In my opinion, its the recruited athlete card that got him the LOA - according to Admissions, LOAs will be few and far between. Congrats none the less.... don't let your DS sit in his laurels... keep pushing to the finish line - there have been some LOA recipients who stopped pushing during their 2nd semester of senior year who have had their LOAs yanked.
JRANGITSCH, first off let me say that you have my respect for your service to this country. That being said I think you are off base with your comment about the athlete card in my sons case. Isn't it true that 99% of admitted applicants are varsity athletes in high school? My DS happens to be very good at his sport and was recruited by the ARMY coach after DS made contact with the coach. DS is a young man that first wants to serve in the US Army and also compete in Division 1 athletics. I understand that there are very strong candidates that will not get in a service academy. I believe athletes are an important part of the Academy and the Military as a whole. There is an excellent post by rebel91 from the Naval Academy and I have attached the meat of Rebel91's post. I hope you understand my point of view.
Rebel91:
"To those who have posted on this thread and the recent NAPS thread with some level of sarcasm regarding "lower" standards for recruited athletes, simple question: have you ever served with a USNA, USMA, or USAFA graduate who was a varsity athlete at a Service Academy? I have -- went to USMC OCS, TBS, and IOC with plenty of these men/women and served with them in the Fleet Marine Force and on deployments in combat. I also trained over 3,000 Lieutenants at Quantico and without a doubt, the former Academy athletes performed far better than their non-varsity athlete counterparts.
Why? Probably many reasons, here are few:
- Better at time management, setting priorities and multi-tasking.
- They are far better at pushing themselves to perform during strenuous training and combat environments. Simply put - most are physical bad asses.
- They have many years of practical leadership experience in their chosen sport. Many are winners who don't give up and know how to motivate their peers and subordinates.
True, there are some recruits who get into USNA via NAPS who have less than stellar GPA and SAT/ACT scores. If they are admitted and graduate from Navy, they are likely to be one hell of a good officer, which is the point, right? Think a Sgt in the Marine Corps or a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy cares what your SAT score or class standing was? But you better believe the enlisted men and women have serious respect for an officer's ability to lead physical training sessions, make timely and sound decisions and communicate them effectively and look out for them as a teammate.
For those who plan to respond and continue to criticize the admissions process for recruited athletes, remember that NCAA athletics is an important part of the entire U.S. collegiate program/culture and our nation's service academies have a long, proud tradition of competing. Most importantly, these Midshipman that graduate typically do quite well serving our nation."
I hope it is OK with the moderator that I used Rebel91's post from the Naval Academy...