question about the application

Serve.USA

5-Year Member
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Jul 6, 2014
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So I just finished the application today, as I am planning to apply early action. Honestly Im kind of scared to haha. Anyways, what is with the part of the application where it has you submit you 6 most important ec activities? How does this at all help the admission board develop the applicant that they review. I mean really I dont see its help to the application process.

Also, how much weight is cast on the personal statements? The word limit on this absolute ruined it for me. I still think mine are great, but really they can only get so good because you can barely explain the things youve done and their significance because 250 words is literally like 7 sentences.

Overall I dont see where the ec list or the statements help the board that much. So pretty much I had to make a huge resume with everything bc I didnt get to put but like 1/4 of what I wanted in the essays. Lets just hope they look at the "optional" resume...
 
Without listing your TOP 6 EC's, which highlights how you prioritize your time outside of school, how would the admissions staff be able to paint the "whole person" picture that is required of a cadet? There can be two Applicants with the same ACT/SAT scores and GPA, but vastly different ec's. One applicant may be involved heavily in school clubs (like the President or Vice-President), other aspects of student government (Class officers, etc.) Sports (especially showing leadership as a captain) extra academic involvement (clubs, competitions, peer tutoring), performing arts (theater, band), and community/volunteer work, while the other may simply attend school, come home, do homework, then have tons of down time without making other productive contributions (downtime which is extremely rare at any Academy. Additionally, they (the board) want to see what you can bring TO the Academy: they need to admit athletes, performers, academic guides and mentors, and above all: leaders.

The personal statements are your chance to articulate your strengths and unique experiences, which normally would not come up during the questions asked on the rest of the application. The 250 word limit is an exercise in conciseness: answer the question, but get to the point quickly and succinctly. The board will end up reviewing thousands of packages so they don't want to read multiple 500 or more word essays, as those extra pages will be multiplied by the thousands over the entire process. (Additionally, there is an "Optional" essay....do it. Its more of an unwritten test of making sure an applicant will put in the extra effort).

The resume is there for them to look at. It is excellent to include additional ec's (6 slots may not be enough, I am not sure of your situation) as well as any event, achievement, award, accolade, experience, etc. that you could not include elsewhere. The resume is not for expounding on an essay you wrote in order to dodge the word count, but rather listing odds and ends and tying it all together for a complete package.


THAT is what the board wants to see.


--DS of account holder, USNA Class of 2020 appointment holder
 
About the resume, is there a special template you recommend following? Also, I plan on applying regular action and I have around 8 meaningful activities I would love to include in my application, is it advisable to create and submit a resume to add 2 more activities? I have a few more minor things but I do not want to go with quantity over quality with my extracurricular activities.
Any help or insight would help, thanks!
 
My DS listed his top 6 ECs on the application and on the supplemental resume listed things there weren't room for, or a category for, on the application. His categories are: Leadership, Work Experience, Community Involvement, Volunteer Activities, Performing Arts, Extracurricular, Other Notes of Interest. You can get a resume template on line or from your Microsoft word (if that's what you use) - he used a resume template from Word. It's on one page and he hasn't tried to download it yet - he may need to edit for size of the document. Hope this helps.
 
Without listing your TOP 6 EC's, which highlights how you prioritize your time outside of school, how would the admissions staff be able to paint the "whole person" picture that is required of a cadet? There can be two Applicants with the same ACT/SAT scores and GPA, but vastly different ec's. One applicant may be involved heavily in school clubs (like the President or Vice-President), other aspects of student government (Class officers, etc.) Sports (especially showing leadership as a captain) extra academic involvement (clubs, competitions, peer tutoring), performing arts (theater, band), and community/volunteer work, while the other may simply attend school, come home, do homework, then have tons of down time without making other productive contributions (downtime which is extremely rare at any Academy. Additionally, they (the board) want to see what you can bring TO the Academy: they need to admit athletes, performers, academic guides and mentors, and above all: leaders.

The personal statements are your chance to articulate your strengths and unique experiences, which normally would not come up during the questions asked on the rest of the application. The 250 word limit is an exercise in conciseness: answer the question, but get to the point quickly and succinctly. The board will end up reviewing thousands of packages so they don't want to read multiple 500 or more word essays, as those extra pages will be multiplied by the thousands over the entire process. (Additionally, there is an "Optional" essay....do it. Its more of an unwritten test of making sure an applicant will put in the extra effort).

The resume is there for them to look at. It is excellent to include additional ec's (6 slots may not be enough, I am not sure of your situation) as well as any event, achievement, award, accolade, experience, etc. that you could not include elsewhere. The resume is not for expounding on an essay you wrote in order to dodge the word count, but rather listing odds and ends and tying it all together for a complete package.


THAT is what the board wants to see.


--DS of account holder, USNA Class of 2020 appointment holder
UNderstood, I just feel I can better express my leadership/awards/extracurriculars and what not in the resume...which I did. Thanks for the guidance
 
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