His biggest strength is academics. Full schedule each year (8 classes here), 4 AP's (5 on each exam), 35 ACT, he took 2 college classes last year (Calc 2 & 3) and is taking 2 more this year including more math and Organic Chemistry. 3rd in a class of 420ish. NHS.
Sports - he's played soccer each year, varsity last year, and travel soccer each year, but he's not recruited or anything. He has lots of activities - probably biggest is volunteer hours, and was a class officer, club president, prom committee, etc. Basically a good, solid profile but nothing that jumps out.
He did go to NASS this summer and had an awesome experience there and had a great squad and squad leader. I don't know if that had any impact. (I know they were evaluated). His CFA was also solid but not awesome - 71 BB, 10 pullups, 8.4 shuttle run, 95 situps, 50 pushups, 6:18 mile.
He thought his B&G interview went really well and he really pushed him to get everything in early because he thought he had a chance of getting an LOA with his strong academics. I personally felt he should have a reasonable chance of an appointment eventually, but wasn't expecting anything this early! Oh, and he's also not a minority which makes me even more surprised after reading some of the other threads on this forum!
I really think a lot of it came down to them knowing he wanted AF more. And of course having motivated people going to bat on his behalf. Seems like a lot of people on the boards haven't even gotten their B&G officer to return their first phone call/email yet. Or gotten their regional directors to reply to their questions. When his principal had a problem on a form, my son asked his B&G officer, and had two replies from two different officers at USNA the following morning with help. And evidently they presented his application to the Dean (that's what they told him) which led to the LOA. I've also read (just on these boards) that Navy emphasizes academics the most, which also makes sense for him. He wants to major in chemical or aeronautical engineering and I know they're looking for that.
Finally, his dad and I are West Point grads so maybe they're just trying to put one over on the Army!
(And yes, they did ask him why not WP when they called him - he's obviously going to get that question every time from every person!).
And he's been working on nomination stuff non-stop. Just needs to get everyone to give him his letters of recommendation. We're optimistic about that since at least we're not in a super-competitive area. Not cocky, but feeling a whole lot better than if we were in Texas or NY or something! Last year our congressional district had 17 kids trying for the 10 slots for Navy, so I'm hoping if it's similar this year, that he should make the top 50%, especially if he can list the LOA!