Not Your Typical "What Are My Chances?"

Okay, I'm not necessarily asking about my current status being good enough for appointment, but more so what I can do to strengthen my resume for when the time comes to apply. I am currently a sophomore in high school, and with just a little over a year away from the time it's my turn to start applying, I'd like to get some pointers on what I can do within this time period to make myself a better potential candidate for acceptance.
Here's what I've got so far:
•4.3 weighted GPA
•3.9 unweighted GPA
•Top 1% of my class (ranked 4 out of 675)
•Club soccer (I do not participate in high school sports, primarily due to the fact that club soccer takes up so much time.)
•Sophomore class officer
•Member of 3 various clubs (Student Council, Health Occupational Students of America, Science Club)
•Over 100 hours in volunteer hours (I'm a member of my school's volunteer organization)
•Soon to be NHS inductee.

By next year, I'll have over 200 hours of volunteer work, and I plan to join 1-3 more clubs next fall. I'm also about to run for a junior class officer position and want to try for a leadership position in HOSA, although I'm not 100% positive it'll happen. On top of this, I'm about to get accepted into a very selective clinical rotations program (only 12 students out of the whole school district are selected) for next year. I've also recently begun working out really hard so that I can get as close to maxing out on my CFA as possibly, so doing well on the physical portion of my application shouldn't be a problem.

All in all, what areas of my resume need some work? I'd just like to start bettering myself as early as possible so I don't turn into another "I wish I had" story. Any feedback is appreciated.

Boys/ Girls State seems to be highly regarded. My DS was told by WP rep to make sure he attended.

so without act/sat scores this is all less relevant.
Any engineering 'of interest' activities?
Is club soccer elite or more like intramural YMCA? (My son played travel hockey which is higher than high school hockey in our state so no worries about the sports through high school)
team captain?
Health (IE color blind? allergies? recent asthma? prescription meds?
do you junior yr math and English teacher like you, A LOT?
Did the Bilingual kid up the street, who can thread the a football through a needle, write an algorithm bought by Nasdaq?

ACT Test scores are important!!!!

Now would be a good time to consider why you want to be a military officer, which branch is of interest and research what other commissioning options there are. You should begin to consider what you want to major in (STEM or other).

Seek leadership positions, focus on physical fitness and get ready for the ACT/ SAT.

Oh... and have some fun.

Vista,
Not sure if it hurts me, but I'm not exactly interested in the field of engineering. I'm currently set on becoming a military doctor, and I'm aware that going through the academy to achieve this makes the course just a bit rougher, but I've also been told that the service academies do a superb job at getting prospective medical students into med school.
The club soccer is very elite, the highest level in the united states for girl's soccer. On that note, I'm currently trying to get recruited for soccer to make getting into just that much easier, but if soccer doesn't work out I want to make sure my resume is strong enough to get me in without it. (and yes, I am team captain for my club team.)
Health is good.
On the topic of ACT/SAT scores, I have not yet taken these seeing as I'm a sophomore. However, I plan to take these come the next fall/winter so I have time to retake if necessary, and this summer I'm really hitting the books hard so I can get the scores I need to.

What you listed looks good, PaperPlane. I have to agree that SAT/ACT scores will be very important. Take both, and take them often. You can stop taking them when you run out of time or max the scores Based on what you wrote, I'm guessing that you're a team captain on an ECNL team - that will help, even if you end up not being recruited. DS was recruited, then not recruited, for men's soccer - but the soccer definitely helped his application even though he wasn't offered a spot on the team. Your geography will make a difference, too - because not only are you competing for an appointment, you have to compete for a nomination as well, and the level of competition really varies between states and congressional districts.

With regard to hoping to go to medical school...if that is your goal, more power to you. Be aware that you have to major in chemistry in order to meet the prerequisites for med school (no bio major available at USNA), and the medical slots are few (9-12 per year) and very competitive. If you attend the Naval Academy, you have to be willing to accept a non-med school assignment if your class standing is not high enough to get one of the few slots. I don't mean to discourage you, but to point out that it doesn't work like it does at other schools (sounds like you know that, though). The needs of the Navy come first, and they could theoretically decide they don't have ANY medical slots in your year.

You are on the right track, though - keep up the great work!

MammaMia said:

What you listed looks good, PaperPlane. I have to agree that SAT/ACT scores will be very important. Take both, and take them often. You can stop taking them when you run out of time or max the scores Based on what you wrote, I'm guessing that you're a team captain on an ECNL team - that will help, even if you end up not being recruited. DS was recruited, then not recruited, for men's soccer - but the soccer definitely helped his application even though he wasn't offered a spot on the team. Your geography will make a difference, too - because not only are you competing for an appointment, you have to compete for a nomination as well, and the level of competition really varies between states and congressional districts.

With regard to hoping to go to medical school...if that is your goal, more power to you. Be aware that you have to major in chemistry in order to meet the prerequisites for med school (no bio major available at USNA), and the medical slots are few (9-12 per year) and very competitive. If you attend the Naval Academy, you have to be willing to accept a non-med school assignment if your class standing is not high enough to get one of the few slots. I don't mean to discourage you, but to point out that it doesn't work like it does at other schools (sounds like you know that, though). The needs of the Navy come first, and they could theoretically decide they don't have ANY medical slots in your year.

You are on the right track, though - keep up the great work!

Click to expand...

Yes, ECNL captain. Also, I understand that the medical route may not work out, but I'm prepared to do whatever the Navy wants me to do because ultimately that's what my dream is! Thank you for the input!!

OP have you taken the PSAT or the plan or any standerdized test yet? A lot of people I know with very good GPAs struggle with standardized test. If you didn't do very well on the PSAT/Plan the time to start getting better is now. I jumped 36 points on the PSAT from sophomore to junior year because I started studying for the PSAT far before when I actually took the test. If you start studying now you could probably get a very good score on the SAT/ACT.

Also, a lot of people don't know this, but the PSAT is a very important test. It's what they use to decide who becomes national merit scholars, and being a national merit scholar can get you many very valuable scholarships which could potentially be important if the academy doesn't work out. I would recommend you to study for it.

frenzymando said:

OP have you taken the PSAT or the plan or any standerdized test yet? A lot of people I know with very good GPAs struggle with standardized test. If you didn't do very well on the PSAT/Plan the time to start getting better is now. I jumped 36 points on the PSAT from sophomore to junior year because I started studying for the PSAT far before when I actually took the test. If you start studying now you could probably get a very good score on the SAT/ACT.

Also, a lot of people don't know this, but the PSAT is a very important test. It's what they use to decide who becomes national merit scholars, and being a national merit scholar can get you many very valuable scholarships which could potentially be important if the academy doesn't work out. I would recommend you to study for it.

Click to expand...

I've taken the PSAT my freshman and sophomore year-- scored a 167 the first time, and 184 the second time around. I'm planning on really hitting the books hard this summer for the PSAT/SAT (I've heard the preparation for both is about the same) so I can take these in the fall (and hopefully get national merit scholar on PSAT), and then I can transition to ACT mode. This is a tentative schedule, and I'm willing to change it if I should.

But your reply runs true-- I do struggle with standardized test. It's a bit frustrating to watch some students who don't care too much about their schoolwork throughout the year go and get stellar grades on PSAT/SAT/ACT without much effort, but I must handle the cards I've been dealt and just keep studying so I can get good scores.

Thank you for the info and your reply, I do appreciate the help!

I'm just a parent of a plebe, but it seems to me there is more to getting in than just great stats. I have seen so many posts from applicants and their families wondering why THEY received the TWE. Many of the recipients of those TWE have what appear to be better stats than DS. I think there is more to it. It depends on how competitive YOUR district is, (geographic location DOES play a part!) and that seems to change year to year by some degree. Some years your district might have 10 outstanding applicants (or more) and some years maybe only a handful. How did your interviews go? Does your MOC do principal nominee or competitive slate. Certainly your grades, test scores, ECAs, leadership, sports, etc. play a big part in getting that BFE, but obviously there is more to it.

DS had good test scores, but by no means great. Only a few AP classes--did have all A's and one B. What he has discovered is he is doing better overall than many plebes that entered with much stronger stats.

Without a doubt you want the best stats possible, but keep in mind that there does seem to be more to it

Best of luck.