Mike,
This is right on the money, however, I disagree with the fair part from your previous post. I pay taxes the same as someone from North Dakota pays taxes, so I don't really get the just because you're from a low population state you get extra consideration for an appt. USAFA is paid out of federal funds not state funds, therefore they should take the best candidates nationwide. Also, the academies loses cadets to academics every year and you can directly correlate this to there entry scores. Wasting money on cadets that can't make it through. Bottom line is that this is the way the academies make there selections so it is what it is, however I think they need to progress to taking the best possible candidates. JMHO.
We'll have to agree to disagree. Half the class is represented by MOCs;. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. One state has 30 representatives and another has 2 representative. The larger state has 30 slots, the other state 2. Each state has 2 senators. That means each state has 2 more slots. If it's good enough for the electoral college, it's good enough for academy slots.
1/3rd of the remaining slots to the academy are Military Affiliated. Presidential nominees, medal of honor, ROTC/JrROTC, Prior Enlisted, etc... Sorry; but this is a very small concession to make for men and women who have served this country. You're not GIVING away slots; it's still competitive; you're just giving them their own slate. Sorry, but this one is not negotiable or even up for debate. It's one of the very least that we can do for our military men and women.
So that leaves about 300-500 in the national pool to fill the remaining slots. You're telling me that you don't believe in diversity. It shouldn't matter if a person grew up with only one parent, they shouldn't get any extra consideration. Or that they grew up in the inner city, they shouldn't get any extra consideration. Or that they had to work a full time job to support their mom and brothers/sisters. Or that they were a first generation legal immigrant to our country; or the first in their family to go to college. Sorry, but I wish that every child in America had the opportunity to go to the best schools, with the best teachers, had parents that loved them and supported them, helped them take SAT/ACT prep classes, and all the other advantages. Unfortunately, that simply isn't real life. And I personally will take the individual who had to fight, claw, bite, etc... to get a 3.75 gpa and 28ACT and 1800SAT, while at the same time working 40 hours a week to support her/his unemployed single mom, 2 sisters and 1 brother. Who didn't have a chance to play high school sports and only could do summer baseball; or even time to go out for the class play.
Well again, we'll have to agree to disagree. The real world and the real military isn't a bunch of people with the exact same backgrounds and same opportunities and experiences. The one thing that makes the United States so good, is the Melting Pot characteristic. That we weren't some superior race trying to have control. And in our military; those that are superior and in command, need to have that same diverse representation.
Unfortunately, many people will see this as unfair. Well guess what. Life isn't fair. Nor is it suppose to be. That's called socialism. I really wish I had the basketball skills of Michael Jordan. I wish I had the money of Bill Gates. But those are individuals, with individual talents. The academies do a fantastic job at balancing their appointments. It's not like: "ooo you're black; you're in..." or "You're a girl.,... You're in". "oooo you're from south dakota, and we don't have many from south dakota..... you're in". It doesn't work that way. Each candidate has a WCS. You've heard that enough times. And EVERYTHING about your self gets points. You get points for how high your gpa is. Your SAT/ACT. Your CFA scores. Your volunteer time. Your extra curricular activities. Your leadership involvement. Where you live. Your economic status. Your gender. Your race. Your worldly experiences. Your family's history.
Basically; you're not getting an appointment if you aren't qualified. That's why I insist that you're wrong when you say that the cadets the academy loses each year academically, correlates directly to their entrance scores. That's simply not true. You don't remember "Mars Boy". He was the individual that had everything in the package. And he was going to be the first cadet to go to Mars. That was his goal. He; like many others; came to the academy at or above the average in academics. YET, he was kicked out for academics. He couldn't cut it. Also; while there's a lot of people who think the JOCKS (Intercollegiate Athletes) have the lowest scores, but are brought in because of their sports and given extra consideration. Well let me tell you that sports, athletes, college, etc... have their own world of publicity, national academics, pride, etc... In other words, college sports is big business, but it's also high recognition. Air Force academy ranked #2 in the country in Student Athletes grades and success. Behind #1 Rutgers. And besides Mars boy, I can tell you right now, that there are plenty of cadets who get kicked out for academics, who started out of high school with VERY HIGH GPA's and test scores. You might think that we lose a lot academically that shouldn't have been there; but you'd be wrong. The numbers simply don't support it.
This is a tough time of year. A lot of people who don't receive appointments, and they don't understand why. Some are simply in denial. I've seen some of their scores and it's like: "You REALLY THOUGHT you should get an appointment". But there are some that simply had others ahead of them. I know you think everyone should be in the Same Big POOL and the top 1100+/- get an appointment. Sorry; it can't be that way. If you don't understand by the last page of my writing, then you'll have to do some research. While you're at it, check with Harvard, Yales, Princeton, Stanford, Brown,... IBM, Intel Microsoft, Motorola, Ratheon, and just about every other college, university, and large business, and ask them why they don't admit or hire just the "Best" on their list of applicants. Maybe it's because they've learned over time that artificial test scores don't tell you everything about a person.
Anyway; we will agree to disagree. This topic comes up every year. Every year it gets more discouraging trying to explain it. Some here have given up in trying. I still have some fight left. Some simply say: "If you don't like it, go call your congressman. It's federal law. Get them to change it". bla bla bla. I try not to take that course. I can tell you, that after 21 years in the Air Force, diversity is a good thing. As Long as the individuals in question are "Qualified". And I honestly believe that every individual who receives an appointment to the academy is qualified. The thing is, there's initially 12,000+ applicants. There's about 3000-4000 that are TOTALLY QUALIFIED to come to the academy. You're debating scores that are fractions of a point different between someone who receives an appointment and someone who didn't. Anyway; don't know what to tell you. We aren't just losing people academically who "Shouldn't have been there". I can show you people every day at the academy who is/was/will be on academic probation, who came to the academy with a 3.80-4.00 gpa out of high school. Anyway; good luck to you. mike....
… Basically control the things you can control and just watch the others and most importantly do the things that will make you happy… don’t run track if you’re going to hate it because ywhen people interview you they can tell your level on excitement/commitment and if you were doing it just to check a box.
I was looking at it from the local level not the Academy’s point of view!