Do I have a chance of getting in to the Air Force Academy

i_like_planes said:
Im a junior in high school and am just wondering if the Air Force Academy would be a realistic goal for myself.

ACT: 33
I've taken only one official test but since then my scores on practice tests have been 35/36 and i'm taking an official test next week.

GPA: 3.7

AP Physics: B+
AP U.S. History: B+
English: B+
Honors Spanish: B-
Pre-Calculus: B+ (less than half a percent from an A-)

Class Rank: my school doesn't do that

Extracurriculars: School newspaper, cross country, track, flight lessons since I was 10, summer jobs, independent courses on stuff like aeronautical engineering. Also I will be captain of the cross country team next season.

Fitness: I consider myself to be relatively fit. I workout a few times a week but don't focus too much on strength. I can do about 8-9 pull ups and 50 push ups. I really shine in running though. My mile time is 5:20.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
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It seems like you are all set. Get the application done, then work as hard as possible on your grades and fitness test stuff. You can do it!
 
Your ACT is high. YES, get it to 35 if you can.

You grades are low. Your extra-curriculars are a little above average for USAFA.

I would get the Kirkland AF ROTC book from amazon. Apply to AFROTC as well as USAFA. Apply to NROTC too, as the application is about the same.

Amazon.com: The Insider's Guide to the Air Force ROTC Scholarship for High School Students and Their Parents: 9781535319720: Kirkland, Robert: Books

Amazon.com: The Insider's Guide to the Air Force ROTC Scholarship for High School Students and Their Parents: 9781535319720: Kirkland, Robert: Books
www.amazon.com

ROTC scholarships can be 100% of tuition and they OVERWEIGHT ACT scores relative to grades. Let me repeat, the AFROTC scoring system specifically counts ACT scores as 50% more important than grades. This is key for your situation.

The other 40%+ of AFROTC is the interview. Again see Kirkland's book and his rotcconsulting.com blog. You need to destroy that interview. The questions are standard! They're in the book. Spend 5-10 hours practicing your answers over and over again. Pay $1500 for interview practice. It might get you a $200,000 scholarship. Do the math, it's a good deal.

Then... do your NROTC interviews, then your AFROTC interviews, then your USAFA interview. Assuming USAFA is most important to you, do them in that order. I'd say hell yes do the NROTC app/interview even if you're not super interested now because
1) it gives you practice for the other ones and
2)NROTC scholarships are "all or nothing".

You either get it and get 100% tuition or you don't get it. In contrast, AFROTC type I goes to 5% of apps and pays 100%. Most get type II or III and that can pay 100% to state schools or up to 18k to a private school.

Is there a Civil Air Patrol group in your area? If so, join it today. You have about 8 months to advance in rank, which you can do. And the experience will help you enormously in your interviews by 1) learning the "little thing" etiquette, how you address officers and 2) showing up for your interview (zoom or otherwise) in civil air patrol DRESS BLUES. That can NOT hurt!
 
MA Homeschool Dad said:
2) showing up for your interview (zoom or otherwise) in civil air patrol DRESS BLUES. That can NOT hurt!
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From that comment I don't think that you have a military background. The ONLY way that I'd recommend a JROTC/CAP/etc
member wear their uniform to an interview is if it is PERFECT - that means properly fitted and the second hand/issued stuff
rarely is. Then they need to be clean and freshly pressed and all of the insignia, clean and in good repair. All of the ribbons
should be clean and not frayed. Yes, I know that they are JROTC/CAP, etc and that will be seen in their resumes but if they
wear the uniform, it has to be worn correctly and most former military, especially long term can't help but see the things
that are not correct. This will not help the candidate.
Back before I went to USNA, I was a Sea Cadet and years later, after I got involved in interviewing and advising candidates,
I heard this from more experienced folks then me and in the decades since then, I have seen it many times. The candidates
that must wear uniforms are the Prep School (NAPS, MAPS, etc) and prior enlisted folks, the same advice applies to them
but they are expected to have and wear proper uniforms and should know how to prepare/wear them.
 
OldRetSWO said:
From that comment I don't think that you have a military background. The ONLY way that I'd recommend a JROTC/CAP/etc
member wear their uniform to an interview is if it is PERFECT - that means properly fitted and the second hand/issued stuff
rarely is. Then they need to be clean and freshly pressed and all of the insignia, clean and in good repair. All of the ribbons
should be clean and not frayed. Yes, I know that they are JROTC/CAP, etc and that will be seen in their resumes but if they
wear the uniform, it has to be worn correctly and most former military, especially long term can't help but see the things
that are not correct. This will not help the candidate.
Back before I went to USNA, I was a Sea Cadet and years later, after I got involved in interviewing and advising candidates,
I heard this from more experienced folks then me and in the decades since then, I have seen it many times. The candidates
that must wear uniforms are the Prep School (NAPS, MAPS, etc) and prior enlisted folks, the same advice applies to them
but they are expected to have and wear proper uniforms and should know how to prepare/wear them.
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So, if it was your child, you WOULD have them wear the uniform, because you would ensure it was perfect? Of course you would.

Mine has been in CAP 3 years and has visited several Congressmen's offices in DC in full dress blues. She had 4 full interviews in dress blues. She won 2 full ROTC scholarships in dress blues, and 3 Nominations so far, again, in dress blues.

Now... did Zoom help? Given your concern above... maybe! Harder to notice flaws in zoom. But are you really going to be harder on a kid with a flaw in a uniform they worked hard to earn the right to wear? It's somehow worse than a kid in a suit from JC Penny?
 
ACT is very good. Hopefully your subscores are good too, especially E and M. Did you take the essay? Make sure to take the essay the next time you sit - because you never know when you might need that score, especially since SAT is not offering it anymore. You aren't so busy you can't spend 1 more hour taking an essay.

Your grades - hard to tell without a reference (school profile for you vs. rigor and ranges), but a 3.7 is "ok" except immediately i'd be looking at any corroborating evidence -because your core classes are a 3.3, not a 3.7, so with only the information provided, you are scoring 4.0 in fluff classes to boost your overall GPA.

It looks like your 3 meaty and engaging activities are:
1 school newspaper - hopefully editor
2 XC and track - captain next year - are you city/district/region/state/national ranked individually?
3 flight lessons since 10 - will you earn a PPL soon? Do so.
plus...bonus "odd jobs" - maybe essay/story here

With ONLY the information provided, I would NOT recommend adding CAP or anything NEW at this point - it's obvious window dressing whereas you already have 3-4 meaty items to further engage, lead, and achieve. Each one of the first three items above are 1 or more bubbles for multiple years and captain/editor/leadership. Jobs is at least one, by range of hours.

I would focus on 7th semester grades and doing an about-face 4.0 with an in your face do or die mentality. While this won't move the dial much for your overall, an isolated 7th semester 4.0 will speak volumes as improvement. Plus, you can pat yourself on the back and say there was nothing you could have possibly done better, starting from your 5-6th semester which are water under the bridge.

Your fitness: nice you are starting from a not profoundly deficient fitness level. You actually sound like a good starting point. Start purposefully increasing fitness IN THE CFA COMPONENTS now, because you are just about to enter your 3-4 month dedicated CFA training window to when you should be ready to test (that would be the beginning of your application window, USAFA historically around 07/01 if you are in the earliest group. You might as well contact your CFA administrator now and pencil in a date.
 
MA Homeschool Dad said:
So, if it was your child, you WOULD have them wear the uniform, because you would ensure it was perfect? Of course you would.

Mine has been in CAP 3 years and has visited several Congressmen's offices in DC in full dress blues. She had 4 full interviews in dress blues. She won 2 full ROTC scholarships in dress blues, and 3 Nominations so far, again, in dress blues.

Now... did Zoom help? Given your concern above... maybe! Harder to notice flaws in zoom. But are you really going to be harder on a kid with a flaw in a uniform they worked hard to earn the right to wear? It's somehow worse than a kid in a suit from JC Penny?
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No, I would not have them wear the uniform because I know what I know. First of all, I would never "do" my kid's uniform, that is their
job and definitely not something that parents should have a role in. THEY are the cadets, not you and THEY need to take care of their
uniforms. I joined Sea Cadets at age 14 and my USN father did not inspect me or push me uniform wise. That was on me as I was the one
who was getting inspected and had to deal with any criticism/issues from the leaders.

In any case as a parent, it is true that I could be able to help with cleaning/pressing but they get issued the 2nd hand uniforms and they get
issued the ribbons with little ability to improve them. Is it fair? I won't say its necessarily fair but I've sat on a lot of interview boards and
can assure you that a perfect uniform is a good thing but if it is not perfect, then nice civilian clothes are appropriate.

By the way, I did not do "interview prep" for my son and also did not do CFA prep. I actually didn't know he'd completed his CFA until he
told me that it was done and to this day, I can't tell you how he did except that he passed. I doubt that my parents even knew that there was
a CFA. I was the one trying to get into the Academy and it was on me to get the application done. They helped me with rides and such but
that was the extent of their involvement and to a lesser extent, (35 yrs later) I pretty much stayed out of my son's application. My then girlfriend/
now wife was a bit more involved but only a little. It was on him to get his application, etc done as was the case for this brother and sisters and
their non-service academy colleges.
 
OldRetSWO said:
No, I would not have them wear the uniform because I know what I know. First of all, I would never "do" my kid's uniform, that is their
job and definitely not something that parents should have a role in. THEY are the cadets, not you and THEY need to take care of their
uniforms. I joined Sea Cadets at age 14 and my USN father did not inspect me or push me uniform wise. That was on me as I was the one
who was getting inspected and had to deal with any criticism/issues from the leaders.

In any case as a parent, it is true that I could be able to help with cleaning/pressing but they get issued the 2nd hand uniforms and they get
issued the ribbons with little ability to improve them. Is it fair? I won't say its necessarily fair but I've sat on a lot of interview boards and
can assure you that a perfect uniform is a good thing but if it is not perfect, then nice civilian clothes are appropriate.
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+1 @OldRetSWO

While there are exceptions, most engaged cadets would be C/A1Cs or C/SrAs after eight months in the program. I've met very few cadets even came close to wearing near-perfect uniforms at this stage of their CAP careers.

Not to dissuade anyone from joining CAP, but the HS juniors I have seen join the program quickly become disillusioned as 1) they realize that there's not enough time to promote enough to make a significate impact on their college/SA application rankings, 2) active engagement in CAP takes time out of their already busy schedule, and 3) much of their time is spent training with other cadet Airmen who are often 12-14 years old.
 
OHunts said:
What others have said, but people will tell you off-hand if you live in a competitive area. I live in PA06 and have been told that I live in a tough district from academy liaisons (and etc.). I’ve heard the same about a few other regions too.
You could also talk with your peers. I know a few kids from my grade at school (‘21) applying to the academies, and I’ve heard about other applicants through them as well. It doesn’t tell you the level of competition necessarily, but it does let you know if you live in an area where there’s some common level of interest in the SAs.
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Do you happen to know how difficult Colorado in general tends to be?
EDIT: I'm in CO06
 
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PyroSweets said:
Do you happen to know how difficult Colorado in general tends to be?
EDIT: I'm in CO06
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No, I’m sorry.

I know my area tends to be more difficult. And that’s partly we’re close to four of the academies. Navy, West Point, USMMA, and USCGA are all under a 4 hour drive here. My school even takes field trips to Annapolis because it’s that local. Additionally, there’s a lot of advertisements for the academies at my high school too.

I’m assuming Colorado would be more competitive for the Air Force Academy because more people would be exposed to that one. It’s not as competitive here for that compared to the others. USAFA is the only one I didn’t apply to too. (For a myriad of reasons, but exposure is one of them.)

You could ask your liaison. She/he would probably know.
 
USAFA_86 said:
The best way to answer you is to explain the nomination process. Your MOC and senators all get 1 slot at USAFA every year. To fill that slot, they can nominate 10 people. If they choose to do an unranked slate (which is most common), they will send USAFA 10 names, and USAFA picks out the one that they want. The remaining 9 people go into the national waitlist. If the senator or MOC chooses to do a principal nomination, they will select one person and list them as #1. That person will be offered an appointment if they are 3Q's (it's kind of like an LOA). The remaining 9 people will go into the national waitlist. In the national waitlist, USAFA ranks everybody and offers appointments to the top X amount of people. (X being however many people they need to fill the class after the nominations have been processed). So yes, theoretically, every single person who gets nominated in your district could be offered an appointment. However, only one will be "cashed" to that MOC. Everyone else would have to get in through the national waitlist. This is also why you have a greater chance of admission if you have more than one nomination. You are essentially competing on two or more different nomination slates, and you only have to win one. I hope this answers your question. Good luck!
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Do people who get in through the National waitlist have to wait for EVERYONE else to accept their appointment until they pull people from the waitlist?
 
So how fast is a 5:20 mile for what I will assume is a female soph who has not run her junior year track season yet?

Do people still run the mile?

Another way to ask——based on where you are now will you have the ability to run D1 or D2 college track or cross country?

If so this could be your golden ticket to a direct admit to a SA or a SA prep school. And a 3.7 gpa would be great for prep school if not also a direct admit.

If you were my child I’d suggest the best thing you can do is knock time off your times.
 
Small Team Bacsi said:
So how fast is a 5:20 mile for what I will assume is a female soph who has not run her junior year track season yet?

Do people still run the mile?

Another way to ask——based on where you are now will you have the ability to run D1 or D2 college track or cross country?

If so this could be your golden ticket to a direct admit to a SA or a SA prep school. And a 3.7 gpa would be great for prep school if not also a direct admit.

If you were my child I’d suggest the best thing you can do is knock time off your times.
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5:20 is fast for a female. Times for USAFA track are on the website. You can also look up the roster to see last year's run times
 
FlyFalcon said:
5:20 is fast for a female. Times for USAFA track are on the website. You can also look up the roster to see last year's run times
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Well OP there is your path.

Talk to your HS coach and develop a plan to make the USAFA track and cc coaches aware of your desire to compete for the USAFA.
 
goairforcefalcons.com

Men Claim Team Title at Air Force Invitational - Air Force Academy Athletics

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – Backed by five first-place finishes and the men's team title, the Air Force track and field squad wrapped up competition at its home...
goairforcefalcons.com goairforcefalcons.com

Senior Mahala Norris and sophomore Maddie Edwards picked up first-place finishes for the women, while leading several Falcons to scoring finishes in the mile and 3000-meter run, respectively. Norris clocked a time of 5:08.35 to win the 12-member mile and lead freshman Rachel Crytser (5:30.09 collegiate debut), freshman Rebecca Wusinich (5:31.72 collegiate debut) and sophomore Stephanie Gregerson (5:33.36 event debut) to a 3-4-5 finish, while Edwards posted a time of 10:57.74 to pace freshmen Caitlin McConnell (11:27.01) and Rayna Fruchey (11:45.94) to a sweep of the top-three placements in the 3000-meter run.

If 5:20 is pace, then USAFA would like to know about her. But this was at the academy so I am sure times were a little slower thanks to altitude.

Best of luck.
 
LTBob87 said:
goairforcefalcons.com

Men Claim Team Title at Air Force Invitational - Air Force Academy Athletics

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – Backed by five first-place finishes and the men's team title, the Air Force track and field squad wrapped up competition at its home...
goairforcefalcons.com goairforcefalcons.com

Senior Mahala Norris and sophomore Maddie Edwards picked up first-place finishes for the women, while leading several Falcons to scoring finishes in the mile and 3000-meter run, respectively. Norris clocked a time of 5:08.35 to win the 12-member mile and lead freshman Rachel Crytser (5:30.09 collegiate debut), freshman Rebecca Wusinich (5:31.72 collegiate debut) and sophomore Stephanie Gregerson (5:33.36 event debut) to a 3-4-5 finish, while Edwards posted a time of 10:57.74 to pace freshmen Caitlin McConnell (11:27.01) and Rayna Fruchey (11:45.94) to a sweep of the top-three placements in the 3000-meter run.

If 5:20 is pace, then USAFA would like to know about her. But this was at the academy so I am sure times were a little slower thanks to altitude.

Best of luck.
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And there's the evidence thanks! Definitely get in contact with the coachs and keep working hard
 
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