECs beside building your plane and getting your PPL?

You have 0% chance if you do not apply.

 

[Daretodream]

My advice is to focus on hitting home runs your first semester of your senior year with a slate full of AP classes. Work on improving the ACT score a few points. If you do, then the self starting and focus it took to build a plane and get your pilot's license can benefit you although I would shy away from saying in doing it you let your grades suffer. The grades are what they are and you use the first semester of your senior year to show maturity and growth. These will all help you, but there are so many factors that are unknown that no one can really predict your percentages of getting an appointment. Read other post on things to do like reaching out to your ALO, MOCs, and the fitness testing. All of these post should help you.

 

[Badge250]

ParkCore: Lots of good advice here. I want to advise you to get ahold of one of the mod's and get your license plate number off the internet. A little off topic, but thought I should share that with you. I wish you the best !

 

[fencersmother]

Badge beat me to it!

Park, it's great you are so into aviation, and your dedication to flying is evident.

Get cracking on the ACT & SAT.

Good luck!

 

[dtkdarnoc]

Am I missing "leadership" here? Not sure the "I do what I want - I missed some assignments" narrative plays well at a service academy. But - best of luck!
Very cool to have accomplished what you did, regardless!

 

[wildblueyonder]

Others have kind of said it already, but...nice plane!! Good luck to you, and if you do end up coming here, consider applying for the flying team. I'll bet scratch-building a plane would be impressive even to those guys.

 

[fencersmother]

No boohooing about your GPA - no one's fault but your own. And, I see no sports here; tell me you captain the hockey team!

One thing you MUST learn to be successful at any Service Academy, and really, in life as an adult, is TIME MANAGEMENT. Sure, you built this plane in your garage and bully for you! Yay! But you, by your own accounting, let your GPA slip by almost half a point out of a 4.0, to do so. How did this benefit your future plans? Could your academic year time been better spent moving from the 3.8 to a 3.95, then building the plane on weekends, over the summer (several summers?), on those long holiday breaks they now have in schools?

Not to bang you over the head, but get your priorities in shape... NOW.

 

[ParkCore]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. There's more to my story; I left it in previous posts I've had. I've done varsity wrestling and football, I'm wrestling varsity this year. I was a Vice President in interalliance and organized several events through the year. I'm in NHS, the Ambassador program, Interalliance, JSA, Student Organization committee, and a few others. I'm not totally going into this blind. I also do have my priorities in check; a 3.8 GPA with all AP classes while building an airplane and becoming a pilot, along with having a job as an A&P mechanic apprentice and a driver at Napa seem to have kept me pretty busy. I also do take full responsibility for my grades. I took one of the hardest course loads my school offers with physics and precalc junior year. I gave the hint that I haven't done much else -- that's my fault.

 

[ParkCore]

Also correction on my GPA. I emailed my guidance counselor about it and they said they put the wrong GPA up. I have a 3.78, so not exactly a 3.8