GPA

Do the service academies favor candidates with a 4.0 with no honors/AP classes as opposed to someone with a lower GPA but one who takes honors/AP classes? In the sense that both candidates meet all other requirements.

They prefer class rank

Maximus, Not necessary. It depends on your school profile. A #1 class rank at one school may be less impressive than top 15% rank in a highly competitive, nationally ranked school.

To the OP, they prefer a 4.0 with AP/ honors courses, lol. But the Academies will want to see that you challenged yourself by taking the most difficult courses your school offers and will fit in to your schedule. So if your school offers AP courses (and they will know thru the school profile your counselor submits), but you chose to stay in on-level classes this may not be looked as highly as a student with mostly A's maybe some Bs in AP/honors classes. The Academies will adjust your GPA with their own weighting system, depending on your school profile and course selections. They also want to see that you can perform in college level or AP courses that are similar to those you will take at an academy, so AP Chem and AP Calc are more important than AP Fine Arts.

Thank you for your answer. I am taking 3 AP classes this year (junior ) and will take 4 next. Unfortunately my GPA is only a 3.5 but hopefully I can get straight A's this semester

I was told my sophmore year that the academies would rather see a higher GPA with no honors classes than a lower one with. Of course, that didn't stop me from being stubborn and getting C's in my honors/AP classes, and I still got accepted.

I have learned as a general rule that if you are capable of pulling a B or even a C in an AP class, it is better than coasting through a normal class.

While I realize that grades matter for getting accepted to colleges and service academies, the big thing is whether or not you can actually learn the material. That's been my philosophy and it's gotten me into everything I applied for.

Work hard and good luck.

I was told my sophmore year that the academies would rather see a higher GPA with no honors classes than a lower one with. Of course, that didn't stop me from being stubborn and getting C's in my honors/AP classes, and I still got accepted.

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Not sure who told you this (and I hope it wasn't from USNA Admissions), because that IS NOT their guidance. It is better to take challenging courses than to whiz through all regular courses with A's. Bottom line, as ikadiggit, implied...take Honors/AP/IB courses if you can handle it (if you think you would get a C, I would not recommend taking the higher course unless you are confident it might be the only class or two you would get that C). It is part of the reason USNA Admissions doesn't strictly look at GPA.

usnabgo08 said:

Not sure who told you this (and I hope it wasn't from USNA Admissions), because that IS NOT their guidance.

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I was actually told this by an USAFA recruiter. This was before I was interested in USNA, but he told me all the academies were like that. It didn't change which classes I took, but it certainly would have relieved some stress if I knew that wasn't true!

Thanks...a good lesson to get the gouge from reliable/trusted sources! I really hope that USAFA "recruiter" actually finds all of his/her information from reliable/factual sources. With the exception of the CFA (and even that can be argued on which test elements are the most important to each service academy), if someone tells you that is what all of the other service academies do, I would confirm that before adopting that -- as each aren't all the same.
That is like saying all the SAs look at the SAT/ACT the same way, which isn't true.

Thank you all for your responses. May I ask what GPA you had to those of you that were accepted?

Busto... Unweighted I have around a 3.5 or 3.6 but weighted I have a 3.9

That's awesome! Nice job on earning that. What was your schedule like?

I'm in my senior year and taking nine classes- eek! I dropped down to regular math this year and I've only ever taken one year of AP history. Overall I wouldn't say my schedule is terribly strenuous, but I'm not like most of my friends who only have four out of our seven class periods day.

Class rank is more important because many times GPA's can be highly inflated.

Example: My high school, until this year's junior class, had a 4.25 GPA scale. So, when my report card showed that I had a 4.12 GPA, it made me look super smart and whatnot, but in reality, it wasn't a "real" 4.0. Juniors onward will now have their GPA on a 4.0 scale, which is the correct way to do it. Anyway, good luck!

Oh wow that's a lot. Good luck with your classes and Thank you all for your responses they are incredibly helpful I appreciate all

JMPO, but it is everything and not just one aspect or another. Something nobody has pointed out yet is they request a school profile when they ask for the transcript.

IE. My children are military brats. The eldest two went to two different HS in two different states. One HS required students to take std or honors before taking any AP. For example, DS could not take AP Chem until he took std/hon. Chem. Same with Physics or Biology. Our DD could take AP right off the bat.
~ when they look at the school profile they wouldn't hold it against my DS because he couldn't take AP Bio if the school didn't allow it.

At our DSs school class rank was unweighted cgpa, thus because he was in all APs, he ranked lower than the students that took standard and a lot of electives with a 4.0. On top of that his cgpa on his school transcript was rejigged by USAFA, it went up by 0.25 because the school used a 7 point scale.
~ DDs school was 10 point. A 90 for her was an A. A 90 for DS was a B. An 84 for him was a C, for her it was a solid B.

In the school profile they gave the number of APs offered, the prereqs for AP and the amount (%) of students that took AP. You get dinged impo if you opt to not take the most rigorous course load, but not if you are unable due to their system.

Finally, in the school profile they are going to look at the % of students that go Ivy, 4 yr. Private/public, Community College/tech schools or straight into the work force. You could be ranked top 25% with a 3.4 and be seen higher because 50% go Ivy than the student that has a 3.7 and ranked 15% with 0% going Ivy.

Like everything else it is the Whole picture and the school profile is part of that picture.

Exactly, as Pima pointed out. It is one thing if you have the opportunity and another if it isn't presented and that is absolutely taken into consideration.

Whew, that's a relief! I'm glad to hear that they take the school's course "platter" (for a lack of a better word) into consideration. Like, in my situation, I took 2 APs last year, and the rest honors/advanced, and this year I'm taking 1 AP with the rest honors/advanced, but my school only offers 3 APs (at my school "advanced" is a fancy word for "this would be an AP course if we had the funding to pay for the certification"). I was afraid that they were going to dismiss my application because most applicants take, for example, 5APs junior year and 4APs senior year, whereas I only took 3 total. Hopefully my counselor made the course availability clear...

Mjg19 said:

I'm in my senior year and taking nine classes- eek! I dropped down to regular math this year and I've only ever taken one year of AP history. Overall I wouldn't say my schedule is terribly strenuous, but I'm not like most of my friends who only have four out of our seven class periods day.

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Have only taken one AP class in your entire high school career(I'm not trying to insult you this is a genuine question)?

frenzymando said:

Have only taken one AP class in your entire high school career(I'm not trying to insult you this is a genuine question)?

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Haha no, I've been in honors/AP English all four years, and honors math every year except this one. I took APWH sophmore year, and also am taking AP French V and AP economics this year.