Struggling with athletics participation

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class_of_2020

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Hey all,

USMA Class of 2024 applicant here. I’ve been looking at the WCS scores and percent composition of the application, and I saw that athletics is worth 10%. I am a physically fit person and expect to do well on the CFA, since I’ve looked at the average and maximum scores. However, my official athletics participation in high school has been severely lacking. I’m a varsity member of drill team and I play intramural soccer, but these are the only *organized* sports I’m in.
I feel that the academics and leadership portions of my application are strong; I scored a 33 on the ACT, have a 3.9 GPA, am in the top fifth of my class of 609 students, and will have taken 7 AP classes by the time I graduate high school. I attended Girls State, am a member of NHS, am a squad leader and state qualifier on the Debate Team, and am the Group Commander of my school’s JROTC unit. Will my lack of athletic participation ruin me, or do I still have a chance if I do well on the CFA?
 
I’ve been admitted to the class of 2023 and only played 1 sport (a team sport) for my entire high school career. However I must add that I played varsity all 4 years, captain for 3, and also played club with some accolades there also. I did well on my cfa and tried my best to kill the other parts of the application. Hope this helps!
 
Where did you see that athletic participation is only worth 10%? Unless USMA changed it, your leadership potential sub score is computed based on participation in varsity athletics and non-athletic leadership activities (Eagle Scout, etc) while in high school.

Did you do anything such as martial arts? Or non school related athletic activities? (Club soccer, gymnastics, club swimming?)
 
My high school did not offer sports as we were completely focused on academics. I played on a community fast pitch softball team from 8th-10th grade. I was still accepted (ultimately turned down my acceptance due to family emergency). They just want a well rounded person.
 
Historical stats from all of the academies typically show that ~90% of those appointed participated in some h.s. varsity sport. Therefore, ~10% did not and still got an appointment, so it is possible. HOWEVER, physical fitness is a BIG part of what is expected of everyone attending an SA. Passing the CFA is only the beginning of that process. LOTS of older threads about the perceived value of being involved in physically demanding h.s. team sports, so no need to restate all of that here. (Drill team is considered an extracurricular NOT a sport by the SA's.)
 
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GoArmyBeatNavy said:
Where did you see that athletic participation is only worth 10%? Unless USMA changed it, your leadership potential sub score is computed based on participation in varsity athletics and non-athletic leadership activities (Eagle Scout, etc) while in high school.

Did you do anything such as martial arts? Or non school related athletic activities? (Club soccer, gymnastics, club swimming?)
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just read a thread that linked a study stating that the leadership subscore, worth 30% of the application, is made up of three aspects: athletic leadership, extracurricular leadership, and the recommendations of your teachers. each of those sections is weighted equally, each making up 10% of the total score. relevant study info included below.
 

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time2 said:
Historical stats from all of the academies typically show that ~90% of those appointed participated in some h.s. varsity sport. Therefore, ~10% did not and still got an appointment, so it is possible. HOWEVER, physical fitness is a BIG part of what is expected of everyone attending an SA. Passing the CFA is only the beginning of that process. LOTS of older threads about the perceived value of being involved in physically demanding h.s. team sports, so no need to restate all of that here. (Drill team is considered an extracurricular NOT a sport by the SA's.)
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I am personally involved in physical fitness and understand the athletics requirements once at the Academy. I’m just worried that my lack of team participation will disqualify me, not my lack of physical fitness.

It’s good to know that drill is not considered a sport, thank you for the info.
 
FutureSoldier96 said:
My high school did not offer sports as we were completely focused on academics. I played on a community fast pitch softball team from 8th-10th grade. I was still accepted (ultimately turned down my acceptance due to family emergency). They just want a well rounded person.
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this is good to know, thank you!
 
My question is why not do a sport your senior year? It would help prepare you mentally and physically for the rigors of military life and then helps negate your worry about non participation.

Obviously, it would be very unlikely to start or be extremely competitive but as someone who ran cross country my senior year I found it helpful not just in applications but useful throughout a career.
 
emwvmi01 said:
My question is why not do a sport your senior year? It would help prepare you mentally and physically for the rigors of military life and then helps negate your worry about non participation.

Obviously, it would be very unlikely to start or be extremely competitive but as someone who ran cross country my senior year I found it helpful not just in applications but useful throughout a career.
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I am planning on doing cross country this coming fall, but I had assumed that it wouldn’t be enough to be a factor; is this not true? Is there genuine admissions benefit from playing a sport in senior year only? (I’ll play regardless, just wondering if my assumptions were wrong.)
 
Playing a varsity sport only senior year is not likely to hold much sway with admissions. It’s “too little, too late” at that point. But that shouldn’t sway you from doing it anyway if you’ll benefit in some way. For example, DD picked up cross country her senior year — atop two other varsity sports — because it would prep her for all the running that happens at SAs. It was a smart decision.

As noted above, 10% of appointees typically don’t have varsity experience. Some of them did sports not available on a varsity basis, e.g. martial arts. But they did enough to show that they picked up the attributes of teamwork, leadership, perseverance, discipline and resilience that are usually associated with high-level athletics. As for actual fitness level, that’s measured more by the CFA than by varsity participation.
 
class_of_2020 said:
FutureSoldier96 said:
My high school did not offer sports as we were completely focused on academics. I played on a community fast pitch softball team from 8th-10th grade. I was still accepted (ultimately turned down my acceptance due to family emergency). They just want a well rounded person.
Click to expand...
this is good to know, thank you!
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Mind you, the community team only allowed you to play until you were 16 years old and since my school did not offer sports, I just went hard on everything else. I graduated high school with my associates (4.0 for both) and was part of the NHS, Prom Committee, Performing Arts Club, Young Marines, and I was CPT of my Boy Scout post. (The Boy Scout thing confused the f out of them since I am female but it was fun.) When it came down to letters of rec, I just had my teacher (who was actually my softball coach in the years prior) note that we didn't have sports.
 
class_of_2020 said:
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...each of those sections is weighted equally, each making up 10% of the total score. relevant study info included below.
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Thank you. The links were broken, though.

It has been a few years since I worked with admissions, but the School Official Evaluations didn’t used to input into the WCS. They are subjectively evaluated by the RC and Faculty evaluators.

Reminder, those 10% that are admitted without athletic performance could come from very rare situations.

Playing a sport in the fall your senior year will give you points into the algorithm for leadership if it is included on your candidate activities record and verified by your school. Without documented athletic participation, you could be deemed a leadership “risk.”

Good luck
 
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