Appointment Chances? ‘23

2

23Lt

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Sep 24, 2016
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284
Hello everyone!

I have recently applied to summer seminar, and soon I will open my application (March 2018). I have been dead-set on attending USAFA for my entire high school career and now that the time to apply has arrived, I am rather nervous. Would y’all be willing to give me any advice on the app or any to improve my profile. I am open to constructive criticism, so please, don’t sugar coat.

ACADEMICS___________

-GPA: 3.9 unweighted
-Class rank: approx top 10%-15% out of 471
(Really competitive high school)
-I am on path for the IB English Certificate.
-ACT: Super Score of 25-26 (I know that’s bad, planning to get it up to 27-28 this Feb.)

-Classes:

7 AP (entire 4 years) Calc BC, Physics 1, Human Geo, Psych, Euro, US history, Gov

6 IB SL/HL mix (entire 4 years) Financial Lit SL, Chem SL, Math Studies SL, Econ SL, English HL1 and English HL2

Honors for everything else


ATHLETICS___________

-played ice hockey my entire life
-Varsity Ice Hockey: all 4 Years (4 years of letters)
-Captain of Varsity team junior and senior year
-Saber Fencer for 3 years of HS
-track and field (just to improve at running)


EXTRA CURRICULARS_____


Civil Air Patrol
-C/1st Lt (going for C/Maj before application closes
- Jobs in CAP: Squadron Cadet Commander, future Wing Cadet Advisory Council Chairman
-Civil Leadership Academy Cadet (only 24 cadet officers nation-wide get accepted)
- Solo Wings achieved
-etc, etc, etc

DECA
-Vice President of Comp this year
-Secretary or Head VP next year
FBLA
-President senior year
National Honor Society
-Member senior year

Starting an Anti-Drug campaign around town with the help of some friends next year

HOBY ambassador for my high school

Accepted to Boys’ State summer 2018


COMMUNITY SERVICE/JOB/AWARDS

-Volunteer at my church
-Volunteer at VA (soon)

-Farmers Market Salesman/ soon to be Bus Boy at local restaurant (hopefully)

Awards:
-Congressional Award Silver Medal
-My representative’s Civic Engagement Award
-State Stock Market Game 2nd place (HS division)



Thanks for reading this! Happy to receive any comments/questions/advice!!
 
When you apply your GC will submit a school profile. Here's my concern:
3.9 unweighted, top 10%, but only a superscore of a 25-26. This is on top of you having in total 13 AP or IB courses.

You say that your school is very competitive, but as someone that worked in the school system, the disparity between your cgpa and a superscore of 25 is screaming HUH to me!
~ Please do not say test anxiety, because in the end that really will not carry any weight or salt when you are being interviewed by the MoC nom committee and the other candidates have 33, 34, 35 superscore.

27/28 is still way low impo. If you look at AFROTC, the avg BEST sitting for a type 7 is close to 29. Note it is BEST not SUPER.

Finally you state that it is 25/26. The question is what is the E portion? I believe 24 E or below is deemed non-competitive. It may be even 25. Thus, right now you need to take that test over and over as often as you can afford to until you can't anymore because to move from applicant status to candidate, regardless of the amount of those ECs those scores matter.

I wish you the best. Always remember you have 0% chance if you do not apply, but you also need to have plan B, C, D etc in place too.

PS what was your PSAT score. Typically if you add a 0 behind it that will equal your SAT, and maybe taking the SAT is a better test for you.
 
Last edited:
Pima said:
When you apply your GC will submit a school profile. Here's my concern:
3.9 unweighted, top 10%, but only a superscore of a 25-26. This is on top of you having in total 13 AP or IB courses.

You say that your school is very competitive, but as someone that worked in the school system, the disparity between your cgpa and a superscore of 25 is screaming HUH to me!
~ Please do not say test anxiety, because in the end that really will not carry any weight or salt when you are being interviewed by the MoC nom committee and the other candidates have 33, 34, 35 superscore.

27/28 is still way low impo. If you look at AFROTC, the avg BEST sitting for a type 7 is close to 29. Note it is BEST not SUPER.

Finally you state that it is 25/26. The question is what is the E portion? I believe 24 E or below is deemed non-competitive. It may be even 25. Thus, right now you need to take that test over and over as often as you can afford to until you can't anymore because to move from applicant status to candidate, regardless of the amount of those ECs those scores matter.

I wish you the best. Always remember you have 0% chance if you do not apply, but you also need to have plan B, C, D etc in place too.

PS what was your PSAT score. Typically if you add a 0 behind it that will equal your SAT, and maybe taking the SAT is a better test for you.
Click to expand...
E portion? I am unfamiliar. Are you talking about English score? Because I scored a 30 there. Overall I have 30E 26M 22R 23S.
 
Gabe77 said:
Pima said:
When you apply your GC will submit a school profile. Here's my concern:
3.9 unweighted, top 10%, but only a superscore of a 25-26. This is on top of you having in total 13 AP or IB courses.

You say that your school is very competitive, but as someone that worked in the school system, the disparity between your cgpa and a superscore of 25 is screaming HUH to me!
~ Please do not say test anxiety, because in the end that really will not carry any weight or salt when you are being interviewed by the MoC nom committee and the other candidates have 33, 34, 35 superscore.

27/28 is still way low impo. If you look at AFROTC, the avg BEST sitting for a type 7 is close to 29. Note it is BEST not SUPER.

Finally you state that it is 25/26. The question is what is the E portion? I believe 24 E or below is deemed non-competitive. It may be even 25. Thus, right now you need to take that test over and over as often as you can afford to until you can't anymore because to move from applicant status to candidate, regardless of the amount of those ECs those scores matter.

I wish you the best. Always remember you have 0% chance if you do not apply, but you also need to have plan B, C, D etc in place too.

PS what was your PSAT score. Typically if you add a 0 behind it that will equal your SAT, and maybe taking the SAT is a better test for you.
Click to expand...
E portion? I am unfamiliar. Are you talking about English score? Because I scored a 30 there. Overall I have 30E 26M 22R 23S.
Click to expand...
Also, what is the combined English and Writing score? They asked this on the summer seminar application, and I just omitted that input.



The last two tests I took, I didn’t study very hard, so i would imagine if I study hard I could get a 30 or above on the April ACT. The problem is the reading and science sections. (With the math section, I recently took a practice test and scored a 32.)

My overall goal is 31.
 
Gabe -- listen to Pima.

Rightly or wrongly ACT and SAT are the great equalizers. One high school's 3.9 is another high school's 2.9. Get your test scores up. Have seen candidates with much lower high school GPAs get in, but with much higher SAT or ACT scores.

You appear to have good leadership and athletic credentials.

Take the SAT in addition to ACT. The Academy will use the best that you submit.

Best wishes and thanks for being willing to serve
 
Falcon A said:
Gabe -- listen to Pima.

Rightly or wrongly ACT and SAT are the great equalizers. One high school's 3.9 is another high school's 2.9. Get your test scores up. Have seen candidates with much lower high school GPAs get in, but with much higher SAT or ACT scores.

You appear to have good leadership and athletic credentials.

Take the SAT in addition to ACT. The Academy will use the best that you submit.

Best wishes and thanks for being willing to serve
Click to expand...



Thank you for the input!! I haven’t studied very hard for the act but am confident i will get a 30 or 31. Will this cut it??
 
The ACT/SAT is the single biggest impact to your score when you look at the weighting. You will be competing against others who have everything you have as well as 30+ test scores. Focus on test prep. You have plenty of time to get it better. Academies Super Score so they ca never go down.
 
Gabe77 said:
Thank you for the input!! I haven’t studied very hard for the act but am confident i will get a 30 or 31. Will this cut it??
Click to expand...

Gabe -- study and do your best. Get as high of a score as you can. There is no score that guarantees entry. I know of cases where the candidate had either a perfect ACT score or a perfect SAT score and they were not offered an appointment. It is also true candidates get in with a 28, 29, 30 or lower ACT. It all depends on the situation, especially your geographic location and how competitive you are among your peers from your locality that are also pursuing an appointment. If you truly want to serve, you should also consider applying for a ROTC scholarship. The national ROTC scholarships are a bit more merit based and not so impacted by the geographic factor.
 
I agree with Falcon, nobody can say what the score for guarantee entry (cut it) will be for a ton of reasons. The reasons vary from how big the candidate pool size is, to how the MoC submits their slate (principal, ranked, unranked).

You should consider applying for an AFROTC scholarship, but understand it works completely different than USAFA.
1. It is national. They could not care if every scholarship were spread among 5 states, with the remaining states had no candidates that received a scholarship.
1. AFROTC and USAFA do not talk. IOWS neither one knows if you applied to the other or if anything was offered to you. There are many USAFA candidates that get an appointment, but no scholarship or vise a verse.
3. AFROTC does not include anything from your senior yr in HS, except updated ACT/SAT scores. IE parts of your resume that you have written here will not be included. They only score you on what is on your record as of the last day of your junior yr in hs.
4. As stated before the SAT/ACT is BEST sitting, thus many times your score will not go up dramatically. IE if you got 30E/28M/28S/28R on the next one, and following that you got a 28E/30M/28S/26R. Your 1st is the one they keep, with 28. USAFA would have you at 29.
5. AFROTC is tied to your intended major. @80-85% of all scholarships are awarded to tech aka STEM majors. USAFA does not care what your major is, but remember what many call USAFA. The Little Engineering School in the Rockies.
 
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