Observation

Has anyone noticed that of the SA appointees that post on this forum we have about 100 per academy? I also noticed that about 250 are members of the USMA facebook page. Where do the other 90% to 75% get their information?

BarrettaM59 said:

Has anyone noticed that of the SA appointees that post on this forum we have about 100 per academy? I also noticed that about 250 are members of the USMA facebook page. Where do the other 90% to 75% get their information?

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Parents clubs. BGOs. Admissions representatives. Alumni. Congressional offices (the director of constituent services for my district is very knowledgeable).

Or they just don't. They follow posted instructions and show up on I-Day/R-Day knowing little.

They don't need a user profile to read the information being posted. Many might just lurk and read the topics without actually joining the discussion. Some may join as members but choose not to post. Some may not be aware of this website or use other sources of information as mentioned above.

The answers to the most commonly asked questions are posted each year. In many cases, you can search the history and gain just as much information. You really don't need to be an active participant in a discussion for that.

Since practices and requirements can change from year to year at the academy, it is always good advice to carefully read all of the official information provided by the academy. What was true last year, may not be this year.

During our son's graduation week from USAFA we met many of his friend's parents who had never used any resource other than the official information mailed from USAFA in the entire time that they were applying and at the Academy. They still made it through. None of the sources of information that are available are going to get 100% saturation.

Our Wisconsin parent's club (WAFAPA.org) contacts every parent of incoming cadets and we get between 33% and 50% who join.

The 2011 Yahoo USAFA parent's site had 60% join, but only about 50 people who post regularly. (And, yes, the group continues on after graduation...lots of news about the kids current assignments.)

And, as time2 pointed out, there are a lot of people who read on our site here who do not join, but are still able to use the information that is posted. In fact, just looking now at the stats, there are 13 registered users and 105 'guests' on the board at this moment. That means that there are approximately 8 people lurking for each registered user at this moment. That makes a much bigger audience than it seems at first. We are happy to have them all whether they are registered or not.

Several weeks ago when I went down to Texas to visit my son I was also able to stop in Dallas for a couple of days to visit my uncle who is a 1963 USAFA grad. Of course he had a million questions about things. I was telling him about this site, and the Yahoo and Facebook sites. He laughed at how far things have come. Back when he got his appointment, all he got a letter saying that he got in and a train ticket to Denver. That was about all of the information that my grandparents had when they took him to the train station. The next time that they talked to him was at Christmas when they took the train out to COS to see him. Things have sure changed!

Stealth_81