Potential applicant

Nonstopmotion

5-Year Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
22
Hello,

I wanted to ask all of you for your opinion on something. It has been my dream to attend West Point since i was young. I was set on applying and i tried my hardest in school and in sports. about a year and a half ago I applied to the Alabama School of Math and Science and was one of the few in my state accepted. At ASMS I am able to practically "finish" high school at the end of my sophomore year. I am about to start my Junior year in August. Last year I didn't do all that well, the classes were conducted on the college level within the timeframe of 9 weeks, known as a trimester. I finished three trimesters last year. I received grades of B's and C's. I understand that this is unacceptable and I have every intention of going back and achieving straight A's. It is not uncommon for students to receive those grades their first year and most go back to receiving A's or A's and B's once again their Junior and Senior years. My question is whether or not this will severely impact my chances of getting accepted into West point?

I had a 3.8 GPA before last year and i am unaware of what I have at this moment.
ACT - 27
haven't taken the SAT yet but i will in a few months
PSAT - 187 * sophomore year*
Ethnicity - Hispanic
I come from a long military background ( I don't know if they take that into consideration though)
My school does not rank.


Thank you for your time reading and responding to my question.
 
I played travel and city league baseball until I started attending ASMS. ( they do not provide many sports and the ones they do aren't really "competitive") I currently run on the Varsity Cross country team and will be captain my Senior year. I also play on the Varsity Soccer team. This coming year I will try and request our school make a guys volleyball team, and if i succeed I will be captain of that as well. The reason the ACT is still low is because that was the test I took my freshman year when I applied to ASMS. I will be taking it in October though so fingers crossed for at least 30.
 
If you prep for the ACT I would not be suprised at all if you brought your scores up significantly. I took the ACT freshman year and got a 29 and then again twice my junior year and raised my composite by 4 points and my superscore by 6 points. I would also take the PSAT again this year and put a lot of effort into it. I raised my PSAT 20+ points from sophmore to junior year through a review class, and now I will likely be elligible for national merit.

I would strongly recommend "starting" a volleyball club at your school. The service academies love applicants who start their own clubs, it shows initiative and responsibility as well as leadership.

Don't forget to apply to West Point SLE next winter! I just got back from it in june, it was very informative.
 
If you prep for the ACT I would not be suprised at all if you brought your scores up significantly. I took the ACT freshman year and got a 29 and then again twice my junior year and raised my composite by 4 points and my superscore by 6 points. I would also take the PSAT again this year and put a lot of effort into it. I raised my PSAT 20+ points from sophmore to junior year through a review class, and now I will likely be elligible for national merit.

I would strongly recommend "starting" a volleyball club at your school. The service academies love applicants who start their own clubs, it shows initiative and responsibility as well as leadership.

Don't forget to apply to West Point SLE next winter! I just got back from it in june, it was very informative.
I plan on taking a prep class for the ACT in the fall. I was also wondering if the service academies really look at the PSAT or if it is not all that important to them. Also, do you think it wise to take the SAT as well? I was curious if, by some chance, I managed to get a poor score on the SAT if that would effect how Admissions would look at me even if I managed to get a really great score on the ACT.

Also, what was your impression of SLE? Do you think you will apply to West Point?
 
I plan on taking a prep class for the ACT in the fall. I was also wondering if the service academies really look at the PSAT or if it is not all that important to them. Also, do you think it wise to take the SAT as well? I was curious if, by some chance, I managed to get a poor score on the SAT if that would effect how Admissions would look at me even if I managed to get a really great score on the ACT.

Also, what was your impression of SLE? Do you think you will apply to West Point?

To the best of my knowledge:
1- PSAT does not affect Whole Candidate Score
2- Take the SAT if you can. Some people do better on one than they do on the other, and USMA takes whichever one you do the best on.
 
I plan on taking a prep class for the ACT in the fall. I was also wondering if the service academies really look at the PSAT or if it is not all that important to them. Also, do you think it wise to take the SAT as well? I was curious if, by some chance, I managed to get a poor score on the SAT if that would effect how Admissions would look at me even if I managed to get a really great score on the ACT.

Also, what was your impression of SLE? Do you think you will apply to West Point?

Big Bear is correct, the PSAT as a score does not factor in to the Whole candidate score in the same way as the act or sat, but if you do well enough to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, that will count for some points in the academic section of the WCS, even though you won't really need the scholarship as the service academies technically don't have tuition.

However, you can use your PSAT scores on the SLE application, I did.

As Big Bear said, you only have to send USMA the test scores you want, and even if you sent them all of your test scores, they would only use your best ones in your WCS.

As for SLE, in the end I was glad I went. I am still leaning slightly towards USNA as my first choice but I will still continue my application to USMA, and I could still end up going there if I am lucky enough to get in.

Pros of SLE:
See the campus
Meet with fellow applicants
Make friends with current Cadets
Meet Faculty
Meet your Regional Commander, the person who manages your application
Get various admissions tips

Cons of SLE
From what I am told: Not at all like Beast
From what I have seen: Not at all like Academic year
The cadre sometimes treats you a little bit like children (moreso than I would have expected)
 
RE: SLE

Yes, it would probably be beneficial for you to attend SLE. Of course it won't be like Beast (which by all reports, has softened considerably due to Army regs) -- since you aren't in the Army, they're hands off and you're in more of a quasi-tourist/observer role in classes, activities, etc.

Generally speaking, I would recommend you visit the campus of any service academy to get a better idea of life there. USMA is in a beautiful setting, but as you get more senior there, you basically have no social options in the vicinity of school. There are small "nowhere" towns, but nothing significant except for NYC, which is 90 mins away.

Anyway, SLE should give you a nice glimpse into what a week can be like in the shoes of a Plebe.
 
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