Extracurricular Feedback

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Heat_Miser

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Joined
Mar 19, 2021
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72
President and Founder of my schools History Club
National Honors Society (looking to be officer of this)
German Honors Society
Model UN
Volunteer firefighter
Church Group member
Football (3 years: 1 year varsity, 1 year captain voted by my teammates)
Tennis (3 years)
Boys state (My state's Boys State credit this year is just taking an open note civics exam so I'll get credit when I pass that)

Does this look solid? I figured this would be the strong suit of my application, but any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
 
I would say that this looks pretty good. I see you said you have been involved in sports, for 3 - 4 years. How about all the other ECs? I've received some advice to a similar situation to yours, and that it is most likely to have few, and meaningful ECs, rather than so many ECs that don't mean anything to you personally.

I would say this looks good, just please provide, how long you have been apart of these ECs.
 
Looks good:
  • Multiple activities that fall into the standardized check boxes for WCS points
  • Varsity Football Captain earns good WCS points
  • Boys State a big plus
Listen to your RC and FFR, but it appears to me that you should focus on maximizing the academic portion (60%) of criteria, and of course pass CFA.
 
Short answer: very solid.
Longer answer: it's a solid as many equally solid candidates. How will you answer the question: Why should they bring me to the long gray line, given there are many candidates just like me? What is/are my archilles heel(s)? Is there anything I can do to overcome them? Am I using Yes Buts to justify myself? If so, what if anything can I do about it? Am I overlooking something so compelling about myself, my situation, my life experiences, that I take for granted since it's the way it's always been?

You appear to be a rising senior (with the description of Boys State), so
*your GPA is rather set, other than the grades this semester, so finish strong as you will be applying with 6th semester grades.
*if you do not already have anchoring scores, make a 3 month plan and take SAT/ACTS through the summer and very early Fall. If you are applying to all SAs, use the free score sends to the SAME 4, and the 5th SA you would pay for them along with ROTC and civilian colleges. I say use the same 4 and not split them because you may end up needed to send 1 here, 1 there, etc and it gets confusing.
*are you going to SLE? Is it in person? Are they administering the CFA? Can you use it (as in past years) for the other SAs? If so, gear for the CFA at SLE, but also get Team Heat_Mister together and pencil in a CFA at home as backup. It was so convenient to knock out the CFA the first week of June at SLE and then use that for USNA, USAFA, and USMMA (My DD, C2024).
*Figure out how to get as many elements as possible done this summer. My DD's strategy was to get it to look and feel more like a civilian college application - so the CFA and DoDMERB were key to complete during the summer.
 
t
HCopter said:
Short answer: very solid.
Longer answer: it's a solid as many equally solid candidates. How will you answer the question: Why should they bring me to the long gray line, given there are many candidates just like me? What is/are my archilles heel(s)? Is there anything I can do to overcome them? Am I using Yes Buts to justify myself? If so, what if anything can I do about it? Am I overlooking something so compelling about myself, my situation, my life experiences, that I take for granted since it's the way it's always been?

You appear to be a rising senior (with the description of Boys State), so
*your GPA is rather set, other than the grades this semester, so finish strong as you will be applying with 6th semester grades.
*if you do not already have anchoring scores, make a 3 month plan and take SAT/ACTS through the summer and very early Fall. If you are applying to all SAs, use the free score sends to the SAME 4, and the 5th SA you would pay for them along with ROTC and civilian colleges. I say use the same 4 and not split them because you may end up needed to send 1 here, 1 there, etc and it gets confusing.
*are you going to SLE? Is it in person? Are they administering the CFA? Can you use it (as in past years) for the other SAs? If so, gear for the CFA at SLE, but also get Team Heat_Mister together and pencil in a CFA at home as backup. It was so convenient to knock out the CFA the first week of June at SLE and then use that for USNA, USAFA, and USMMA (My DD, C2024).
*Figure out how to get as many elements as possible done this summer. My DD's strategy was to get it to look and feel more like a civilian college application - so the CFA and DoDMERB were key to complete during the summer.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the extremely helpful insight. I'm in the process of training for the CFA currently, and I am also working on the SAT. Without studying, I got a 1270, I'm taking it two more times in the future (at least), I hope to bump it up to at least a 1350. According to the College Board, my SAT score was in the exact middle of the average range of incoming freshman (1160-1380), so at least I have a good baseline to work my way up from.

To answer your question, what I believe sets me above other equally solid candidates is my passion for West Point and the United States Army sets me aside from the competition. I do not plan on going to a regular college unlike many people on here who post about deciding between USMA or some other selective school. In my history club, we review much information, including some of the actions of West Pointers like George McClellan and Robert E. Lee (I included this on my application). I have been studying military history for years; I won an award in 8th grade from the Daughters of the American Revolution for being the student most passionate about history in my class, and the Civil War is my favorite time period to learn about. Researching the actions of the generals who fought (many of them West Pointers themselves) made me dedicated to going to the United States Military Academy; I want to continue their legacy of gallant, honorable service to their country.

I believe my "Achilles heel" would be my academics, but I wouldn't consider it a weakness. It is just the section in my opinion I need to improve upon the most.

Anyway, thanks for the very thoughtful info, those questions really made me think deeply on the status of my application and why I want to go to west point.
 
Very Strong EC's
Pair this with a strong SAT, Rank, and interview and you should be set
With these EC's your #1 focus should be getting as high of an SAT as possible, as well as keeping your rank as high as possible
I also recommend opening and finishing your file as early as you can without sacrificing quality so you can be considered for an LOA
Good Luck!
 
Lucas8200 said:
Very Strong EC's
Pair this with a strong SAT, Rank, and interview and you should be set
With these EC's your #1 focus should be getting as high of an SAT as possible, as well as keeping your rank as high as possible
I also recommend opening and finishing your file as early as you can without sacrificing quality so you can be considered for an LOA
Good Luck!
Click to expand...
thanks!
 
Heat_Miser said:
t

Thanks for the extremely helpful insight. I'm in the process of training for the CFA currently, and I am also working on the SAT. Without studying, I got a 1270, I'm taking it two more times in the future (at least), I hope to bump it up to at least a 1350. According to the College Board, my SAT score was in the exact middle of the average range of incoming freshman (1160-1380), so at least I have a good baseline to work my way up from.

To answer your question, what I believe sets me above other equally solid candidates is my passion for West Point and the United States Army sets me aside from the competition. I do not plan on going to a regular college unlike many people on here who post about deciding between USMA or some other selective school. In my history club, we review much information, including some of the actions of West Pointers like George McClellan and Robert E. Lee (I included this on my application). I have been studying military history for years; I won an award in 8th grade from the Daughters of the American Revolution for being the student most passionate about history in my class, and the Civil War is my favorite time period to learn about. Researching the actions of the generals who fought (many of them West Pointers themselves) made me dedicated to going to the United States Military Academy; I want to continue their legacy of gallant, honorable service to their country.

I believe my "Achilles heel" would be my academics, but I wouldn't consider it a weakness. It is just the section in my opinion I need to improve upon the most.

Anyway, thanks for the very thoughtful info, those questions really made me think deeply on the status of my application and why I want to go to west point.
Click to expand...
I was in your position with the SAT at the end of my junior year with Covid cancelling my other tests I had a 1270 SAT and studied using ONLY Khan Academy and youtube videos on a strict weekly schedule for 8 week and got to a 1390. It is possible to make improvement with EFFORT! Good luck.
 
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