I didn't have a particularly good relationship with my junior year teacher - partially my fault, but I digress. I used my sophomore year English teacher for my SOE because I knew him better and had no issues! (Also no one ever really asked about it? I just did what made sense for me.)
Speaking from my experience (as an accepted cadet candidate for 2024) it is far more important your son finds challenging leadership and growth opportunities. I actually didn't realize AP Chem or Physics was a requirement until partway through my junior year and had to scramble and take AP Chem...
This is something that his heavily debated throughout the form. From what I can gather from the Far West Region (I'm in California) they do matter. Myself and the past 3 other peopled who have received appointments in my district have had LOEs. Furthermore, I have two friends appointed from...
I was in the first wave and my 7th-semester transcript was submitted on January 28th. My nomination was also submitted around January 15th. I genuinely wasn't expecting to hear so early, but it is clear to me now that they are always reviewing files.
Some users (including myself) added ourselves to the list before the forum page updated with new posts. This meant there were multiple lists, some of which didn't include all the names. The most recent one looks accurate to my knowledge.
I would recommend picking Boys State any of those summer programs. From speaking with one of my local representatives, Boys State adds 200 raw points to your WCS (for USMA in specific). Purely from a numbers aspect, that is going to be far more beneficial than SLE. Hopefully, you are selected...