Chances?

D

DanielKirwin

5-Year Member
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Jun 7, 2013
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Hello everyone, I'm sorry to do this because I'm sure you've seen numerous, but I was curious as to how competitive I actually am.

I have a 3.64 weighted GPA, hopefully going up to 3.69 by the end of next week. I go to a very competitive school (1st in county, 7th in state, 76th in country for public schools) that has a school much like a traditional college. I scored a 30 on my ACT (30E, 27M, 34R, 30SR) and am retaking it tomorrow and think with the super score i can bring it up to a 31 overall. I am a rising senior. I played JV baseball freshman and sophomore year with a few games on Varsity. I was not officially named a captain (our team didn't name any that year), but I still took a leadership role on the JV team being 1 of 3 sophomores on a mostly freshman team (school isn't athletically oriented). I started a club that year for the team to raise money. Unfortunately, I had to stop playing in my junior and pursued employment and now work at Starbucks. I've worked part time all four years of high school. I have been part of a community service club since sophomore year and am taking a leadership role (co-president) next year. Am I competitive?

Thank you so much, sorry again.
 
Last edited:
DanielKirwin said:
Hello everyone, I'm sorry to do this because I'm sure you've seen numerous, but I was curious as to how competitive I actually am.

I have a 3.64 weighted GPA, hopefully going up to 3.69 by the end of next week. I go to a very competitive school (1st in county, 7th in state, 76th in country for public schools) that has a school much like a traditional college. I scored a 30 on my ACT (30E, 27M, 34R, 30SR) and am retaking it tomorrow and think with the super score i can bring it up to a 31 overall. I am a rising senior. I played JV baseball freshman and sophomore year with a few games on Varsity. I was not officially named a captain (our team didn't name any that year), but I still took a leadership role on the JV team being 1 of 3 sophomores on a mostly freshman team (school isn't athletically oriented). I started a club that year for the team to raise money. Unfortunately, I had to stop playing in my junior and pursued employment and now work at Starbucks. I've worked part time all four years of high school. I have been part of a community service club since sophomore year and am taking a leadership role (co-president) next year. Am I competitive?

Thank you so much, sorry again.
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A. Get that math score above a 29.
B. It doesnt matter if your school is first or last in the country. West Point determines how competitive a high school is by the number of graduates from that school who go onto a four year college.
C. Were you actually part of the varsity team? If you played, I would guess so. Since you weren't a captain, though, you will have to make up for it with high school leadership. Being a club president is great, but being your class president would be better. Think about running if it isn't too late.
D. If you needed to work in order to support your family, ensure you inform your admissions officer of this. You will be asked to complete an employer's evaluation, but it does not cover why you went to work in high school.
E. GPA doesn't matter, except subjectively. What is you class rank? Since your school is the best in the country, I imagine a 3.64 GPA isn't that high (not trying to be harsh, just realistic). This means that you need to do even better on the ACT. Also, take the SAT as well. Good luck tomorrow.
F. Lastly, check the stickies to see "what are my chances" thread. :thumb:
 
My school doesn't rank it's students. 3.64 is right about average. If I had to guess, I would say at least 90% attend a four year school. I technically wasn't part of the varsity team because I didn't letter, but I would practice with them and played a few games. I am a club president. I didn't have to work to support my family, we are blessed to live comfortably in the middle class. We can't afford super nice cars, or houses, or to go out every night, but we're not poor. I worked because I felt the obligation to my family to support myself and be self-sufficient. Everything that I own, I earned. I felt the desire to contribute to my family and society. And let's be honest, the Academies are very selective, and college is very expensive. We're not comfortable enough for me to college without taking on massive loans. Do I miss baseball? Yes. Do I regret not playing it anymore? Never. I've learned many things from baseball, but I've also learned plenty from working in retail. Thank you for the encouragement and feedback, I really do appreciate it. I took my ACT the first time without having taken trigonometry at all and having had it be almost a full year since my last math class. My GPA has gone up .36 points this year, and this year and next year I'm taking 7 weighted classes (6 AP's and one that my high school weighs like an AP because of difficulty). I also forgot to mention I participated in a Model United Nations conference. Sorry for the long reply, felt as though I should respond. Thank you again for the feedback.


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Just a note, I have no idea what the actual percentage is for 4 year colleges, but I would assume that it's actually much higher than 90%
 
DanielKirwin said:
My school doesn't rank it's students. 3.64 is right about average. If I had to guess, I would say at least 90% attend a four year school. I technically wasn't part of the varsity team because I didn't letter, but I would practice with them and played a few games. I am a club president. I didn't have to work to support my family, we are blessed to live comfortably in the middle class. We can't afford super nice cars, or houses, or to go out every night, but we're not poor. I worked because I felt the obligation to my family to support myself and be self-sufficient. Everything that I own, I earned. I felt the desire to contribute to my family and society. And let's be honest, the Academies are very selective, and college is very expensive. We're not comfortable enough for me to college without taking on massive loans. Do I miss baseball? Yes. Do I regret not playing it anymore? Never. I've learned many things from baseball, but I've also learned plenty from working in retail. Thank you for the encouragement and feedback, I really do appreciate it. I took my ACT the first time without having taken trigonometry at all and having had it be almost a full year since my last math class. My GPA has gone up .36 points this year, and this year and next year I'm taking 7 weighted classes (6 AP's and one that my high school weighs like an AP because of difficulty). I also forgot to mention I participated in a Model United Nations conference. Sorry for the long reply, felt as though I should respond. Thank you again for the feedback.


____
Just a note, I have no idea what the actual percentage is for 4 year colleges, but I would assume that it's actually much higher than 90%
Click to expand...

I think your math ACT needs to come up (29-30) try and do varsity track or CC , maybe both. USMA has been so competitive in the last year and I don't see that changing. I think you have a chance, just keep working on those things.
 
Take the ACT as many times as you can to get your superscored ACT above a 32 or so. It'll help out your gpa if it is truly average at you school, and since your school doesn't rank, most if not all of your academic points for admission will come from standardized tests.
 
You are competitive against the national average, but no clue on how competitive you will be against other candidates in you Congressional district. I have seen less qualified candidates get in and highly qualified candidates not get in.
It comes down to giving 100% and seeing what happens.
 
getting in and chances

I agree with the above statements. I have one son in USAFA Class of 2014 and my younger son going to West Point Class of 2017. Both took the SATs and both had GPAs over 4.0. My USAFA son had to work hard to keep up academically and will graduate in the top third of his class BUT as far as getting in YOU have to beat out your competition in your congressional district. My USAFA son beat everyone and got in just to find he was now up against kids with perfect 1600 SAT score at USAFA. He was now average at USAFA but he was there. My West Point son after being above 4.0 gpa, captain of football team, VP of senior class and big in SGA came in 2nd place BUT the first place person in our district turned West Point down at the last minute and my son was offered their slot!!! ONLY 20 points separated my 2 son's SAT scores yet they have different application stories. USAFA turned down my younger son so now I have a divided house USMA/USAFA... Moral of the story is WIN your congressional district.
 
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