Decline SLE after accepting

[afhopeful]

My son was accepted to SLE on Friday. It is the same week as Boys State. He was nominated for Boys State, but he does not yet know if he will be accepted.

He's not sure how to proceed. He wants to wait, but he's concerned that it could work against him (offer reminded, week not available if he waits too long).

If he accepts SLE, but later decides not to go, will that be a black mark against him?

 

[JWP]

There are a few different options to explore. However, I would highly recommend your Ds discussing this with his RC. The reason I say this, is my 2019 ds went through the same thing when he was applying. For the most part Boys state is preferable. However depending on the candidates leadership profile, SLE may be the better choice. This was the advice my ds was given from his RC. My Ds had a very solid leadership experience in his profile so his RC recommended that he goes to SLE. Now they're different thoughts on this but that's just my ds personal experience. There is also a potential to swap slots and go for an alternative week however I'm not sure how successful that can be. There are some that will absolutely say Boys State wins hands down over SLE and I believe in most cases that's true. However it all comes down to the individual candidates profile. That's why I recommend your ds talking with the RC. Best of

 

[bookreader]

@JWP makes a good point to get advice from your RC. If you have enough leadership points, then Boys State becomes a nice summer activity but not a crucial activity since you can't 'super' max out leadership points. My son did not attend Boys State since it was the same week at SLE. He'd wanted to attend SLE for years and so he chose to be at WP for that week. In his case, he clearly had enough leadership points without attending Boys State since he is now a cadet at WP. So, it's not essential - IF you have other areas where you have demonstrated leadership.

My son had a ton of fun at SLE and it only solidified his opinion that WP was the place for him. Even doing PT at O-dark-thirty in the rain didn't dissuade him.

 

[marian]

My son had a conflict with last summer's PA Boy's State. He was advised to attend ANOTHER STATE'S Boy's State Camp. He looked up when other states had theirs and wound up attending NH's and loved it. May be worth a try. The NH folks were nice as pie and welcomed him.....took some leg work up front, but start now and you should be fine. Caveat is that most states have theirs the same week in June..it was a fluke that NH was the following week and it worked out with his schedule. One last thing--since he was out of state, he was NOT eligible to be nominated and go to DC for the next phase. So keep that in mind.
PS Not sure how much it impacted his application but...he received his USMA Appt in January.