USAFA competitiveness!!

Jett22

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
27
Hello
I live in northern florida and I'm now a senior in High School. I have a good SAT score of 1360. 670 on reading and 690 on math. These are both above the previous class' average. I also have a strong CFA. I am a two time state qualifier for track & field in the 400m. My father is a retired O-6 in the Navy. He was a previous carrier pilot. Also, my brother just graduated USAFA in 2018 as a distinguished graduate. He was ranked 38 in his class.
I was accepted into Summer Seminar and attended. My GPA is lower because of the combativeness of my school but it is not extremely low. I am also an African-American. How competitive do you think I am?
All responses help
Thank you
 
@Jett22, it’s hard for anyone here to rate your competitiveness because we can’t see your whole package and, equally important, that of your competition. But some thoughts:

— Its good that your SAT is above average. Even better is if you can get into the top 25% (see the class profile), since you allude to less-than-stellar GPA. Class rank and class rigor are bigger factors than GPA, though.

— The SAs aren’t as pro-legacy as many would expect. It certainly can work in your favor that your father and brother have strong records — very impressive, in fact — but I wouldn’t bank on it too much.

— Summer Seminar doesn’t add much, if anything, to your candidacy because acceptance is only partly merit-based.

— One great advantage you have is your deep exposure to the military, via father and brother. So you have great understanding of what leadership is, what military life is like, and what’s expected at an SA. This should make you much more convincing than most when it comes to essays and interviews. Leverage that well.

Best wishes to you.
 
@Jett22, it’s hard for anyone here to rate your competitiveness because we can’t see your whole package and, equally important, that of your competition. But some thoughts:

— Its good that your SAT is above average. Even better is if you can get into the top 25% (see the class profile), since you allude to less-than-stellar GPA. Class rank and class rigor are bigger factors than GPA, though.

— The SAs aren’t as pro-legacy as many would expect. It certainly can work in your favor that your father and brother have strong records — very impressive, in fact — but I wouldn’t bank on it too much.

— Summer Seminar doesn’t add much, if anything, to your candidacy because acceptance is only partly merit-based.

— One great advantage you have is your deep exposure to the military, via father and brother. So you have great understanding of what leadership is, what military life is like, and what’s expected at an SA. This should make you much more convincing than most when it comes to essays and interviews. Leverage that well.

Best wishes to you.

Thank you so much!!
 
One great advantage you have is your deep exposure to the military, via father and brother. So you have great understanding of what leadership is, what military life is like, and what’s expected at an SA. This should make you much more convincing than most when it comes to essays and interviews. Leverage that well.
How? The leverage part.
 
How? The leverage part.

By being exposed to military life (father) and academy life (brother), @Jett22 knows more than most about what’s expected of officers and cadets. Hence, I’d expect that he/she can talk about his/her intentions, ambitions, leadership experience, etc., through that lens when answering essay and interview questions. It’s nothing more than taking the knowledge he/she has and using it to inform his/her statements.
 
Legacy at an SA is not the same as legacy at a traditional college.
Look at the WCS, nowhere are you given points for being a legacy.

The only I time I would say legacy helps is if they are the child or grandchild of a biggie from an MoC aspect. IE:
~ Robin Olds
~ General Goldfein (Fingers or his brother Goldie)
~ A star on their shoulder
~ Network ability within the MoC world ---must know them personally.

FWIW, my DS was an AF brat of an O5. He got all 3 MoC noms. That being said, I believe it was his resume and interviews that got him the MoC noms., not that he was an AF brat that followed Dad around the world.

Finally, remember 2 things.
~ Your brother was selected in 2013 for the class of 18. Nobody knows what the profile or the class size of 23 will look like.
~~ He could have been charged to the Presidential, which is national, and now this yr for you there are 150 more candidates on that slate. Or he could have been charged to the MoC and they too could have had less applicants. This is on top of you don't know if USAFA will still only appoint 1300+/- candidates. Maybe they will go down to 1200 or up to 1500.
~ Apply for the AFROTC scholarship.
~ ~ You need a plan B in place for many reasons.
 
How? The leverage part.

By being exposed to military life (father) and academy life (brother), @Jett22 knows more than most about what’s expected of officers and cadets. Hence, I’d expect that he/she can talk about his/her intentions, ambitions, leadership experience, etc., through that lens when answering essay and interview questions. It’s nothing more than taking the knowledge he/she has and using it to inform his/her statements.


@Pima , any comment on what @MidCakePa said? If anyone else, that'd be nice.
 
How? The leverage part.

By being exposed to military life (father) and academy life (brother), @Jett22 knows more than most about what’s expected of officers and cadets. Hence, I’d expect that he/she can talk about his/her intentions, ambitions, leadership experience, etc., through that lens when answering essay and interview questions. It’s nothing more than taking the knowledge he/she has and using it to inform his/her statements.

I would add one more thing. A military brat understands the sacrifices their family will endure while they are AD.

At my DH's retirement he quoted me. I always told him that the AF was his wife, I was his mistress.
If the AF said Move, we moved. If the AF said you will miss Xmas, birthdays, holidays due to deployments, oh well. She always won, because she (AF) ruled our life.
~ Please understand, I loved being an AF wife. I loved our AF life, but I knew all the time he served, she would come 1st when it came to our life. I was proud of him, and what he was doing for our country. I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN

That being said, I knew what I was walking into when I said, I DO, my kids were born into that life. They had no choice. Dad got new orders, we moved. Dad was deployed for your 1st Holy Communion, sorry! Yet, my kids did not sign up for this life like he and I did. They were born into it!
~ DH missed every Halloween from the time my youngest was 4 mos old until he was 7. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the amount of birthdays he missed. Don't even get me on how many times he took the jets to safety and left us back home to ride out the hurricanes, which are now funny memories!

What DH saw in the end was that the true HEROES of the military are the children. They move every few yrs (my kids went to no less than 11 schools in 8 different school districts, and 5 different states) all because the AF said to their Dad you will move now. The fact that you want to serve and understand how it impacts even your parents when you go AD, is something you can discuss during your ALO or MoC interview.
~ You get from your lifestyle what Service before Self means, at least if you were my kids you got it when you were told as a freshmen in HS that you were moving to another state, and you have to start all over again. How about when your pet died and they were deployed for months? Or sitting at your Thanksgiving table without them?

It is not leverage per se, but it is something that non-military kids cannot relate to like you can. Not saying their lives are a breeze. Just saying, you understand a little bit more of how the military impacts everyone in your family when it comes to the person that takes the oath.
 
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