Failed CFA...What's Next?

A

ArmybornArmyproud

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Feb 26, 2020
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Good morning. We received a call yesterday from our FFR and he informed us that our DD failed her CFA so she won't be getting an appointment. While this breaks our hearts we know it's not the end of the world. (Although I'm still hopeful that they will see how strong she is in the 90% and give her an appointment...) We are going to regroup and re-apply next year. I have some questions -- is the prep school an option? If so, how would we find out.

Our DD is very strong in her academics and community service areas. I know the academics will stay with her thru the next application but I don't know about the community service. Any recommendations to keep up her community service as a freshman in a state university?

What else do you recommend beside a gym membership/personal trainer?

Thanks in advance.
 
It took them a month after the application window closed to notify your DD that she failed?
 
mcm1019 said:
It took them a month after the application window closed to notify your DD that she failed?
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Technically USMA has not told us that she failed and will not receive an appointment. We have not received a TWE in the mail. But our FFR was looking in his portal and saw the red X by the CFA. And this lead a call to my husband.
 
I expect there is an organization at college whose purpose is community service.
 
A prep offer is likely not on the table, assuming her academics are qualified.

ROTC will be another nom source and an excellent path to pursue if she chooses to re-apply.

Colleges usually have student community service groups, or she can find volunteer opportunities on her own.

She can search “Stew Smith CFA” as a good resource. Stew is a former Navy SEAL, USNA grad and staff officer, now a fitness professional. She now has a generous window of prep time for her next CFA, and I hope she went right out and bought a pull-up bar to start ramping those up daily. She can talk to a track coach or other fitness professional about workouts for increasing her speed. There are You Tube videos on improving the basketball throw and shuttle run techniques. She could set a goal of 1 July, take and deliver an outstanding and significantly improved CFA, so that would be done and submitted.

She should get up, dust herself off and lead the charge on this. Showing significant CFA improvement, strong college freshman grades in plebe-like courses and ideally AROTC participation and fresh essays delivering newfound insights and maturity after a big disappointment, show perseverance, determination and a bit of grit.
 
Reapplying form college will be challenging for your DD as there are many other competing priorities. The process is fairly objective and 400 hours of community service over 200 hours will not have much impact on her chances.

She needs to focus on things that will have a bigger impact.

#1 CFA
#2 3.5 or higher with a challenging schedule
#3 Success in ROTC
 
ArmybornArmyproud said:
Good morning. We received a call yesterday from our FFR and he informed us that our DD failed her CFA so she won't be getting an appointment. While this breaks our hearts we know it's not the end of the world. (Although I'm still hopeful that they will see how strong she is in the 90% and give her an appointment...) We are going to regroup and re-apply next year. I have some questions -- is the prep school an option? If so, how would we find out.

Our DD is very strong in her academics and community service areas. I know the academics will stay with her thru the next application but I don't know about the community service. Any recommendations to keep up her community service as a freshman in a state university?

What else do you recommend beside a gym membership/personal trainer?

Thanks in advance.
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Sorry to hear this.

Take the CFA early next year - summertime. And, crush it. There is plenty of time this Spring and summer to max it or come close. Improve the rest of the package so that there are no new red flags.
 
ArmybornArmyproud said:
Our DD is very strong in her academics and community service areas. I know the academics will stay with her thru the next application but I don't know about the community service. Any recommendations to keep up her community service as a freshman in a state university?
Click to expand...
If your daughter already has community service, she doesn't need it but could and should do it if it is something that she personally values. For what its worth, I've been involved in Service Academy admissions for almost three decades and know of no actual requirements fro the academies for community service. Some MOCs look for it but the academies themselves mostly consider it as part of extracurricular activities and in that area the biggest admissions plus is leadership roles.

BLUF: She can continue or improve Academic and Leadership areas but must improve CFA.
 
Agree with all above. Would also recommend contacting RC for advice.

As a general rule mimic plebe schedule - English Composition, STEM level Math, Physics, Chemistry. However, RC may offer more specific advice based on her high school work and test scores.
 
I would
Capt MJ said:
A prep offer is likely not on the table, assuming her academics are qualified.

ROTC will be another nom source and an excellent path to pursue if she chooses to re-apply.

Colleges usually have student community service groups, or she can find volunteer opportunities on her own.

She can search “Stew Smith CFA” as a good resource. Stew is a former Navy SEAL, USNA grad and staff officer, now a fitness professional. She now has a generous window of prep time for her next CFA, and I hope she went right out and bought a pull-up bar to start ramping those up daily. She can talk to a track coach or other fitness professional about workouts for increasing her speed. There are You Tube videos on improving the basketball throw and shuttle run techniques. She could set a goal of 1 July, take and deliver an outstanding and significantly improved CFA, so that would be done and submitted.

She should get up, dust herself off and lead the charge on this. Showing significant CFA improvement, strong college freshman grades in plebe-like courses and ideally AROTC participation and fresh essays delivering newfound insights and maturity after a big disappointment, show perseverance, determination and a bit of grit.
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I second looking up the information on Stew Smith. I gave the Cliffnote version of what he recommends for runs. He goes into much more detail with a training program. Also the pull-ups. Even one pull-up is much better than doing the hang for time.
 
I have a question on Stew Smith, does anyone know him personally? My daughter has been following his training program (junior in high school) and she reached out to him twice by email to get more involvement with him which does cost money, which is fine and he never responded. She just last night brought it up again and thought it was strange that he did not respond after she emailed him to hire him for help. She checked her junk email too. Maybe he is super busy, we just thought it was odd.
 
USNAhopeful2025 said:
I have a question on Stew Smith, does anyone know him personally? My daughter has been following his training program (junior in high school) and she reached out to him twice by email to get more involvement with him which does cost money, which is fine and he never responded. She just last night brought it up again and thought it was strange that he did not respond after she emailed him to hire him for help. She checked her junk email too. Maybe he is super busy, we just thought it was odd.
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Sometime last year ( about Aug 2019 or so), I read about him on SAF and reached out to him on his cell via text msg. He was extremely prompt and provided guidance ( no charge). Not saying he has time and resources to do it for everyone, but just sharing my experience.
 
txfwindian said:
Sometime last year ( about Aug 2019 or so), I read about him on SAF and reached out to him on his cell via text msg. He was extremely prompt and provided guidance ( no charge). Not saying he has time and resources to do it for everyone, but just sharing my experience.
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ok that is good to know - my daughter said his website explains if you want to invest in the personal training program to email him before you buy it - so that is what she did - but I will tell her to look tonight again and see if there is a number to text - everybody seems to respond better with texts - thank you so much for the info!!! appreciate it txfwindian.
 
OldRetSWO said:
If your daughter already has community service, she doesn't need it but could and should do it if it is something that she personally values. For what its worth, I've been involved in Service Academy admissions for almost three decades and know of no actual requirements fro the academies for community service. Some MOCs look for it but the academies themselves mostly consider it as part of extracurricular activities and in that area the biggest admissions plus is leadership roles.

BLUF: She can continue or improve Academic and Leadership areas but must improve CFA.
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Gotcha. So how does she keep up her leadership areas? Or will what she has done thru high school still carry weight next year?
 
I'm a reapplicant this year and I really struggled with retaking the CFA after having scored relatively high the year prior at SLE. After failing my push ups and submitting a bad flexed arm hang video file, I reached out to a local gym to see if any of the trainers would be willing to give me some pointers on push up technique. While I was willing to pay for their time, the trainers were very generous in working with me after hearing I was preparing for the CFA for USMA, and worked with me several times over the course of a few weeks (free of charge!) to help me prepare for my retest. I am now continuing to work with these trainers with one-on-one personal training sessions to continue to prep for beast (no appointment yet but still hopeful), and I would highly recommend maybe reaching out to your local gym or seeing if anyone at your DD's college rec center would be willing to give her some guidance. Encourage her to keep training for her retest as she makes arrangements for college, and make sure she takes her CFA as soon as possible next round of admissions. The earlier she is able to submit the video, the more time she has to potentially redo the CFA if need be. Best of luck to your DD as she continues to pursue her USMA dreams!
 
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