ChoiceEcon
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2019
- Messages
- 4
Hi, I'm new here and looking for some advice.
My daughter has wanted to attend West Point since she was in sixth grade. She has worked diligently and currently has an unweighted GPA that's a bit above 3.9 but not quite a 4.0.
She's a junior taking college courses full time. In these classes, she is averaging around 98/100 and has a 4.0 since beginning college classes. She will have taken calc 1 - 4, differential equations, linear algebra, and matrix algebra, discrete and finite math, a full year of college chem and a full year of college physics, as well as the full litany of English, history and political science courses by the time she graduates high school. She'll also have a letter for girl's wrestling, where she was noted as a scholar-athlete by the league she competes in. She participated in track and cross country but did not letter in either of those. She has not taken the SAT or ACT yet but I would expect her to break at least 30 on the ACT. She's also on her dual enrollment college's student conduct committee and their tenure committee.
She's started to run into a couple of problems with respect to West Point and the service academies, however. We're not sure how much of an impediment they'll be.
First, over the weekend she was filling out the West Point interest page on their website and it asked her for her class rank, so this morning she went into the school and asked. As a result, her unweighted class rank is just 84/530, placing her at around the 16% percentile. This weights all kids whether they're special ed, shop or college level kids on the same unweighted ranking without any weights for AP. Here's the rub though: even though she took AP classes that will ultimately get special weighting, none of her college classes will, which means that kids that stayed at the high school rather than really challenging themselves by going dual enrollment for multiple years of calc and other advanced classes, will shoot right by her in the class rank as seniors when weights get incorporated into the rank. As a result, she'll have by far the most challenging classes, more challenging than even the AP students, will have made more than 90% As all the way through, and her class rank is going to fall for having switched to college courses early. From what we understand, West Point pays particular attention to class rank, even more attention than they pay to GPAs.
The second problem she's facing is that she spent her first junior year on a US State Department (Congressional/Bundestag) scholarship in Germany, which meant it was impossible for her to hold leadership positions (i.e. could not run as a sophomore for any positions as a junior because she would not be there, could not run as a junior for senior class positions because she was not there), and when she returned she enrolled dual enrollment at our local college so again was not there. She tried to offset this by getting placed on the college's student conduct and tenure committees, but after having filled out the West Point page feels that her year in Germany has seriously damaged her ability to demonstrate leadership.
Worse, because she is dual enrollment and not at her high school, according to local American Legion rules, she was unable to apply or attend Girls State, which she had planned to attend.
She is the most disciplined and highest character person I know, or more accurately have ever known and has wanted West Point, or possibly the USNA, since I think sixth grade. While it's not what I would have chosen for her, I get it, and I think she's right that she belongs there. She's smart, she's fit, she's wise, she's honorable, she wants to serve. In fact, her lifetime goal is to join the FBI to protect people because without protection the weak would succumb to the strong and the brutal, without recourse. I find that trait in her to be admirable.
Here's the rub: two-out-of-three students at West Point are recruited atheletes and something like 80% of them were team captains in high school, something she won't ever get the opportunity to be. Recently this fact was reinforced when a kid from her school with a 3.5, which means 50% As and 50% Bs, signed to attend as a wrestler next year. She respects that he got in and that he's going, and is honestly excited for him, but it has underscored to her the seemingly long odds she faces given that she will not be a recruited athelete. Given the news regarding her class rank, she's beginning to feel forlorn, sensing that it is far more important to West Point to recruit athletes than to recruit students that have shown other traits and talents.
She loves sports, is not bad at them, in fact, this year earned a letter in wrestling, something she had worked for years to do (with thousands of kids at her school it's very difficult for underclassmen to earn a letter), she just feels that the divide between what West Point seeks and what she has to offer is too great and that she is not, as a result, the fit she once perceived herself to be.
To a large degree, I get her point. The presenters at the information sessions have been consistently clear that they value athletics and leadership, in particular as demonstrated as a captain of multiple teams. That is that West Point has become the IMG Academy of colleges, where to a large degree, only athletics matter.
Is she right? Is there anything I can tell her? Any advice I can provide, or is she right to switch strategies away from West Point given the gap between their focus and her offering?
My daughter has wanted to attend West Point since she was in sixth grade. She has worked diligently and currently has an unweighted GPA that's a bit above 3.9 but not quite a 4.0.
She's a junior taking college courses full time. In these classes, she is averaging around 98/100 and has a 4.0 since beginning college classes. She will have taken calc 1 - 4, differential equations, linear algebra, and matrix algebra, discrete and finite math, a full year of college chem and a full year of college physics, as well as the full litany of English, history and political science courses by the time she graduates high school. She'll also have a letter for girl's wrestling, where she was noted as a scholar-athlete by the league she competes in. She participated in track and cross country but did not letter in either of those. She has not taken the SAT or ACT yet but I would expect her to break at least 30 on the ACT. She's also on her dual enrollment college's student conduct committee and their tenure committee.
She's started to run into a couple of problems with respect to West Point and the service academies, however. We're not sure how much of an impediment they'll be.
First, over the weekend she was filling out the West Point interest page on their website and it asked her for her class rank, so this morning she went into the school and asked. As a result, her unweighted class rank is just 84/530, placing her at around the 16% percentile. This weights all kids whether they're special ed, shop or college level kids on the same unweighted ranking without any weights for AP. Here's the rub though: even though she took AP classes that will ultimately get special weighting, none of her college classes will, which means that kids that stayed at the high school rather than really challenging themselves by going dual enrollment for multiple years of calc and other advanced classes, will shoot right by her in the class rank as seniors when weights get incorporated into the rank. As a result, she'll have by far the most challenging classes, more challenging than even the AP students, will have made more than 90% As all the way through, and her class rank is going to fall for having switched to college courses early. From what we understand, West Point pays particular attention to class rank, even more attention than they pay to GPAs.
The second problem she's facing is that she spent her first junior year on a US State Department (Congressional/Bundestag) scholarship in Germany, which meant it was impossible for her to hold leadership positions (i.e. could not run as a sophomore for any positions as a junior because she would not be there, could not run as a junior for senior class positions because she was not there), and when she returned she enrolled dual enrollment at our local college so again was not there. She tried to offset this by getting placed on the college's student conduct and tenure committees, but after having filled out the West Point page feels that her year in Germany has seriously damaged her ability to demonstrate leadership.
Worse, because she is dual enrollment and not at her high school, according to local American Legion rules, she was unable to apply or attend Girls State, which she had planned to attend.
She is the most disciplined and highest character person I know, or more accurately have ever known and has wanted West Point, or possibly the USNA, since I think sixth grade. While it's not what I would have chosen for her, I get it, and I think she's right that she belongs there. She's smart, she's fit, she's wise, she's honorable, she wants to serve. In fact, her lifetime goal is to join the FBI to protect people because without protection the weak would succumb to the strong and the brutal, without recourse. I find that trait in her to be admirable.
Here's the rub: two-out-of-three students at West Point are recruited atheletes and something like 80% of them were team captains in high school, something she won't ever get the opportunity to be. Recently this fact was reinforced when a kid from her school with a 3.5, which means 50% As and 50% Bs, signed to attend as a wrestler next year. She respects that he got in and that he's going, and is honestly excited for him, but it has underscored to her the seemingly long odds she faces given that she will not be a recruited athelete. Given the news regarding her class rank, she's beginning to feel forlorn, sensing that it is far more important to West Point to recruit athletes than to recruit students that have shown other traits and talents.
She loves sports, is not bad at them, in fact, this year earned a letter in wrestling, something she had worked for years to do (with thousands of kids at her school it's very difficult for underclassmen to earn a letter), she just feels that the divide between what West Point seeks and what she has to offer is too great and that she is not, as a result, the fit she once perceived herself to be.
To a large degree, I get her point. The presenters at the information sessions have been consistently clear that they value athletics and leadership, in particular as demonstrated as a captain of multiple teams. That is that West Point has become the IMG Academy of colleges, where to a large degree, only athletics matter.
Is she right? Is there anything I can tell her? Any advice I can provide, or is she right to switch strategies away from West Point given the gap between their focus and her offering?
