Classes for my Senior Year

Hello,
I am a junior in high school and am applying to the service academies this year. I just got my class schedule and received lasses such as calculus and economics, as well as public speaking as an elective and one and I got one of the hardest APs my school offers, which is AP Physics C Mechanics. But that is my only AP and the rest are just honors classes. I didn't get into AP Calculus because I had lower grades in freshman year and that hurt my chances of being competitive for a seat. My school is actually known as a college preparatory school, so the classes are rigorous either way. All of my classes in high school have been honors (including precalculus, which I have a 100/A+ in + teachers recommendation, and physics, which I finished with a 95 and a teacher's recommendation) and the only AP classes I have taken are world history (4 on the AP test) and us history (just took). Am I over reacting? I just applied for the things that would get me more towards an engineering degree at USMA, instead of using my time at school for something like AP Psychology which wouldn't get me too far in a engineering orientated service academy.

I also have a 700/800 reading, 740/800 math SAT, if that really matters.

Senior Schedule:
Honors Calculus
Honors Economics
AP Physics C - Mechanics
Honors Public Speaking
Career And Financial Management

Hi, IMHO, your academics seem to be fine, and your SAT is solid. Going to need the writing portion of it, so you will retake at some point anyway. USMA superscores, so a few extra points won't hurt. What does the rest of your resume look like? Extracurriculars, community involvement, leadership, sports etc? These are very important to your WCS which is what you really want to make as competitive as possible.

Goat 965 said:

Hi, IMHO, your academics seem to be fine, and your SAT is solid. Going to need the writing portion of it, so you will retake at some point anyway. USMA superscores, so a few extra points won't hurt. What does the rest of your resume look like? Extracurriculars, community involvement, leadership, sports etc? These are very important to your WCS which is what you really want to make as competitive as possible.

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straight A's in junior year
NOTE: I did bad in the beginning of high school but there has been a massive upward trend on my transcript. hence awesome sat scores but relatively ok GPA (3.61 Unweighted, weighted 3.8)
740 math 700 reading SAT
-Attending NY Boys State this summer
-Fluent arabic speaking conversationally, can read as well
Math three years honors, 100% in pre-calculus unweighted junior year
Science three years honors, bio, Chemistry, physics, forensic science
History - AP USH, AP world, Regents U.S. History honors
English 3 years honors
-Student Organization/government officer (elected senior historian)
-Air Force Civil Air Patrol (will be NCO in July)
-New York city group cadet advisory council unit representative
-National Honor Society member
-EAA and Air Force Association Member
-Library Volunteer of the Month, CAP cadet of the month
-Over three years of Tae Kwon Do (black belt to be earned in September) - right now I am a senior student
-1 year varsity wrestling, 1 year track fielder (junior year - present)
- Tech Cafe shift manager for 1 year, president right now (cafe that donates its proceeds to charity)
-newspaper editor 1 year
-Future Business leaders club 1 year
-over 100 hours of community service
-had three jobs, currently hold one during school year 13 hours a week
-AUTOCAD certified

Your academics are just fine. Where you didn't get an AP course, you made the attempt. You've done your best. Let worrying about the academics go. BTW - despite what @Goat 965 said, your SAT isn't solid... it's perfect! How do you improve upon an 800/800 super score? Like I said, quit worrying about the academics. The only thing you can control academically at this point is to get good grades. Will you be continuing wrestling and track this year? That would help, otherwise you look like a strong candidate.

Practice for the CFA !!! You have all summer to do pushups, pullups, and situps plus a mile+ run every day.
And practice the basketball throw.

kinnem said:

Your academics are just fine. Where you didn't get an AP course, you made the attempt. You've done your best. Let worrying about the academics go. BTW - despite what @Goat 965 said, your SAT isn't solid... it's perfect! How do you improve upon an 800/800 super score? Like I said, quit worrying about the academics. The only thing you can control academically at this point is to get good grades. Will you be continuing wrestling and track this year? That would help, otherwise you look like a strong candidate.

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Thank you so much for your input. I actually left wrestling after doing it only during sophomore year because I hated it and had no passion to continue. I then did outdoor track in junior year (right now) and during next year when I am a senior, I plan on doing cross country, indoor and outdoor track [all varsity, school doesn't give varsity letters out] and get my black belt in tae kwon do in September.

MidwestDad said:

Practice for the CFA !!! You have all summer to do pushups, pullups, and situps plus a mile+ run every day.
And practice the basketball throw.

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Yeah, the only thing I am really worrying about is the mile and basketball throw. Summer will be fairly busy with a LOT of practice going into the CFA.

adamibrahim said:

Summer will be fairly busy with a LOT of practice going into the CFA.

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Practice the CFA in sequence.

Don't just practice one event. The CFA has a load factor that makes each subsequent event more challenging due to fatigue. If you practice the CFA in toto, you will be better prepared.

adamibrahim said:

MidwestDad said:

Practice for the CFA !!! You have all summer to do pushups, pullups, and situps plus a mile+ run every day.
And practice the basketball throw.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the only thing I am really worrying about is the mile and basketball throw. Summer will be fairly busy with a LOT of practice going into the CFA.

Click to expand...

The basketball throw requires technique, unlike everything else. Google CFA basketball throw. Or see here: http://mtntactical.com/exercises/service-academy-cfa-basketball-throw-technique/

adamibrahim said:

Hello,
I am a junior in high school and am applying to the service academies this year. I just got my class schedule and received lasses such as calculus and economics, as well t

Click to expand...

Plebes take a math test when they arrive at West Point. They were told that the test would help slot them into the faster or slower paced calc class. Since his high school refused to include his online calculus on his transcript, and USMA thus had no knowledge of his prior calculus, he was placed in the slower class; he further maintained that only plebes who took AP calculus testing were placed into the harder calc class, and the USMA summer test thus pointless. I posted all this here last summer, and received a drubbing from commentators who advised that USMA has "Jedi calculus" and "USMA knows best" and "you think you know better than USMA naughty naughty". Well, 9 months later, the kid tells me that the slower paced calculus was a 'waste of his time'. I'm still kicking myself for being influenced by the lock step crowd and not advising my plebe to petition for the advanced calc class.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the kid took online German in high school and breezed thru it wayyyyy too fast. So when he arrived at USMA, he passed out of first year German. Now, since he took the placement test, he could not just repeat first year German, but had to sign up for 2nd year German OR TAKE CHINESE. I assumed that his seemingly frivolous foray into online study had been sloppy, and he would be in trouble, but instead he did well in German. So, USMA slotted him correctly IN THIS CASE.

I WOULD THINK with your scores you should be in the higher level calc class, and to get there, you should take the AP standardized test, and that the actual AP calculus class is unnecessary. I assume this is feasible. Having been there, a one semester jump start in the engineering program, which is what the faster calc class will give you, has a domino effect on success on your first 2 years of engineering course work.

adamibrahim said:

Hello,
I am a junior in high school and am applying to the service academies this year. I just got my class schedule and received lasses such as calculus and economics, as well as public speaking as an elective and one and I got one of the hardest APs my school offers, which is AP Physics C Mechanics. But that is my only AP and the rest are just honors classes. I didn't get into AP Calculus because I had lower grades in freshman year and that hurt my chances of being competitive for a seat. My school is actually known as a college preparatory school, so the classes are rigorous either way. All of my classes in high school have been honors (including precalculus, which I have a 100/A+ in + teachers recommendation, and physics, which I finished with a 95 and a teacher's recommendation) and the only AP classes I have taken are world history (4 on the AP test) and us history (just took). Am I over reacting? I just applied for the things that would get me more towards an engineering degree at USMA, instead of using my time at school for something like AP Psychology which wouldn't get me too far in a engineering orientated service academy.

I also have a 700/800 reading, 740/800 math SAT, if that really matters.

Senior Schedule:
Honors Calculus
Honors Economics
AP Physics C - Mechanics
Honors Public Speaking
Career And Financial Management

Click to expand...

If you don't mind me asking, how much prep did you do for sat, I'm looking to improve my SAT score.

GenericUserName said:

adamibrahim said:

Hello,
I am a junior in high school and am applying to the service academies this year. I just got my class schedule and received lasses such as calculus and economics, as well as public speaking as an elective and one and I got one of the hardest APs my school offers, which is AP Physics C Mechanics. But that is my only AP and the rest are just honors classes. I didn't get into AP Calculus because I had lower grades in freshman year and that hurt my chances of being competitive for a seat. My school is actually known as a college preparatory school, so the classes are rigorous either way. All of my classes in high school have been honors (including precalculus, which I have a 100/A+ in + teachers recommendation, and physics, which I finished with a 95 and a teacher's recommendation) and the only AP classes I have taken are world history (4 on the AP test) and us history (just took). Am I over reacting? I just applied for the things that would get me more towards an engineering degree at USMA, instead of using my time at school for something like AP Psychology which wouldn't get me too far in a engineering orientated service academy.

I also have a 700/800 reading, 740/800 math SAT, if that really matters.

Senior Schedule:
Honors Calculus
Honors Economics
AP Physics C - Mechanics
Honors Public Speaking
Career And Financial Management

Click to expand...

If you don't mind me asking, how much prep did you do for sat, I'm looking to improve my SAT score.

Click to expand...

I took the test cold. Didn't study.