Currently a Cow at West Point. Ask me Anything

[Perspective]

Alight, rapid fire. How are the extra-circulars and clubs at West Point? What about the environment (in the nature sense and cultural)? This one is oddly specific but are there any skiing opportunities? Thank you for your help!

Extra curriculars are great, there seems to be a club for basically anything you could be interested in. Parachute, marathon, powerlifting, jiu jitsu, cyber, boxing, combat weapons, and many others including non-military clubs like the glee club or gospel choir.

I absolutely love the environment. The nature scene is fantastic and there is history all around - there's statues, monuments, and cannons scattered all about, and even the buildings themselves have a long history.

There is a ski slope behind West Point. I took snowboarding as my lifetime sport and it was a great time - although the slopes are nothing like Colorado. When I took the class there wasn't a lot of natural snow so it was mostly provided by the snow makers, which basically just spray mist through a fan overnight when its cold, and the resulting tiny ice shards create snow. Unfortunately it's harder than normal snow, so at times it was hard to catch an edge. It's open for cadets in the winter and the lift fee for a day is like $10 or $15.

 

[Perspective]

Did you apply to other schools/ROTC?

I did apply to a handful of other civilian schools, and though I got into all that I applied to (including some very good ones) I ultimately decided not to go since I did not have a route to finance college without taking debt. I didn't apply for ROTC because I didn't want to half-ass my service commitment. ROTC is a great program to be sure, but personally I felt that if I was going to go military, I was going to go to an academy.

 

[jasper1]

If it's alright, would you share your app stats?

1. Congressional district
2. GPA
3. SAT/ACT
4. Sports
5. Extra curricular
6. LOA/LOE

Thank you!

 

[lmmcc]

Extra curriculars are great, there seems to be a club for basically anything you could be interested in. Parachute, marathon, powerlifting, jiu jitsu, cyber, boxing, combat weapons, and many others including non-military clubs like the glee club or gospel choir.

I absolutely love the environment. The nature scene is fantastic and there is history all around - there's statues, monuments, and cannons scattered all about, and even the buildings themselves have a long history.

There is a ski slope behind West Point. I took snowboarding as my lifetime sport and it was a great time - although the slopes are nothing like Colorado. When I took the class there wasn't a lot of natural snow so it was mostly provided by the snow makers, which basically just spray mist through a fan overnight when its cold, and the resulting tiny ice shards create snow. Unfortunately it's harder than normal snow, so at times it was hard to catch an edge. It's open for cadets in the winter and the lift fee for a day is like $10 or $15.

Thank you so much for the insightful information! Living in Colorado and skiing here since I was 3, the sport has become more a part of me than I'd like to admit, so I'm glad to hear that there are still opportunities for it.

 

[Perspective]

If it's alright, would you share your app stats?

1. Congressional district
2. GPA
3. SAT/ACT
4. Sports
5. Extra curricular
6. LOA/LOE

Thank you!

I won't be too specific, and honestly the congressional district is not that important. Any candidate competitive for admission will not have a problem getting a nomination.

2. GPA
High school weighted an A in a regular class as 4.0, and an A in an AP class as 5.0
Weighted GPA 4.551
Class rank 1/510

3. SAT (didn't take ACT)
800 M, 740 E. Superscore 800 M 760 E
SAT Subject Tests
Math 1 800
Math 2 800
Chemistry 800
Biology 800

4. Sports
Varsity track sophomore, junior, senior year
Non-varsity XC all four years

5. Extra curricular
Senior class vice president
NHS VP
Spanish NHS
Attended Boys State, held some leadership positions
FIRST Robotics team member all four years, president senior year

6. LOA/LOE
Didn't receive any type of LOA. I didn't hear of anybody in my region getting one, I really don't think they gave any out. Generally they are given more often for potential D1 athletes anyways, which I was not. Don't worry if you don't get an LOA.

I'll give my mediocre CFA scores as well
Basketball throw 58'
Pullups 8
Shuttle run 8.5
Situps 68
Pushups 45
Mile run 7:00

I want to qualify all of this by saying that you absolutely don't have to have this level of academic success to get in. Academics were really my strength and that definitely helped carry my application, but as long as you are near the top of your class generally speaking it will look really good for you and help your admission profile. Honestly I was most worried about my CFA since I didn't have a lot of upper body strength and it was the weakest area of my application. In the last 2 years here I have gained 40 lbs, so really don't worry about being somewhat out of shape in high school since it can easily be turned around. I didn't even touch a single weight until 2nd semester senior year (after I took the CFA), and I never attempted to do any significant amount of pushups or pullups in my life until a few months before the CFA.

 

[jasper1]

I won't be too specific, and honestly the congressional district is not that important. Any candidate competitive for admission will not have a problem getting a nomination.

2. GPA
High school weighted an A in a regular class as 4.0, and an A in an AP class as 5.0
Weighted GPA 4.551
Class rank 1/510

3. SAT (didn't take ACT)
800 M, 740 E. Superscore 800 M 760 E
SAT Subject Tests
Math 1 800
Math 2 800
Chemistry 800
Biology 800

4. Sports
Varsity track sophomore, junior, senior year
Non-varsity XC all four years

5. Extra curricular
Senior class vice president
NHS VP
Spanish NHS
Attended Boys State, held some leadership positions
FIRST Robotics team member all four years, president senior year

6. LOA/LOE
Didn't receive any type of LOA. I didn't hear of anybody in my region getting one, I really don't think they gave any out. Generally they are given more often for potential D1 athletes anyways, which I was not. Don't worry if you don't get an LOA.

I'll give my mediocre CFA scores as well
Basketball throw 58'
Pullups 8
Shuttle run 8.5
Situps 68
Pushups 45
Mile run 7:00

I want to qualify all of this by saying that you absolutely don't have to have this level of academic success to get in. Academics were really my strength and that definitely helped carry my application, but as long as you are near the top of your class generally speaking it will look really good for you and help your admission profile. Honestly I was most worried about my CFA since I didn't have a lot of upper body strength and it was the weakest area of my application. In the last 2 years here I have gained 40 lbs, so really don't worry about being somewhat out of shape in high school since it can easily be turned around. I didn't even touch a single weight until 2nd semester senior year (after I took the CFA), and I never attempted to do any significant amount of pushups or pullups in my life until a few months before the CFA.

Thank you for answering so thoroughly. It's very helpful.

 

[DeepWaters]

I won't be too specific, and honestly the congressional district is not that important. Any candidate competitive for admission will not have a problem getting a nomination.

First, thanks for doing this. Do you have that much downtime to be fielding all these questions. LOL. Seriously, you rock. So this caught my attention. Do you mean to say that in your opinion, if competitive one should win their MOC nom, or do you mean to say that if you are competitive (and 3Q), WP will do their best to "find" a nomination for you even if you don't get a nom from your MOC to WP?

 

[Miracle]

First, thanks for doing this. Do you have that much downtime to be fielding all these questions. LOL. Seriously, you rock. So this caught my attention. Do you mean to say that in your opinion, if competitive one should win their MOC nom, or do you mean to say that if you are competitive (and 3Q), WP will do their best to "find" a nomination for you even if you don't get a nom from your MOC to WP?

Generally true because nomination sources want to nominate those that have a real shot at admissions. If your district rep. doesn't nominate you but you are still considered competitive, the senators will possibly consider to nominate you. If not senators, but you are "at the edge" type of candidate that might possibly make the cut, then VP will nominate. Very rare of course.

 

[Casey]

Thank you so much for the insightful information! Living in Colorado and skiing here since I was 3, the sport has become more a part of me than I'd like to admit, so I'm glad to hear that there are still opportunities for it.

There’s always a need for ski patrol and ski instructors that you can volunteer for. Both clubs will include travel to places to ski in the area outside of the hill at West Point as well generally.

 

[Capt MJ]

First, thanks for doing this. Do you have that much downtime to be fielding all these questions. LOL. Seriously, you rock. So this caught my attention. Do you mean to say that in your opinion, if competitive one should win their MOC nom, or do you mean to say that if you are competitive (and 3Q), WP will do their best to "find" a nomination for you even if you don't get a nom from your MOC to WP?

If the SA really wants a particular applicant, and the applicant is not eligible for any service-connected noms and fails to be placed on the slates of the two Senators or 1 Representative, who may or may not be collaborating or sharing information or on the same time-table, Admissions has some options for noms they control. They evaluate and select the recipients of the VP nom, for example, as VP staff is not a hands-on part of that process.

Read details of various nom types at link below.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33213.pdf

 

[Perspective]

First, thanks for doing this. Do you have that much downtime to be fielding all these questions. LOL. Seriously, you rock. So this caught my attention. Do you mean to say that in your opinion, if competitive one should win their MOC nom, or do you mean to say that if you are competitive (and 3Q), WP will do their best to "find" a nomination for you even if you don't get a nom from your MOC to WP?

Yeah like TheAmericanDefender said, basically if you are a candidate that would be competitive for admission then you really won't have a hard time getting a nomination because nominations are less competitive than admission for the most part.

I have heard of nominations being "found" but that's basically a thing for D1 athletes. If WP wants you to play a sport here, they're basically going to manipulate the system and get you a nomination from "somewhere".

 

[Miracle]

Yeah like TheAmericanDefender said, basically if you are a candidate that would be competitive for admission then you really won't have a hard time getting a nomination because nominations are less competitive than admission for the most part.

I have heard of nominations being "found" but that's basically a thing for D1 athletes. If WP wants you to play a sport here, they're basically going to manipulate the system and get you a nomination from "somewhere".

Perspective, have you ever heard of "LOA but no nom"? I'm worried about that because my district is very competitive in terms of nominations and interest in West Point in general. We have more than 70 students applying for our Rep's nomination, including college and MAPS students that have a real good shot at nominations.

 

[RunninFlorida]

In order to get a slot in either air assault or airborne school, what can you do to stand out and receive a spot? Also, I would be interested in doing something like the jiu jitsu club, does that count as an sport?

 

[Perspective]

In order to get a slot in either air assault or airborne school, what can you do to stand out and receive a spot? Also, I would be interested in doing something like the jiu jitsu club, does that count as an sport?

You don't really need to stand out to get a slot for air assault school. They have the 101st come up and teach it here on campus every summer and run through several classes, usually about 600+ cadets in total. I've really never heard of somebody wanting air assault and not being able to get it, unless they are so low performing in the class that their summers are filled with STAP (summer term academic program) or other make-up type duties.

As for airborne, if you rank around the top 10% of the class for physical/military performance, you should be very competitive for airborne. There's generally about 100-150 slots for airborne school each year, so it's definitely doable, although if you are an average performing cadet, you probably aren't going to get it.

There are two types of clubs here. Hobby clubs and competitive clubs/teams (D1 sports are a separate category for the sake of this example). Certain clubs have "drill authos" which gets you out of drill for the week, and other clubs have "company athletics authos" which will get you out of company athletics during the week. So, for example, the competitive cyber team here would get you out of drill, but not company athletics. The climbing team, for example, since it is physical in nature, gets you out of company athletics (and I think drill as well but I'm not sure). Company athletics generally go Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday in a given week, and last for about 8 weeks, roughly centered in the middle of the semester. If you weren't a member of any club, then in a given week you might have drill on Monday, company athletics on Tuesday, drill on Wednesday, and company athletics again on Thursday. If you were a member of a physical style club with full authos, then you would basically just go to your club every day regardless of whether or not company athletics or drill is going on.

As for the Jiu Jitsu team specifically, I don't know it's authos status. If it's just a hobby club, then no, it doesn't count as a sport. But if it's a club with authos, then yeah, it will replace your otherwise mandatory company athletic. There's so many clubs here that I really don't know the authos status of every club - sorry about that.

 

[Perspective]

Perspective, have you ever heard of "LOA but no nom"? I'm worried about that because my district is very competitive in terms of nominations and interest in West Point in general. We have more than 70 students applying for our Rep's nomination, including college and MAPS students that have a real good shot at nominations.

No, I haven't really heard of that. That doesn't mean it's not a thing that happens - I'm just out of the candidate lingo since I'm a few years removed from that.

I will say this - getting an LOA does not guarantee a nomination, but it helps. You need to focus on what you can actively influence or change. The only thing for you to worry about is how you can improve yourself and build a better packet. Worrying about things that you can't control doesn't help anything, all it does is stress you out. Prepare yourself every day, have a great interview / nomination packet, and then forget about it until you are notified.

 

[Miracle]

No, I haven't really heard of that. That doesn't mean it's not a thing that happens - I'm just out of the candidate lingo since I'm a few years removed from that.

I will say this - getting an LOA does not guarantee a nomination, but it helps. You need to focus on what you can actively influence or change. The only thing for you to worry about is how you can improve yourself and build a better packet. Worrying about things that you can't control doesn't help anything, all it does is stress you out. Prepare yourself every day, have a great interview / nomination packet, and then forget about it until you are notified.

Thanks!

 

[lmmcc]

There’s always a need for ski patrol and ski instructors that you can volunteer for. Both clubs will include travel to places to ski in the area outside of the hill at West Point as well generally.

That is wonderful to hear, I never considered that. Having both a background in skiing and SAR, being a Patroller would be of great interest to me.

 

[RunninFlorida]

You don't really need to stand out to get a slot for air assault school. They have the 101st come up and teach it here on campus every summer and run through several classes, usually about 600+ cadets in total. I've really never heard of somebody wanting air assault and not being able to get it, unless they are so low performing in the class that their summers are filled with STAP (summer term academic program) or other make-up type duties.

As for airborne, if you rank around the top 10% of the class for physical/military performance, you should be very competitive for airborne. There's generally about 100-150 slots for airborne school each year, so it's definitely doable, although if you are an average performing cadet, you probably aren't going to get it.

There are two types of clubs here. Hobby clubs and competitive clubs/teams (D1 sports are a separate category for the sake of this example). Certain clubs have "drill authos" which gets you out of drill for the week, and other clubs have "company athletics authos" which will get you out of company athletics during the week. So, for example, the competitive cyber team here would get you out of drill, but not company athletics. The climbing team, for example, since it is physical in nature, gets you out of company athletics (and I think drill as well but I'm not sure). Company athletics generally go Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday in a given week, and last for about 8 weeks, roughly centered in the middle of the semester. If you weren't a member of any club, then in a given week you might have drill on Monday, company athletics on Tuesday, drill on Wednesday, and company athletics again on Thursday. If you were a member of a physical style club with full authos, then you would basically just go to your club every day regardless of whether or not company athletics or drill is going on.

As for the Jiu Jitsu team specifically, I don't know it's authos status. If it's just a hobby club, then no, it doesn't count as a sport. But if it's a club with authos, then yeah, it will replace your otherwise mandatory company athletic. There's so many clubs here that I really don't know the authos status of every club - sorry about that.

Awesome, man! Thank you so much!

 

[alo235]

Hello,

I was on these forums back as a senior in high school while assessing my chances of getting in to the academies. I was ultimately accepted into USMA, USNA, and USAFA, and I chose to go to that which I believed to be the best.

I'd be happy to give some good information back to this forum since I remember in high school finding answers with questionable veracity. Being in my third year here I understand how West Point works, and think I can help potential candidates out -- so ask away!

Can you talk a little bit about computer science/cyber at west point and if you know anything about what cyber officers do? I am interested in following the same route. Thanks

 

[Onlychild]

Hello,

I was on these forums back as a senior in high school while assessing my chances of getting in to the academies. I was ultimately accepted into USMA, USNA, and USAFA, and I chose to go to that which I believed to be the best.

I'd be happy to give some good information back to this forum since I remember in high school finding answers with questionable veracity. Being in my third year here I understand how West Point works, and think I can help potential candidates out -- so ask away!

Thank you for your willingness to share your experiences. My DD has received a Letter of Assurance from West Point and offered the NROTC scholarship. We are a navy family and knows very little about the army. However, she is very interested in West Point. Her LOA condition is submitting CFA scores. Although she runs track, she's not a distance runner. She is training for the CFA, but struggling with the pull-up and flex arm hang. Do you have any suggestions in regards to pull-ups and a reasonable target score she should aim to achieve? Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving!