Class profile across several years

An average ACT score of 25 is a reasonable estimate of the average ACT score for those receiving special consideration and appointed as Additional Appointees. For perspective, football players in one recent class had an average ACT score on the Math/English sections of 25 and median of 24.

Averages for those appointed from competitive categories or as Qualified Alternates is necessarily much higher in order to bring the overall average down to the numbers reported in the class profile.

Of course, this is exactly the reason for my comment above .. if you are a regular candidate, there's no way in hell you're getting in with a 25 ACT
 
I noticed that too. Maybe from super scoring?
Read an article on how the SAT scored is averaging higher and higher each year. The article speculated inflation on college board's part, they noted the true average to be 1100 for SAT instead of 1000 and that a correction was due.
 
There's more and more test prep going on, it's getting more and more effective, and kids are re-taking the test until they get a better result. But there are other causes as well . Check out this good article from 2018.

With the release of class of 2018 results from both ACT and College Board, we can now say definitively that students saw the most competitive scores ever. In the last 10 years, the number of students scoring 1400–1600 on the SAT or 31–36 on the ACT doubled. In just the last 5 years, the number of students scoring 1500–1600 or 34–36 has doubled.

Great to Good: The Diluted Value of High Test Scores
 
99% of all classes played a varsity sport... with the exception of 2019 which only had 86%...?

I think it's safe to say that playing a varsity sport isn't an OFFICIAL requirement, but it's pretty much a requirement
 
CEER (Combined Energy Efficiency Ratio) is the new standard by which Window Air conditioners are rated by the DOE (Department of Energy), as of June 2014.

Or perhaps this from the Rand report:
The application scores we used to predict these three outcomes are the whole candidate score (WCS), which is calculated by the USMA, and the application scores that the USMA uses to calculate the WCS: the academic composite score, or college entrance examination rank (CEER), which factors in Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or ACT scores and the high school rank convert score (HSRCS); candidate fitness assessment (CFA); faculty appraisal score (FAS); athletic activities score (AAS); and extracurricular activities score (EAS).

(BTW, this is incredibly poorly written, with too many clauses drifting about.)
 
Of course, this is exactly the reason for my comment above .. if you are a regular candidate, there's no way in hell you're getting in with a 25 ACT
But if you're corps squad or a preferred group, you don't even need a 25. In fact, a 16, 18, or 20 will do just fine.
 
Hi,

Sharing this link from USMA.. interesting stats covering several years including for class of 2023.


Regards

Here's some data that's much more detailed and illuminating than the published class profiles. Unfortunately, it only covers through the class of '20.

.
 
But if you're corps squad or a preferred group, you don't even need a 25. In fact, a 16, 18, or 20 will do just fine.
Technically correct, but candidates with test scores that low will not be direct admits to USMA. After a year at USMAPS, if they are assessed as capable of handling USMA academics, they are admitted. However, those low test scores follow them.

All colleges admit certain groups of students with much lower test scores and academic credentials than the "normal" student, even Ivy League universities; the University of California system is particularly adroit at funneling marginal students into the pipeline.

To West Point's credit, they provide the groundwork for these students to meet the challenge, rather than just throwing them in the deep end without preparation.
 
Here's some data that's much more detailed and illuminating than the published class profiles. Unfortunately, it only covers through the class of '20.

.

Thanks for posting this link! Under race, if you are bi-racial, are you listed as "O" or is there another way this is accounted for?
 
Technically correct, but candidates with test scores that low will not be direct admits to USMA. After a year at USMAPS, if they are assessed as capable of handling USMA academics, they are admitted. However, those low test scores follow them.

All colleges admit certain groups of students with much lower test scores and academic credentials than the "normal" student, even Ivy League universities; the University of California system is particularly adroit at funneling marginal students into the pipeline.

To West Point's credit, they provide the groundwork for these students to meet the challenge, rather than just throwing them in the deep end without preparation.

A quick analysis, attached, indicates that this isn't quite accurate. See the percentage of cadets attending USMA by ACT average (Math & English, for consistency) by USMAPs code for classes 2014-2020 (the "blank" column indicating that they didn't attend USMAPs at all.) We don't know what the codes are, but use of any of them for a cadet would indicate that USMAPs was present, and a blank field would indicate no prep before attending USMA. There are still non-trivial numbers of cadets attending with low scores and no prep.

This is of course not getting into whether West Point ought to be taking remedial students (as opposed to prior service, who do need an academic refresh) in any case, even with prep, which is a whole other discussion. We might consider this "teaching to the test."
 

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Thanks for posting this link! Under race, if you are bi-racial, are you listed as "O" or is there another way this is accounted for?
That's a good question. We believe this is based on self reported applications, which may account for the large drop in White students in the early 2003-04 classes.
 
Here's some data that's much more detailed and illuminating than the published class profiles. Unfortunately, it only covers through the class of '20.

.

Just so I'm clear, are these stats for everyone who applied? Also, in the column under "AC", the title is called "applicant admitted fg." I'd imagine that this shows whether the applicant was admitted or not, but I can only see an "N" next to each name, which seems to be "no"?
 
A quick analysis, attached, indicates that this isn't quite accurate. See the percentage of cadets attending USMA by ACT average (Math & English, for consistency) by USMAPs code for classes 2014-2020 (the "blank" column indicating that they didn't attend USMAPs at all.) We don't know what the codes are, but use of any of them for a cadet would indicate that USMAPs was present, and a blank field would indicate no prep before attending USMA. There are still non-trivial numbers of cadets attending with low scores and no prep.

This is of course not getting into whether West Point ought to be taking remedial students (as opposed to prior service, who do need an academic refresh) in any case, even with prep, which is a whole other discussion. We might consider this "teaching to the test."
I've used that data on numerous occasions for a couple of years now and checked for accuracy against specific cadets I know well. While it is largely accurate, the data does share the same problem of all large data bases - input/transfer errors. In particular, I find the USMAPS attendance data highly suspect - to the point that I do not uses that column at all. It is unlikely that appointees with such low test scores would receive the academic "Q".

A more germane use of the data is to compare test scores to academic GPA. There are cases for both arguments - low test scores followed by an expected low GPA and low test scores followed by an unexpectedly high GPA.

I believe in merit and do not like special consideration for athletes, legacies, minorities, etc. However, we live in a world of special consideration and USMA needs to operate in the real world along with Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, etc. West Point does this quite well, with the majority of appointments decided on a competitive basis - arguably much better than civilian universities.

Admissions tracks those who receive appointments with special consideration and out of order of merit by identifying those whose WCS scores, although qualifying, are likely not high enough to win appointment on a competitive basis.

From a briefing to the Board of Visitors for the Class of 2016:

Athlete: 218 total, 125 with WCS < 6000
Black: 103 total, 45 with WCS < 6000
Hispanic: 116 total, 44 with WCS < 6000
Women: 187 total, 41 with WCS < 6000
USMAPS: 197 total, 92 with WCS < 6000

Note: Appointees can fall into more than one group - several of the Black, Hispanic, Women and USMAPS are also athletes. Athletes are clearly the most advantaged category, but there are many athletes win appointments with no extra help.
 
Just so I'm clear, are these stats for everyone who applied? Also, in the column under "AC", the title is called "applicant admitted fg." I'd imagine that this shows whether the applicant was admitted or not, but I can only see an "N" next to each name, which seems to be "no"?
Those stats include every one who opened a file. A couple quirks make themselves apparent:
1) Everyone who opened a file is counted in academy admissions statistics and these files, but that's not necessarily everyone who completed the application process.
2) There are instances of cadets who applied in multiple years who get multiple applicant IDs (one per year) but are the same person. So this throws off some of the stats somewhat.
3) Correct, that column was not reported accurately. We used a dummy flag to determine who was actually admitted and matriculated by using a 1/0 true/false flag on whether there were any reported GPAs (e.g. CQPA) reported. We also noted that the national merit flag and a couple others could not have been accurate, so we disregarded using them in analysis.
 
Everyone who opened a file is not counted as an applicant in the class profile/admissions statistics.

Number of applicants in class profile: 12,294

Number of files from statistical database class years 2016 - 2020: 16,355, 16,300, 16,124, 15,533, 15,628
 
Here's some data that's much more detailed and illuminating than the published class profiles. Unfortunately, it only covers through the class of '20.

.
curious as to source of data !! Is this website legit? How is this data obtained?
 
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