Am I on track for the U.S. Air Force Academy?

ajwilliams96

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Messages
47
Am I on track for acceptance to the U.S. Air Force Academy looking at my first two years of high school? Here is a list of things I have done in my freshman and sophomore years of high school:

Freshman Year

Academics

- Two Honors Courses (Chemistry Honors and Geometry Honors)
- Two Electives (Multimedia Design and Concert Band)
- Maximum Number of Credits
- Community Service Honors (50+ Community Service Hours)
- GPA - 2.957
- Chemistry Honors (usually taken by strong juniors at my school): C+
- Geometry Honors: C-
- World Civilizations: A-
- English I: B
- Spanish I: B-
- Multimedia Design: A
- Concert Band: A+ (counted as half of a course)

Extracurricular

- Elected Ninth Grade Class Council Officer
- Volunteer at the Children's Section of a local library
- Judge in the Elementary School Science Fair
- Performed in the School Spring Drama Production
- Member of a Church Youth Group
- Host at a School Open House
- Wrote and Acted for two different short plays in the Instant Drama Festival (less than 24 hours to write lines and less than 12 hours to learn lines)
- Member of the Chess Team
- Summer Volunteer at a hospital

Sophomore Year (so far)

Academics

- Two Honors Courses (Biology Honors and Algebra II Honors)
- One AP Course (World History AP)
- Two Electives (Computer Science and Concert Band)
- Maximum Number of Credits
- Community Service Honors (50+ Community Service Hours)
- GPA - ?
- Biology Honors: B+/B
- Algebra II Honors: B/B-
- World History AP: B/B-
- English II: B+
- Spanish II: B-
- Computer Science: A/B+
- Concert Band: A+ (counted as half of a course)
- PSAT - 184 (without prior preparation)
- PLAN - 22 (without prior preparation)

Extracurricular

- Elected Executive Council Secretary (Highest Student Council Position Available to a Sophomore; Planning to run for Executive Council Vice President next year)
- Elected Tenth Grade Class Council Officer (served until elected Executive Council Secretary)
- Member of the Cross Country team
- Member of the Swim team
- Member of the Tennis team
- Weekly Volunteer at the Children's Section of a local library
- Performed in the Fall and Spring Drama Productions
- Member of the Set Construction/Technical Crews for the Fall and Spring Drama Productions
- Member of a Church Youth Group
- Founding Member of a Junior State of America chapter (Appointed to the position of Chapter Secretary & Director of Debate for next year)
- Appointed to lead the chapter at the JSA Spring State Conference
- Model United Nations delegate
- Wrote and Acted for two different short plays in the Instant Drama Festival (less than 24 hours to write lines and less than 12 hours to learn lines)
- Staff Writer for the School Newspaper
- Staff Writer for the School Literary Magazine
- Member of the Community Service Board
- Member of the Future Business Leaders of America chapter
- Founding Officer of the 30 Hour Famine Chapter
- Member of the Chess Club
- Host at School Open Houses and School Orientation
- Vice President of the Sports Writing Club

Summer Plans

- Teen Leadership Summer Volunteer at a hospital
- Mission Trip in Nicaragua for one week during the summer
- (Hopefully) Attending the Junior State of America Northeast Institute on Leadership and National Security at Princeton University in the summer
- (Hopefully) Attending the National Student Leadership Conference in Law & Advocacy or Intelligence & National Security
- Attending the U.S. Naval Academy Swim Camp

My overall goal is to enter the U.S. Air Force as an Officer after graduation, serve for a few years, then transition to the U.S. Air Force Reserve or the Air National Guard and attend a top law school.

Thank you for your time.
 
After a quick look I would say you really need to focus a little less on all the extracurriculars and get your grades up if you want a serious shot at getting into USAFA. You can check the admissions home page, but if I am not mistaken then AVERAGE GPA of recent classes was around a 3.8.

Also, you should know you will have a 5 year commitment after graduating from USAFA and to be honest I don't think USAFA is the best way to go if you want to be a lawyer (unless you want to be a JAG).
 
That GPA definitely needs to come up, regardless of the difficulty of your h.s. curriculum. I'd also narrow down my list of EC activities in order to focus more on them. As far as sports go, you can be a 3-sport athlete, but personally I'd focus on one or two sports in particular and become really good at them (i.e. try and get to state or some other notable achievement). Check the requirements for getting your letter. If you had to drop one sport out of those 3 sophomore year, tennis should probably be the first to go since it demonstrates less physical ability than cross-country or swimming.

As far as your post-graduation plans, be certain you really want to become an officer and not just get your bachelors and move on to law school. You say you plan to "serve for a few years". Do you know the committment after graduation? Don't make any decision to attend an academy lightly.
 
pilot2b, I would just like to inform you that tennis is just as physical as swimming and cross country and is in some ways more physical because it requires a high level of coordination and is a full body workout (the 10s in my name is for tennis...) and I would recommend keeping the sport you are best at.
 
Swimming is great conditioning! DS best friend swam for four years before the club coach told him he had to choose between the sports. His swimming made him a better tennis player. The cardiovascular endurance of swimming really made it easier for him to concentrate on the fine details of tennis:shake:
 
Ajwilliams, you have now posted this EXACT SAME question on this forum 7 times in the PAST WEEK alone!!! You have received the same advice on ALL posts! The answer will NOT change regardless how many times you continue to post this. You need to spend less time on this forum posting the SAME question every other day and work on your grades or you will not be competitive for any SA or ROTC program!
 
Am I on track for acceptance to the U.S. Air Force Academy looking at my first two years of high school? Here is a list of things I have done in my freshman and sophomore years of high school:

Freshman Year

Academics

- Two Honors Courses (Chemistry Honors and Geometry Honors)
- Two Electives (Multimedia Design and Concert Band)
- Maximum Number of Credits
- Community Service Honors (50+ Community Service Hours)
- GPA - 2.957
- Chemistry Honors (usually taken by strong juniors at my school): C+
- Geometry Honors: C-
- World Civilizations: A-
- English I: B
- Spanish I: B-
- Multimedia Design: A
- Concert Band: A+ (counted as half of a course)

Extracurricular

- Elected Ninth Grade Class Council Officer
- Volunteer at the Children's Section of a local library
- Judge in the Elementary School Science Fair
- Performed in the School Spring Drama Production
- Member of a Church Youth Group
- Host at a School Open House
- Wrote and Acted for two different short plays in the Instant Drama Festival (less than 24 hours to write lines and less than 12 hours to learn lines)
- Member of the Chess Team
- Summer Volunteer at a hospital

Sophomore Year (so far)

Academics

- Two Honors Courses (Biology Honors and Algebra II Honors)
- One AP Course (World History AP)
- Two Electives (Computer Science and Concert Band)
- Maximum Number of Credits
- Community Service Honors (50+ Community Service Hours)
- GPA - ?
- Biology Honors: B+/B
- Algebra II Honors: B/B-
- World History AP: B/B-
- English II: B+
- Spanish II: B-
- Computer Science: A/B+
- Concert Band: A+ (counted as half of a course)
- PSAT - 184 (without prior preparation)
- PLAN - 22 (without prior preparation)

Extracurricular

- Elected Executive Council Secretary (Highest Student Council Position Available to a Sophomore; Planning to run for Executive Council Vice President next year)
- Elected Tenth Grade Class Council Officer (served until elected Executive Council Secretary)
- Member of the Cross Country team
- Member of the Swim team
- Member of the Tennis team
- Weekly Volunteer at the Children's Section of a local library
- Performed in the Fall and Spring Drama Productions
- Member of the Set Construction/Technical Crews for the Fall and Spring Drama Productions
- Member of a Church Youth Group
- Founding Member of a Junior State of America chapter (Appointed to the position of Chapter Secretary & Director of Debate for next year)
- Appointed to lead the chapter at the JSA Spring State Conference
- Model United Nations delegate
- Wrote and Acted for two different short plays in the Instant Drama Festival (less than 24 hours to write lines and less than 12 hours to learn lines)
- Staff Writer for the School Newspaper
- Staff Writer for the School Literary Magazine
- Member of the Community Service Board
- Member of the Future Business Leaders of America chapter
- Founding Officer of the 30 Hour Famine Chapter
- Member of the Chess Club
- Host at School Open Houses and School Orientation
- Vice President of the Sports Writing Club

Summer Plans

- Teen Leadership Summer Volunteer at a hospital
- Mission Trip in Nicaragua for one week during the summer
- (Hopefully) Attending the Junior State of America Northeast Institute on Leadership and National Security at Princeton University in the summer
- (Hopefully) Attending the National Student Leadership Conference in Law & Advocacy or Intelligence & National Security
- Attending the U.S. Naval Academy Swim Camp

My overall goal is to enter the U.S. Air Force as an Officer after graduation, serve for a few years, then transition to the U.S. Air Force Reserve or the Air National Guard and attend a top law school.

Thank you for your time.
AJ,

the average GPA for academy selectees is better than 3.8. You will have to get straight A's the rest of your high school career to even come close. You should know how to do the math on this yourself, as a Sophomore. Starting out with less than a 3.0 for your Freshman year is bad, very bad, and it looks like so far you are not doing much better this year. Not trying to rain on your parade (Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something you really want to do.) but seriously, you need to get straight A's from here on out to even have a prayer of getting selected at any of the Service Academies. Recommend you spend a lot less time researching this type of thing on the internet and a LOT more time on your studies, especially Math and Science. B's don't cut it, not by a long shot. The people you are going to be competing with have all the extra curricular stuff you have AND they have a 4.0 or better average AND they are captains of their teams, etc. etc.
 
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