Just wondering if being involved in Asb at hs for 4 years with being in an office position is looked favorably for admissions? The dilemma is if I take four years of asb as one of my classes I lose out on taking a honors or ap class.. please some advise ty
Curriculum for hs
- Thread starter Kmin7809
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Thanks I’m just worried if I’m missing out because I won’t be able to take three more ap classes because they’re looking to see if we take the most rigorous classes. ASB does take a lot of time and I’ve been class president the last two years so I’m hoping that outweighs not being able to take the extra ap classes
Being the class president will weigh a lot more in your composite score than having an ADDITIONAL AP or Honors class.
Heatherg21
USNA '24 Mom BGO Bacon Lover Dog Lover
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My son did 4 years of student government. It was a lot of time and work. Countless hours (though he kept track of them in a log and submitted for service hours). He did give up additional dual enrollment courses, but the amount of leadership, community service, leadership, mentoring, and public speaking he did, in my opinion, was of more value. I have no idea how admissions viewed it and cannot speculate on whether they would value an AP class above student government.
However, you should be able to have a mix/blend of both on your resume. Balancing academics with athletics, service, and leadership is key.
However, you should be able to have a mix/blend of both on your resume. Balancing academics with athletics, service, and leadership is key.
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Let’s consider the two parts separately:
Re academics: USNA wants you to take the hardest classes your school has to offer — especially in STEM and English — and excel at them. They’ll look beyond your GPA, closely examining your transcript in the context of your school profile.
Re leadership: You get credit for holding certain leadership positions. But frankly, that’s almost a minimal expectation. What’s more critical is that you demonstrate “leadership impact.” That is, you didn’t simply hold a title but actually impacted the organization in a way that left it better than you found it.
The best candidates have strong credentials on both fronts. So back to the core question: Should you focus on academics or leadership? The answer is YES.
(Cross-posted with @Heatherg21. She nails it!)
Re academics: USNA wants you to take the hardest classes your school has to offer — especially in STEM and English — and excel at them. They’ll look beyond your GPA, closely examining your transcript in the context of your school profile.
Re leadership: You get credit for holding certain leadership positions. But frankly, that’s almost a minimal expectation. What’s more critical is that you demonstrate “leadership impact.” That is, you didn’t simply hold a title but actually impacted the organization in a way that left it better than you found it.
The best candidates have strong credentials on both fronts. So back to the core question: Should you focus on academics or leadership? The answer is YES.
(Cross-posted with @Heatherg21. She nails it!)
Where in the application process were you able to explain the impact you had as class president? Would that have only been in the personal statement/essay portion?
GWU PNS (emeritus)
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While I realize this question was focused on the USNA application process, just in case some here also apply for NROTC, my answer would be that in any question you respond to or essay that you write, you want to demonstrate how your involvement in any organization, sport, student body, etc, impacted that organization in a positive way. For interviews, you should rehearse a bit and be able to say, "When I was the student government president during COVID, we needed to revamp how we accomplished....>X, Y, and Z. I put a team together, and we devised, x and y, and things were much improved."
So, please don't everyone use that exact phraseology, or every BGO on here will grit their teeth and send me a nasty PM. But I hope you get the idea. You take your accomplishments, you weave them into a narrative, and you use that narrative in interview questions and essay questions to show that you don't just show up to something. You take the reins, and you make it better.
Heatherg21
USNA '24 Mom BGO Bacon Lover Dog Lover
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So, I wanted to edit the above sentence to delete the duplicate mention of leadership, but it's outside of the editing window. Kind of funny, maybe my subconscious meant to reiterate how important meaningful leadership is.
What you actually accomplished or what your responsibilities were as class president matter more then the actual title as it relates to applying for any SA and their consideration regarding leadership. In some high schools, student government is mostly a popularity contest, you have little responsibilities and the main highlight is getting elected. At other schools, you actually have job responsibilities and can gain some leadership experience. None of us know your h.s. well enough to say which category yours is in.
Successful SA applicants typically excel in ECA's, leadership, academics and sports. Everyone has a finite amount of time available, so you have to learn what mix of these yield the optimal result.
Successful SA applicants typically excel in ECA's, leadership, academics and sports. Everyone has a finite amount of time available, so you have to learn what mix of these yield the optimal result.
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A lot depends on many other factors, however, all things being equal, you should do both. Participate in some leadership activities and take the toughest classes that you can perform well in (A's & B's). Academics is heavily weighted for admissions, also the tougher STEM classes should help you with ACT/SAT scores. It's generally better to be strong in all three areas: Academics, Leadership/ECAs, Physical fitness/sports.
for all ur replies
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I'm curious at your level of knowledge on this. Do you have multi-year admissions knowledge?
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Which choice garners more points in the "Whole Person Multiple" ?
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We may dance around the subjective aspects of this question but the OBJECTIVE matters quite a bit in settling slates and filling out the class with Additional Appointees.
This line of thought makes sense to me. A kid that has a ton of leadership but is short on academic prowess might need to demonstrate the ability to handle hard classes over being ASB president. I guess the key is knowing in which area you are the weakest.