Senior Year?

[warrior101]

Hello everyone,

I am a rising senior, and so I have a question that I have been dying to ask. How does AFA and the other service academies for that matter factor in senior year when it will only be half completed when the application is due? Thanks!

 

[Dad]

Hello everyone,

I am a rising senior, and so I have a question that I have been dying to ask. How does AFA and the other service academies for that matter factor in senior year when it will only be half completed when the application is due? Thanks!

Is your junior year over? A rising senior is a student who has completed their junior year, but has not started their senior year. Just curious, some home schooled students may be done already.

Regardless, all appointments are conditional upon continuing academic success. You will submit your FINAL HS transcript prior to entering USAFA. Does that mean you can't fail a class 2nd semester of your senior year? No, but you may have some explaining to do. While it is important to enjoy your friends and the end of high school activities prior to I-Day, it is prudent to keep doing your best academically (best grades in most challenging classes available to you), ethically (avoid cheating/taking shortcuts), morally (a DUI or felony may be a deal breaker), and physically (stay in shape or get in better shape). Best wishes.

 

[thorgold]

Hello everyone,

I am a rising senior, and so I have a question that I have been dying to ask. How does AFA and the other service academies for that matter factor in senior year when it will only be half completed when the application is due? Thanks!

Everything counts, not only for the military academies, but for colleges in general.

Your Junior year and 1st half of senior year are important to your admissions - grades, activities, leadership roles, those all tie in to whether or not a college finds you as meeting their standards. In general, February-April is the confirmation period, in which you tell anyone interested whether or not you're actually attending. At this point, it seems like the second half of your senior year, up until graduation, is moot. You're already accepted into a college, so who cares if you just bomb your remaining classes, as long as you do enough to finish the grade? Well, the colleges do - just because you're accepted doesn't mean they can't still pull back their offer.

One of the first graduates from my (relatively new) school found this out the hard way. They were accepted into an Ivy League school on a very lucrative scholarship, and they proceeded to just coast through the remainder of their senior year with the assurance that "It doesn't matter, I'm accepted already." Come May, a letter comes - "We were watching, and you're not a great student. This kid who did worse than you last year is now more qualified because of his final grades. You're out." Bam, community college.

Your second semester is even more important if you're not accepted - your continued performance through the year will affect your ranking on the standby list, if there is one. What happens when somebody who was accepted gets DQ'd at the last moment, or turns down the offer? Bring in a replacement from standby - your second semester performance can have a huge role in that.

In short, while the second half of senior year may not seem important in terms of college applications, it is huge in terms of maintaining your standings, especially after being accepted.