I've read literally nearly every thread in this forum on preparatory schools and I'm just a bit confused by their selections process still. I understand it is for active duty or reserve/athletes/minorities, but here's my issue. I know the goal is to increase ones academic preparation for the actual service academies, but how can they even consider certain individuals when those who actually DO need the academic help will not have their portal on the respective admissions website further be allowed to open.
Many students are well rounded, but since they scored poorly, I sense they will never even be looked at. Can someone explain this to me? If someone WERE academically qualified then they wouldn't need prep school in a sense, correct? A 3x qualified individual shouldn't be attending prep school. If you've met the academic minimums, then clearly you are capable of attending a service academy. It makes me confused because I've heard of people being accepted with sat scores ranging from 300-500 in certain sections (not even qualified for academic minimums), but how did they advance when the application should, by default, have been closed on them? I'm not talking about active duty or reserves either, I'm specifically referring to civilians in highschool.
One other thing, what else do they look at besides race? Do they consider parental income, single/married parent, the area which they live, school/education quality, other outside factors (for example, had to take care of sick mother with life threatening illness), etc. ? I feel like all this information is a mystery and still hasn't been set in stone.
Many students are well rounded, but since they scored poorly, I sense they will never even be looked at. Can someone explain this to me? If someone WERE academically qualified then they wouldn't need prep school in a sense, correct? A 3x qualified individual shouldn't be attending prep school. If you've met the academic minimums, then clearly you are capable of attending a service academy. It makes me confused because I've heard of people being accepted with sat scores ranging from 300-500 in certain sections (not even qualified for academic minimums), but how did they advance when the application should, by default, have been closed on them? I'm not talking about active duty or reserves either, I'm specifically referring to civilians in highschool.
One other thing, what else do they look at besides race? Do they consider parental income, single/married parent, the area which they live, school/education quality, other outside factors (for example, had to take care of sick mother with life threatening illness), etc. ? I feel like all this information is a mystery and still hasn't been set in stone.