Advice for a motivated Junior?

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Cadet Shakkori

5-Year Member
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May 29, 2012
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Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard, USMA, USNA, USAFA, USMMA, West Point for advice! I am currently a Junior in high school and have been working diligently all year to receive admission to one of the Five Service academies. I have all sorts of extra curricular activities and leader ship positions, Battalion Commander, Student Body President, etc. I also have five varsity letters. My GPA is around 3.6 (4.0) and I am around 55 out 185 in my class. The only thing holding me back is my ACT/SAT score (math primarly) But I realize to succeed you must work hard! So I have gotten a tutor to help me and I am doing practice tests many times. I just needed so advice with Nominations! Specifically the ROTC and Vice President Nominations. The ROTC ones seem pretty straight forward though I am wondering if I should not send them or any of the Noms in until I do my last Standardized test (Oct) or send them after the June test... The Vice Presidents page said he usually has 2-3 vacancies each year...what does that mean? People did not apply to him? It seems unlikely as he is the Vice President... If anyone could reply answering any of these questions and ask me a few if necessary, would be fantastic!
GO ARMY BEAT NAVY :D

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-biden/academy-nominations (Vice President Vacancies)
 
Hi and welcome!

Before I move to nominations, I highly suggest you, of course, work on your SATs/ACTs, but also see if you can improve your class rank.

Also, are you going to SLS? Are you working out for the CFA?

About the nominations:

I think most MOCs (if not all of them) do NOT use a rolling process for nominations - in other words, it doesn't matter if you send your nomination application package (or whatever they call it/use) in May or a week before the deadline. So get everything you can ready to save time in the future, like teacher recommendations (make sure you get your Math, English and Physical Science teachers' e-mail address so you can send them the SOEs - School Official's Evaluation, basically recommendation letters they will fill in online - once your SSK is open), the transcripts you already have, etc. (basically, get everything that probably will not change between now and the nomination application deadline and that your MOC asks).

Work on your essays - they are a big deal, at least for some MOCs.

Brush up your interview skills when it gets close to the interview period (some MOCs don't do interviews). Be ready to answer questions such as why do you want to go to a SA, why do you think you'd be a good Officer, what is one big fault about you, what was the happiest day of your life, etc. Some MOCs offer you the chance to ask anything about Admissions. Ask smart questions, do NOT challenge them (tip for you, questioning about why they use a system of nomination and then trying to convince them that the other system is better is NOT a good idea :yllol: Anyways, I learned an important life lesson that day :thumb:).

Sorry, I have no idea how ROTC noms work.

The Vice Presidential nominations are chosen by the Service Academy. Pretty much all candidates apply to it. DO APPLY. I heard a story (don't remember where) about a very good candidate that did not get any nominations for whatever reason, but he was such a good candidate that the SA was going to select him for the VP nomination and, guess what, he didn't apply for it. The VP nomination has not geographic restrictions.

The VP, like all other MOCs, may have up to 5 cadets at each Service Academy nominated by him. That means that, let's say WP currently has 3 cadets - one for the class of 2013 and two others for the class of 2015. For the following class, he would have 2 vacancies for the USMA - 2 people could get an appointment being nominated by him.

Again, the VP nomination is chosen by the SAs, so you want to send all the extra things you would send to the VP nomination application to the actual Service Academy.

Do NOT count on a VP nomination. It is kept for very, very specific cases. But still, DO apply. It might turn out YOU are that specific case and when they go check your VP application, you have a mediocre essay...

Good luck!
 
Thanks for the info! I did not get into any of the SLS but i did get into Boys State! I will also be visiting several of the academies this summer.
 
Cadet Shakkori said:
Thanks for the info! I did not get into any of the SLS but i did get into Boys State! I will also be visiting several of the academies this summer.
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All right! Make sure you prepare and do your best on the CFA!
 
I just needed so advice with Nominations! Specifically the ROTC and Vice President Nominations. The ROTC ones seem pretty straight forward though I am wondering if I should not send them or any of the Noms in until I do my last Standardized test (Oct) or send them after the June test...
Click to expand...

Since you're applying directly from high school I'm not sure you qualify for the ROTC nomination, because I thought that was for college ROTC. I could totally be wrong though.

When are your nominations due? When I applied to USAFA/USNA/USMA for nominations it didn't matter when we got the applications in, as long as they were in by the deadline. I ended up getting all 3 from my congressman and 1 from my senator for the Air Force Academy...

The Vice Presidents page said he usually has 2-3 vacancies each year...what does that mean? People did not apply to him? It seems unlikely as he is the Vice President... If anyone could reply answering any of these questions and ask me a few if necessary, would be fantastic!
GO ARMY BEAT NAVY :D
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The Vice President may nominate up to 5 people to each academy I believe. How I believe the system works there is that people who work in Academy Admissions will select those for that nomination and then tell the VP if they've filled the slot with somebody.

The Coast Guard Academy doesn't require a nomination, instead we have everyone compete in the nation for less than 250 slots. If you're still interested in coming to our school send me a PM with any questions
 
Cadet Shakkori said:
what were your scores when you got in? what was your profile like (GPA, Extras, etc.)
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I was an overseas candidate (residing in a foreign country during the application), so all my stats would not be able to be compared to yours, because they are so different, I'd say.
 
ROTC Nomation is relatively simple - just need your PMS endorsement. Doesn't matter college ARmy ROTC or highschool Army JROTC.

For non-Army ROTC, you have to the honor graduate and an Honor school (see USMA form)

Link to the nomation form

http://www.usma.edu/admissions/Shared Documents/ROTC_Nomination_Form_5-497.pdf

if the link doesn't work, do an interent serach on "Recommendation for ROTC Nomination to West Point."

10 USC § 4342 - Cadets: appointment; numbers, territorial distribution

20 nominated by the Secretary of the Army, under regulations prescribed by him, from the honor graduates of schools designated as honor schools by the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of the Air Force, and from members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
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