ParachutePanda
USNA Class of 2026
- Joined
- May 5, 2021
- Messages
- 306
Hello All-
I recently received an LOA and fulfilled the needed requirements and am hopeful for an appointment. I’ve received a few questions regarding my LOA from other candidates I've recently met. Here's some advice to applicants of future classes to any service academy. Take everything here with a grain of salt, this is just what I found going through the process. I have it broken into sections, so feel free to read the bolded titles and decide what you want to read
If you’re an underclassman
Start prepping now! Take those hard classes, join clubs, get leadership positions, and join some sort of sport. You can easily start working on pushups, situps, pullups (even if you’re a girl, you can do them!), and your mile run. If you start now, you’ll easily be able to crush your CFA! Definitely apply for Summer Seminar if you’re a junior. I recommend applying to all of them regardless of what academy is your #1 because you don't necessarily know what academy you will end up attending and your goal is probably to serve the United States military. Also, take your standardized tests now and take them often. I used some prep books, this one helped a lot: https://www.amazon.com/ACT-Prep-Black-Book-Strategies/dp/0692027912
Make sure you find what test you like the best and study super hard. Make yourself a schedule, study when you say you’re going to study, it’ll pay off! Also, make sure to take some time to actually be a teenager. Don’t do anything stupid of course, but hang out with friends. Life isn’t prepping for a service academy 24/7.
DoDmerb
Don’t panic about this. Just answer the questionnaire honestly and show up to all of your appointments. Make sure to look at the FAQ page as that has a lot of answers to basic questions that people ask. The DoDmerb Forum is super helpful, Mr. Mullens is the best! Please make sure you do research first before you ask a question as someone else may have already asked that question.
Currently applying
The first thing is to make sure to start asking your teachers to be ready to receive an email from whatever academy, regarding the teacher evaluations. One thing that I did was I emailed them each time I knew they were sent something. I also politely bothered them when they weren’t promptly turning them in. One teacher took almost 2 months to turn one in… Even if that does happen, don’t panic. And don’t feel bad when you’re bothering them, remember this is YOUR future! Just do it politely and respect their time. Make sure to also look at the other posts on each academy's respective forum as there is some great advice from other posters.
Make sure to keep a list of all deadlines, this includes your own personal deadlines (i.e. when you want to have your CFA done, when essays should be done, etc.). Speaking of CFA, take it when you know you can pass with flying colors. Your goal should be to max out every event or hit above average. I know each academy posts their averages and maxes, so make sure to research that. If you’re a girl, I highly recommend doing at least one pullup. If you don’t already have one, install a pull-up bar in your room (they have ones that are removable and fit on your door frame). Amazon has them (this one has good reviews and is similar to mine). Whenever I got frustrated, I just tried to do a pull-up with my body weight. Eventually, I got one and then two and on the test, I went all out and did 4. Another thing that helped me was form videos. Stew Smith and Mountain Tactical Institute are great for everything from pull-ups to shuttle run. This post on the West Point forum helped me try and visualize what I had to do along with the help from the videos. My tip for sit-ups is to use your legs! If you can use your quads, you can gain momentum quite easily and then slowly use your core. My parents would do a mock CFA with me every Saturday so I got used to the timing and to know what it feels like to run through an entire CFA. I HIGHLY (HIGHLY) recommend doing this! I think I saw someone suggest this on the forum, absolutely amazing advice. It gives you some sort of starting point and you can go from there. One thing I really regret was not running earlier and often. I could’ve used my summertime to get my mile time down even more, but I figured it was easy until I did my first mock CFA. If you have not started, start to build endurance for long runs and for sprints. Maybe jog a mile and then run the next mile as fast as you can and then jog another mile. Finally, make sure to eat healthy! Don’t starve yourself either. I used a calorie tracker (myfitnesspal-it’s free!) to track my macros and how much I was eating. This can help you lose some fat (while maintaining muscle) which makes you run faster and helps with momentum for sit-ups and pushups.
For nominations, don’t stress too much, just be prepared and dress nicely (i.e. professional or JROTC uniform). Make sure to turn everything in early and double-check with your MOC to make sure they received your packet. Apply to every nomination source you can; the more you can get, the better! It’s great to practice interview questions, but don’t stress. My goal was to go in and make the panel laugh, which I did, (which relaxed me as well) and I ended up receiving a nom to each academy from my MOC. If an ALO, FFR, or BGO offers some sort of mock interview with graduates from that academy, go regardless of if that academy is your first choice. That experience is invaluable and you could get some phenomenal feedback and work from there. My mom also walked me into the congressman's office which I was super grateful for because I was already nervous as it was, so seeing a friendly face before and after really helped lift my spirits.
Make sure you get as high as you can on the ACT/SAT, double down on your studying. I took the ACT 4 times before I got the score I liked, so don’t get discouraged. Like I said, get some sort of prep book if you think your way isn’t working. If you don’t want to spend the money, Khan Academy has free SAT practice tests (up to 10?) that come right from College Board (plus it includes walkthroughs and tutorials for every section and even more practice questions). Your school might even have some prep books that you can check out for free to help you study.
I think the hardest part is the waiting. Waiting for nomination results to come out, waiting for decisions to be made, etc. I didn’t realize how busy I was until I turned everything in and was just sitting there waiting. If you get the chance to attend a Candidate Visit Week for any Service Academy, please do! I know myself, and others can speak to the amazing experiences we’ve had with any cadet/midshipman at any academy.
Thanks to everyone who’s answered any and all of my questions and messages, it’s really appreciated! Feel free to message me at any time, I will try to respond ASAP and help you. This forum has been such an amazing tool for me and I hope you all can benefit from the advice that others give too! I wish you all the best of luck!
I recently received an LOA and fulfilled the needed requirements and am hopeful for an appointment. I’ve received a few questions regarding my LOA from other candidates I've recently met. Here's some advice to applicants of future classes to any service academy. Take everything here with a grain of salt, this is just what I found going through the process. I have it broken into sections, so feel free to read the bolded titles and decide what you want to read
If you’re an underclassman
Start prepping now! Take those hard classes, join clubs, get leadership positions, and join some sort of sport. You can easily start working on pushups, situps, pullups (even if you’re a girl, you can do them!), and your mile run. If you start now, you’ll easily be able to crush your CFA! Definitely apply for Summer Seminar if you’re a junior. I recommend applying to all of them regardless of what academy is your #1 because you don't necessarily know what academy you will end up attending and your goal is probably to serve the United States military. Also, take your standardized tests now and take them often. I used some prep books, this one helped a lot: https://www.amazon.com/ACT-Prep-Black-Book-Strategies/dp/0692027912
Make sure you find what test you like the best and study super hard. Make yourself a schedule, study when you say you’re going to study, it’ll pay off! Also, make sure to take some time to actually be a teenager. Don’t do anything stupid of course, but hang out with friends. Life isn’t prepping for a service academy 24/7.
DoDmerb
Don’t panic about this. Just answer the questionnaire honestly and show up to all of your appointments. Make sure to look at the FAQ page as that has a lot of answers to basic questions that people ask. The DoDmerb Forum is super helpful, Mr. Mullens is the best! Please make sure you do research first before you ask a question as someone else may have already asked that question.
Currently applying
The first thing is to make sure to start asking your teachers to be ready to receive an email from whatever academy, regarding the teacher evaluations. One thing that I did was I emailed them each time I knew they were sent something. I also politely bothered them when they weren’t promptly turning them in. One teacher took almost 2 months to turn one in… Even if that does happen, don’t panic. And don’t feel bad when you’re bothering them, remember this is YOUR future! Just do it politely and respect their time. Make sure to also look at the other posts on each academy's respective forum as there is some great advice from other posters.
Make sure to keep a list of all deadlines, this includes your own personal deadlines (i.e. when you want to have your CFA done, when essays should be done, etc.). Speaking of CFA, take it when you know you can pass with flying colors. Your goal should be to max out every event or hit above average. I know each academy posts their averages and maxes, so make sure to research that. If you’re a girl, I highly recommend doing at least one pullup. If you don’t already have one, install a pull-up bar in your room (they have ones that are removable and fit on your door frame). Amazon has them (this one has good reviews and is similar to mine). Whenever I got frustrated, I just tried to do a pull-up with my body weight. Eventually, I got one and then two and on the test, I went all out and did 4. Another thing that helped me was form videos. Stew Smith and Mountain Tactical Institute are great for everything from pull-ups to shuttle run. This post on the West Point forum helped me try and visualize what I had to do along with the help from the videos. My tip for sit-ups is to use your legs! If you can use your quads, you can gain momentum quite easily and then slowly use your core. My parents would do a mock CFA with me every Saturday so I got used to the timing and to know what it feels like to run through an entire CFA. I HIGHLY (HIGHLY) recommend doing this! I think I saw someone suggest this on the forum, absolutely amazing advice. It gives you some sort of starting point and you can go from there. One thing I really regret was not running earlier and often. I could’ve used my summertime to get my mile time down even more, but I figured it was easy until I did my first mock CFA. If you have not started, start to build endurance for long runs and for sprints. Maybe jog a mile and then run the next mile as fast as you can and then jog another mile. Finally, make sure to eat healthy! Don’t starve yourself either. I used a calorie tracker (myfitnesspal-it’s free!) to track my macros and how much I was eating. This can help you lose some fat (while maintaining muscle) which makes you run faster and helps with momentum for sit-ups and pushups.
For nominations, don’t stress too much, just be prepared and dress nicely (i.e. professional or JROTC uniform). Make sure to turn everything in early and double-check with your MOC to make sure they received your packet. Apply to every nomination source you can; the more you can get, the better! It’s great to practice interview questions, but don’t stress. My goal was to go in and make the panel laugh, which I did, (which relaxed me as well) and I ended up receiving a nom to each academy from my MOC. If an ALO, FFR, or BGO offers some sort of mock interview with graduates from that academy, go regardless of if that academy is your first choice. That experience is invaluable and you could get some phenomenal feedback and work from there. My mom also walked me into the congressman's office which I was super grateful for because I was already nervous as it was, so seeing a friendly face before and after really helped lift my spirits.
Make sure you get as high as you can on the ACT/SAT, double down on your studying. I took the ACT 4 times before I got the score I liked, so don’t get discouraged. Like I said, get some sort of prep book if you think your way isn’t working. If you don’t want to spend the money, Khan Academy has free SAT practice tests (up to 10?) that come right from College Board (plus it includes walkthroughs and tutorials for every section and even more practice questions). Your school might even have some prep books that you can check out for free to help you study.
I think the hardest part is the waiting. Waiting for nomination results to come out, waiting for decisions to be made, etc. I didn’t realize how busy I was until I turned everything in and was just sitting there waiting. If you get the chance to attend a Candidate Visit Week for any Service Academy, please do! I know myself, and others can speak to the amazing experiences we’ve had with any cadet/midshipman at any academy.
Thanks to everyone who’s answered any and all of my questions and messages, it’s really appreciated! Feel free to message me at any time, I will try to respond ASAP and help you. This forum has been such an amazing tool for me and I hope you all can benefit from the advice that others give too! I wish you all the best of luck!
