Am I Ready?

PyroSweets

PyroSweets

C/O 2026
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
31
Hi! I'm looking to attend the USAFA or USMA class of 2026, as I'm a Junior in high school right now. I've been working on my portfolio since the beginning of my Freshman year, but I'm not sure if it's enough.

GPA (Unweighted): 3.846
GPA (Weighted): 4.29
Class Rank (Unweighted): 40 of 445
Class Rank (Weighted): 30 of 445
ACT Composite: 32
AP classes taken (currently taking last 3):
  • AP Human Geography
  • AP Biology
  • AP World History
  • AP Calculus BC
  • AP Physics 1
  • AP English Language and Composition
Honors classes taken:
  • Algebra 2 Honors
  • English 9 Honors
  • English 10 Honors
  • Chemistry Honors
Concurrent Enrollment classes taken (through Colorado's CCA, currently taking last one):
  • Computer Aided Design 256
  • Engineering Drawing and Design (CAD 257)
  • College Trigonometry
  • US History 101
  • US History 102
Extracurriculars and Electives
  • Spanish 2 and 3 class in grade 9,10
  • Piano class in grade 9,10
  • Jazz band class in grade 11
  • Individual and Team sports classes in grade 9,10
  • Weight training classes in grade 11
  • Architectural drawing class in grade 11
  • Speech and Debate club in grades 9,10,11
  • Chess Club in grades 9,10,11 (President in grade 11)
  • Mu Alpha Theta in grades 10,11 (President in grade 11)
  • National Honor Society in grades 10,11
  • FCCLA Officer in grade 11
  • Students Organized Against Racism in grade 11

Sorry for the large amount of info, but I didn't want to leave a single item off the list in case if it helps. I'm also working on getting the gold Presidential Medal of Volunteerism (250+ hours in one year), and I've been nominated by my school to be their one student to receive the Carson Scholarship. In terms of the fitness aspect, however, I've never been in organized sports and have only taken the gym classes listed above (I'm also working on reducing my weight by 15 pounds in order to be eligible). Other than that, that's where I'm at right now in the process. Am I a desirable candidate for the USAFA or USMA?
 
The short answer to your question is no. I don't mean to be rude, but to be qualified, you have to pass the CFA. If you don't, you will be disqualified. There are several candidates on this forum that have been disqualified for not passing the CFA. A good family friend who is dying to attend USAFA is also not qualified. I would hate to see that happen to you. You have a great resume. You need to be able to take all your experiences and be able to translate them into good essays and good interview stories. I have a feeling you won't have a problem with that! Hopefully, you will take the ACT/SAT again and improve your score. The ACT of 32 is solid though!

My recommendation is for you since you aren't in organized sports is to practice the CFA 3 times/week (at least) through June. Honestly, that's less than 2 hours per week. If you can be that disciplined for 5-6 months, the CFA should not be a factor.

This is coming from someone who was near his maximum weight my whole AF career (although running, sit-ups, and push-ups were no problem for me). You have prepared yourself well in every other area. Please focus on this as well. I'd love to hear your progress. Best of luck!
 
You are a strong academic candidate - but as others have pointed out, without organized sports and leadership roles, you'll need to explain how you are a leader some other way. Read this sticky by Christcorp - it does a good job of explaining why the Academy cares so much about sports. You'll need a good alternative if you don't have any.

Sports, and your academy application

This isn't in response to any particular thread of poster. I'm simply writing it in the hopes that any new people will find it when, or if they do a search on the topic. It seems that in recent years, more and more applicants are asking questions about sports, or rather the lack of sports, in...
www.serviceacademyforums.com
 
Personally, I would recommend a few things to boost your application: achievements, leadership, service, sports, and academics.

You've done piano, jazz band, and speech and debate, which are all great extracurriculars, but have you done All-State Jazz Band, Speech and Debate Nationals, or anything else like that? If so, those achievements will be instrumental in your application. Be uncommon against the uncommon!

As others have acknowledged, leadership is super important too. I would suggest looking for leadership positions in the clubs you are already participating in (Speech and Debate, Chess, National Honor Society, etc.). When in those positions, try to leave the clubs/organizations better than you found them, as these experiences will come in handy in essays/nomination interviews.

From what I've read on this forum, Service to Community is important to the Service Academies. After all, you're going there to serve your country. Getting the gold Presidential Medal of Volunteerism will really help with this, especially if you have gotten it or similar awards in previous years. I would also recommend joining Key Club in addition to NHS, if your school has it.

Sports will be super important to your application. Plus, if you make huge improvements in the sport despite participation for just one year, that may aid your application. As for which sport, that is totally up to you. Personally I would recommend Cross Country in the fall and Track in the winter/spring, as those typically do not have a fixed number of players mandated by the coach. You mention that you are trying to reduce your weight in your original post; running cross country will definitely help with this, as well as eating a clean diet if you aren't already. (I can personally attest to this: I weigh less during my senior year than my freshman year!)

You seem to have a pretty solid foundation of academics, but it's kind of hard to tell without SAT, ACT, and AP scores. Keep studying, and try to get all As in all of your classes; remember, you are competing against the best of the best of the best, so you need to stand out. Study like your life depends on it, because it pretty much does.

I hope this helps! Best of luck.
 
Academics, leadership, and athletics are important. (Generally, in that order.)

Your academics look competitive. Your leadership and athletics lack some info, that USAFA will get more data on through the CFA, interviews, essays, etc.

So, baseline impression is that you have a decent shot, but that is based on incomplete info.
 
henry2025 said:
From what I've read on this forum, Service to Community is important to the Service Academies. After all, you're going there to serve your country. Getting the gold Presidential Medal of Volunteerism will really help with this, especially if you have gotten it or similar awards in previous years.
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While you may have read that on the forums, it has most likely been from other candidates/high school students.
We have a decent number of ALOs, BGOs, FFRs plus other folks who've been associated with the admissions process
for many years. I've never seen any of those folks recommend this as a course of action. For USAFA, USMA and USNA, the
most important attributes are Academics, Leadership and Fitness. Since serious athletics usually involves Fitness AND
Leadership, sports is a common recommendation by the aforementioned people experienced with SA admissions.
I am not anti-community service by any means but in multiple decades of working with Service Academy applicants,
I've seen a heck of a lot more folks with NO community service than folks with NO sports/athletics.

The Original poster appears to have a decent start on academics - Good but not yet great. Extracurriculars are there
but no significant physical activities and not really pushing the needle much on leadership. I'd push pretty hard to get
Sports and Leadership in there to become significantly more competitive
 
Also you may say: "But I wasn't elected President of the Chess club this year, how can I show leadership?"
You can show leadership without the title...Can you propose to the club that they create/work with the chess club at the Middle schools (virtually!) so you are preparing more kids for the HS chess club?
Have you tried out for all state Jazz band? Did you apply for section leader?
 
Thanks all for the recommendations and help! I will begin to practice the CFA multiple times a week as well as look into NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, and FCCLA for higher positions and maybe even more president roles. I'll also look into joining cross country as well as track and field in my senior year in order to flesh out the physical side of my application.
 
Attend Boys/Girls State.
Start practicing for the CFA now. (A pull up bar in garage now will be worth your weight in gold).
Write some amazing essays with some more focus on volunteer projects (not just total of hours).
Good luck!
 
FrauTeufelshund said:
Write some amazing essays with some more focus on volunteer projects (not just total of hours).
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I'm curious if you are affiliated with admissions in any way? I've never heard an admissions person from any of the Academies
emphasize volunteer projects or stress the importance of an essay. Everything I've ever heard was ACADEMICS,
LEADERSHIP, SPORTS and it is what I've stressed to candidates for about 30 years now and they've been pretty successful
thus far. If there is a different paradigm from the AFA admissions office, I need to get aboard with it.
 
OldRetSWO said:
I'm curious if you are affiliated with admissions in any way? I've never heard an admissions person from any of the Academies
emphasize volunteer projects or stress the importance of an essay. Everything I've ever heard was ACADEMICS,
LEADERSHIP, SPORTS and it is what I've stressed to candidates for about 30 years now and they've been pretty successful
thus far. If there is a different paradigm from the AFA admissions office, I need to get aboard with it.
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Nope, not from admissions, just the parent of a 2025 candidate. I am not telling him or her to ignore leadership or sports, but it's hard to make a varsity athlete and team captain out of someone who has one year of hs left. Nearly everyone who applies is going to be strong academically, so you have to stand out in other ways. Don't the essays give you a chance to explain who you are, why you want to attend and what makes you different from the thousands of others? The award for 250 plus hours of volunteer time in my unexperienced eyes seemed worth mentioning in more detail in their application somewhere.
 
USAFA does not track service hours in the WCS. What they count for points is the leadership positions that are acquired during volunteering.

Stealth_81
 
Essays are something you can control:

This is general advice, but Google "Hacking the College Essay 2017" and read it.

Write the Essay No One Else Could Write

"It boils down to this: the essay that gets you in is the essay that no other applicant could write.
Is this a trick? The rest of this guide gives you the best strategies to accomplish this single
most important thing: write the essay no one else could write.
If someone reading your essay gets the feeling some other applicant could have written it,
then you’re in trouble.
Why is this so important? Because most essays sound like they could have been written by
anyone. Remember that most essays fail to do what they should: replace numbers (SAT/GPA) with the real you.
Put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer. She’s got limited time and a stack of
applications. Each application is mostly numbers and other stuff that looks the same. Then she picks
up your essay. Sixty seconds later, what is her impression of you? Will she know something specifically
about you? Or will you still be indistinguishable from the hundreds of other applicants she has been
reading about?"
 
FrauTeufelshund said:
Nope, not from admissions, just the parent of a 2025 candidate. I am not telling him or her to ignore leadership or sports, but it's hard to make a varsity athlete and team captain out of someone who has one year of hs left. Nearly everyone who applies is going to be strong academically, so you have to stand out in other ways. Don't the essays give you a chance to explain who you are, why you want to attend and what makes you different from the thousands of others? The award for 250 plus hours of volunteer time in my unexperienced eyes seemed worth mentioning in more detail in their application somewhere.
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I'm not saying what should or should not be but rather what I have observed of what IS. The Admissions Board works a lot like a military promotion board in terms of how much time they spend on each candidate. This is why they used things like the Candidate score or at USNA, the "Final Multiple" to more easily compare candidates. While the essay has some importance, it is just not that much in the grand scheme of things. Personally, if it was a candidate I was advising, I'd urge not waiting until Senior year for athletics. Its still JANUARY and there is still time to get onto Spring Track for instance. Besides the obvious distance running that melds into Cross Country, there are also the field events such as Shot Putt, Discuss, etc and they often can't get enough kids to fill those squads. Heck, if the slots aren't filled, they might let someone onto the Winter/indoor track team even though the season is currently in progress. And if they say too late, they might let someone practice with them to be ready to go for the team in the spring. Be aggressive! Take the SAT/ACT as early as possible to try to bring up scores and plan to repeat as soon as possible.
Sitting back and waiting for Senior year is not as good as pushing forward NOW.
 
FrauTeufelshund said:
Attend Boys/Girls State.
Start practicing for the CFA now. (A pull up bar in garage now will be worth your weight in gold).
Write some amazing essays with some more focus on volunteer projects (not just total of hours).
Good luck!
Click to expand...
I have been volunteering with a multitude of programs such as RAFT, Project Angelheart, Second Chance Bike Shop, and my school's tutoring group so hopefully I should be set in that area
 
PyroSweets said:
I have been volunteering with a multitude of programs such as RAFT, Project Angelheart, Second Chance Bike Shop, and my school's tutoring group so hopefully I should be set in that area
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I apologize for the unclear wording. Your volunteering experience looks great, good luck on getting that gold medal for the 250 plus hours! I meant you should emphasize that in your essays (although others seem to disagree on the importance of the essays).
 
Looking solid. Someone else mentioned it but don’t get too caught up on the “title” of your position. Don’t just be president of some club for your resume. Do it because you enjoy it.

Volunteering is great, but don’t volunteer only for the hours. Volunteering should be about the EXPERIENCE. For example, I am interested in law enforcement so I go on ride alongs with my local sheriffs office. I usually ride 10 hr shifts every other weekend and I have been doing it for a while. I gained a LOT of experience, volunteered to my community, and made some amazing memories (a few pursuits and some “hot” calls).
Find a passion of yours and volunteer through that. It’s fun for you, helps build your resume, and gives you experience / exposure to your passion.
 
Jman0714 said:
Looking solid. Someone else mentioned it but don’t get too caught up on the “title” of your position. Don’t just be president of some club for your resume. Do it because you enjoy it.

Volunteering is great, but don’t volunteer only for the hours. Volunteering should be about the EXPERIENCE. For example, I am interested in law enforcement so I go on ride alongs with my local sheriffs office. I usually ride 10 hr shifts every other weekend and I have been doing it for a while. I gained a LOT of experience, volunteered to my community, and made some amazing memories (a few pursuits and some “hot” calls).
Find a passion of yours and volunteer through that. It’s fun for you, helps build your resume, and gives you experience / exposure to your passion.
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I really do enjoy being president of chess club and Mu Alpha Theta, though. It's nice being able to teach and play chess with beginners and more advanced players, and Mu Alpha Theta lets me review math concepts as well as challenge myself in units I am proficient in.

As for the organization Second Chance Bike Shop, they clean up and repair old bikes so that people who can't afford them can have a like-new bike for free. Since I'm looking to major in Mechanical Engineering, this experience is honestly perfect for me and I've been really happy working there for the past few weeks. I'm glad you mentioned this though, and I'll start to look towards more engineering/mechanics focused volunteer experiences instead of ones more food or education focused.
 
FrauTeufelshund said:
Nope, not from admissions, just the parent of a 2025 candidate. I am not telling him or her to ignore leadership or sports, but it's hard to make a varsity athlete and team captain out of someone who has one year of hs left. Nearly everyone who applies is going to be strong academically, so you have to stand out in other ways. Don't the essays give you a chance to explain who you are, why you want to attend and what makes you different from the thousands of others? The award for 250 plus hours of volunteer time in my unexperienced eyes seemed worth mentioning in more detail in their application somewhere.
Click to expand...
Funny you mention the ‘250 plus’ volunteer hrs. I was just having a discussion with a potential candidate about this. He was telling me that he has xxx things planned this summer, to increase the hours (and he already has a ton!)

Its a misconception that ‘more equates better’. That’s incorrect. It’s the quality of the volunteerism, more than the number of hours, that matters. Finding ways to lead, to make a difference in the volunteering that will stand out. Vs packing in more hours. Anyone can volunteer their time. Not everyone can make difference. So to readers, don’t volunteer just to pack hours on your resume. My candidate hadn’t even thought about that, he thought more hours was better (which, BTW, is not written anywhere on the USNA/USAFA websites as far as I know. And also not in the most recent BGO training).

Many schools have cancelled their volunteering programs (service cord) due to COVID. Imo, a student who finds a way to make a difference presently does stand out! But still, it’s not the quantity. Its that quality of finding and making a difference.
 
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