I have shared my daughters journey a few times on this site but feel I need to once again. All is not lost here friends. DD is a 2016 HS graduate. She did not apply to SA last year. She did apply to many top colleges. Notre Dame, Georgetown, UVA, Tulane, BC, American University and UMD. She was #5 in class of 502, 4.65 GPA, 12 AP courses, 1380 SAT and 32 ACT and the list goes on. Four year varsity soccer, track, volunteer, mission work. Well, our fall of 2016 was full of one rejection, deferral and waitlist after another. By Jan she had only been accepted to UMD. She had to come up with plan B. She applied to a few other school. This time last year she was accepted to BU, UMD and George Washington University. She accepted GW moved on though not really feeling 100% she was in the right place. She studied hard, built a relationship with her professors and got involved. In Dec. she decided to apply to the SA . USNA, USAFA and USCGA as she realized this is where she needed to be. She got a late start but worked to get a congressional and POTUS nomination. Two weeks ago she was appointed to USAFA and last week to USNA. Still waiting on USCGA but Navy is her dream so she accepted right away. We truly believe she had to experience the rejection/challenges of last year and work through the fall to get where she is today. She did a lot of maturing this past year and is now ready for the challenge of the USNA. My advise to all who got the TWE, accept plan B with no regrets, work hard to get top grades in courses similar to those of the USNA, CONNECT WITH YOUR COLLEGE PROFESSORS they will write you great letters of rec, get involved in stuff on campus, show leadership and reapply for next year. She looks at this past year as her NAPS at a really amazing college. Best of luck you all of you.