Be the first!
Yeah. I am in almost the same boat. My school is 2 years old. We haven't even had a senior class graduate yet. They will graduate next year. No one has our school profile. ...What is someone's advice on how to approach the application process from a school that had no experience with anything like this?
Tyler
My kids are at different high schools. One is at a competitive boarding school. They have a long hisotry of appointments, especially with USNA. The thought is that it helps in that the graduates who have accepted the appointments have gone on to do very well at the academy. As such, at least academically and in terms of already being adjusted to life away from home in a high stress academic environment, it helps. It also helps in that the counselors are familiar with the process as is a BGO who is on staff. It helps in that the BGO tells the kids from the start how to position themselves best for an appointment (a handful each year apply to USNA and to a lesser degree the other SAs). The PE teacher has done a tone of fitness exams, the kids practice and workout together regularly. It is a small group, but they are close and supportive. Younger students have them to look to for encouragement and advice. The acceptance rates for SAs are generally quite high...but the competition between classmates is tough.
Flip Side...
My other children are in a VERY small local private school. There has not yet been a student even apply to an SA. The process is not talked about during college advising or brought up in 11th. The kids know nothing about the summer seminars, for instance. I think it is harder for them, unless they have an outside source, to get their heads around what they need to be doing at a young age (the 3 prong Athletics/Leadership/Academics).
That being said, I truly do not think that our younger ones, IF they decide to pursue and appointment, will be at a big disadvantage...or one at all.
I think they will be able to 'spin' that with little or no guidance they had the drive and initiative to be the first. Kind of like the strength and drive you see in kids who are first generation college students. When you don't have someone blazing the trail before you, you have to buckle down and really drive yourself.
I would hope that that would show.
In the end, no matter what school you come from, you have to have to do well in academically challenging classes (BGO stays on the kids about their math and science especially), play sports regularly and at a varsity level and have ample leadership and service. Without those things, you likely are not even in the race...with those things, the competition still is fierce.
Bottom Line: Don't worry about what has happed at your high school.
Blaze your trail.S