Extracurricular Composite Score

Farm Kid

5-Year Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2011
Messages
13
So I got a letter from the Academy the last week saying that my Extracurricular Composite Score was not competitive... does somebody want to tell me exactly what this means? Obviously, it deals with extracurricular activities, but is it disqualifying? I don't play any school sports because I work basically every day and after school on my family's farm, I am in Future Problem Solvers at my school (which meets in the morning before school, therefore I can actually participate), and I competitively race motocross. I asked my ALO about the letter, and she said she would look into it, but I haven't heard back from her yet. Same goes with my admissions counselor. It has been bothering me all week, so if somebody can please give me an answer, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
Best of luck but can I ask, would your family still be able to "get by" if you didn't work on the farm? Its still not to late to join sports/extracurriculars.
 
We would, but according to my dad, it does make his life a thousand times easier. But if you ask me, family always comes first. So while I'm living with my parents, I'm not going to abandon working for my dad for school sports. I used to play football and I was going to do track & field in the spring of my freshman year, but when I started racing my parents said to choose either motocross or football and track.

As for extracurriculars, I'm doing my best to be involved as much as possible. My school is fairly small (300-400 kids), so we're not offered that much for clubs, but like I said, I'm doing the best I can to get involved.

But does it really even help to join clubs and other extracurriculars at this point? Because my ALO called me a while back saying that I was chosen for an "early review" or something similar to that? I must really be out of the loop because I had never heard of this early review board until my ALO told me about it.
 
I hate to second guess another ALO. So please take this as "MY" opinion only.

Without access to your ALOWEB file (relax, its only available to ALO's on their own candidates) I can't see what they're looking at. But your description is fairly clear and could easily be a large portion of this.

This is where I would get the ALO very involved! If you're working every day, after school, as your ALO I would ask the following questions:

1. How many hours per week do you work?
2. What is the work, specifically (and I mean in detail here)
3. What does this work do for your family, again, in detail (we farm, it's our ONLY source of income/food/etc?
4. What ELSE are you involved in that we can discuss on your evaluation that will show that you are:

a. VERY involved outside of school
b. Critical to the very success/survival of the family; you have put them FIRST over sports, etc.
c. Your schooling is still excellent, your grades/GPA/SAT/ACT are proof of that
d. You are VERY fit physically and your CFA shows it

With all that, working with the counselor, I can paint a VERY detailed picture of you that "may" help overcome this. NO guarantees...but it's a place to start.

Oh...and "early review" simply means you've completed your file to the point you can...and the admissions folks (most likely the counselors) are looking at it for anything that "stands out" either way. It's not a selection board.

FYI...there hasn't been a selection board yet.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
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