Hooah! USMA! Where do I stand?

Chris_GoArmy

10-Year Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
29
Hello fellow candidates, those who are extremely interested in going to the prestigious USMA as well as I am, and those who can aid others who are interested in applying.

I would first like to discuss SLS.
As a Junior, I was advised by my Senior Army Instructor to apply as soon as USMA was open to SLS applications on December 15th, 2010. I haven't received my letter of acceptance yet, although I was told that my letter was supposed to be sent that week. If anyone received their letter, what does it speak about? You don't have to if it's confidential (if it is, I'm not sure). If anyone has already attended SLS in the past, can you please explain your experience during SLS and the activities you have all done? Thank you.

I would also like to discuss where I stand since I am very concerned about how I will stack up.
My grades for all years up to my Junior year has been a steady B, but this first half of this Junior year has been a bit rough due mainly because I am very busy after school with sports, activities, community service, etc. I understand that they don't look at the GPA per se, but I want to maintain high standards because I don't want to drop down to a C+. My school's course work is known to be extremely difficult, since it's a very prestigious school in New York. I stand pretty well when it comes to varsity athletics, extracurricular activities, and being affiliated with my school community. I'm a student government representative for my homeroom and I'm also a part of the Model United Nations. I'm also working among my community in my neighborhood and I'm joining the Civil Air Patrol in order to work more within my community. I'm also going to make a call regarding membership to boys state, since I am very interested in that too. I'm also in JROTC, and I'm a pretty high rank as a Junior as an NCOIC with the rank of Cadet/ Master Sergeant. I haven't really been too open to AP or honors classes, although I almost skipped ahead to Calculus which was a senior course (but my teacher felt that it would be better to be placed back in Junior year algebra). I already have the support of my Senior Army Instructor and a well known retired detective who was one of the first responders to the call of duty during 9/11 and is pretty well known.

How do I look so far?
 
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I would also like to discuss where I stand since I am very concerned about how I will stack up.
My grades for all years up to my Junior year has been a steady B, but this first half of this Junior year has been a bit rough due mainly because I am very busy after school with sports, activities, community service, etc. I understand that they don't look at the GPA per se, but I want to maintain high standards because I don't want to drop down to a C+. My school's course work is known to be extremely difficult, since it's a very prestigious school in New York. I stand pretty well when it comes to varsity athletics, extracurricular activities, and being affiliated with my school community. I'm a student government representative for my homeroom and I'm also a part of the Model United Nations. I'm also working among my community in my neighborhood and I'm joining the Civil Air Patrol in order to work more within my community. I'm also going to make a call regarding membership to boys state, since I am very interested in that too. I'm also in JROTC, and I'm a pretty high rank as a Junior as an NCOIC with the rank of Cadet/ Master Sergeant. I haven't really been too open to AP or honors classes, although I almost skipped ahead to Calculus which was a senior course (but my teacher felt that it would be better to be placed back in Junior year algebra).

You probably will want to spend some time reading through the recent posts on SLS; there has been a lot of discussion recently. My cadet did not do SLS.

My cadet's WP Admissions officer and MALO told him to take the hardest classes his school had to offer. Please sign up for honors or AP classes next year. I am concerned that your grades have suffered in light of all of your extracurricular activities. Time management and organizational skills are crucial for success at West Point. You will have a heavy courseload in addition to all of your responsibilities as a Plebe. You don't get to hang back in your room and just study all the time.

What sort of scores do you have on the SAT or ACT?
 
I attended last year's SLS, and highly recommend it if you get a chance to go. It was one of the highlights of the past summer, and I was very impressed with how well run it was (also attended USAFA's seminar which unfortunately was not as well organized).

For activities, I would advise you to show up sometime early in the window that they give you for check in. They do like a mini-mock R-day and if show up late, you won't be able to run through all the activities such as drilling, going over ranks, etc. It was one of my regrets that I showed up and wasn't able to get through all the stations. We had friends on post and I ended up staying and eating lunch with them so I won't say the time was wasted.

During the week, you will be waking up in the morning to do PT. Your cadre are pretty cool when it comes to making sure you get a real work out. There will be a company run at one point, and we also went down to the dips/pull up bar area so we got to see some of the different areas the cadets do PT on a regular basis. You'll get back, clean up, go to breakfast then go to class.

The seminars were ok. I was in english, civil engineering, and something else that I can't remember off the top of my head. English was kinda boring...the engineering was fun. The third if I don't remember it probably didn't have that great of an impact on me. I know that for the engineering class I ended up in the same class as one of my friends that I hadn't seen in over a couple years due to us moving away from the post which was pretty sick.

The big thing is that you get to talk to the professors, ask them questions about the academy. All the professors I had were active duty so besides them being able to talk about academy life and academics, they answered questions on active duty life and their own experiences.

The seminars are broken up so that you go to a morning session, eat lunch, and then go back to an afternoon session. After that's done, there were afternoon activities. There was a slot that you would be participating in intermurals (dodgeball was huge as was ultimate frisbee), time for the cadre to put you through a smoke session (interesting way to end my first day there), and other planned activities like getting to see the simulated warfighting area.

One of the best days was the field day. It was an all day thing where there were no classes, but you went and got to do obstacle courses, part of the bayonet course run, see different military equipment (no apaches for us though which me and one of our cadre sad).

The week is just pretty cool when it comes to giving you a glimpse into what the cadets do, their culture, and what they're working to be a part of in the US Army. It definitly helped me in cementing the fact i wanted to go there. PM me if you want more specifics although if you do get a chance to go, you'll be taken care of.
 
Its hard to tell, because you weren’t specific about GPA, SAT/ACT, how many EC’s you have etc. If you bring up those B’s to A’s (at least some of them) and have good test scores you are looking pretty good.

Just a piece of advice Civil Air Patrol is only as good as what you make it to be. There was a Civil Air Patrol(CAP) thread a while ago, you may want to look at. I’m a C/A1C, senior rifle bearer in my Color Guard, and love it!:thumb:
 
I applied to this years SLS program 3 weeks after it opened and recieved an acceptance later the following week. One of my friends applied on December 15th like you and also recieved an accetance letter within the week. One of my friends applied and recieved a letter within a week placing her on the waiting list for further notification in April. And my last friend who applied recieved a letter within a week informing him of his rejection of the program.

I have similar extracurriculars too you, but my school does not offer an ROTC program. My grades are mostly A's with a few B's but I feel that what really helped my acceptance was my PSAT's scores which were fairly high. I think that your best course of action now should be to work on your grades and get them all up into the A's and high B's range. And you should also think about taking the SATs soon. One test was offered this past weekend and I believe the next test will be offered in early March. You should get a review book or think about taking a course.

Best of luck to you!
 
I attended last year's SLS, and highly recommend it if you get a chance to go. It was one of the highlights of the past summer, and I was very impressed with how well run it was (also attended USAFA's seminar which unfortunately was not as well organized).

For activities, I would advise you to show up sometime early in the window that they give you for check in. They do like a mini-mock R-day and if show up late, you won't be able to run through all the activities such as drilling, going over ranks, etc. It was one of my regrets that I showed up and wasn't able to get through all the stations. We had friends on post and I ended up staying and eating lunch with them so I won't say the time was wasted.

During the week, you will be waking up in the morning to do PT. Your cadre are pretty cool when it comes to making sure you get a real work out. There will be a company run at one point, and we also went down to the dips/pull up bar area so we got to see some of the different areas the cadets do PT on a regular basis. You'll get back, clean up, go to breakfast then go to class.

The seminars were ok. I was in english, civil engineering, and something else that I can't remember off the top of my head. English was kinda boring...the engineering was fun. The third if I don't remember it probably didn't have that great of an impact on me. I know that for the engineering class I ended up in the same class as one of my friends that I hadn't seen in over a couple years due to us moving away from the post which was pretty sick.

The big thing is that you get to talk to the professors, ask them questions about the academy. All the professors I had were active duty so besides them being able to talk about academy life and academics, they answered questions on active duty life and their own experiences.

The seminars are broken up so that you go to a morning session, eat lunch, and then go back to an afternoon session. After that's done, there were afternoon activities. There was a slot that you would be participating in intermurals (dodgeball was huge as was ultimate frisbee), time for the cadre to put you through a smoke session (interesting way to end my first day there), and other planned activities like getting to see the simulated warfighting area.

One of the best days was the field day. It was an all day thing where there were no classes, but you went and got to do obstacle courses, part of the bayonet course run, see different military equipment (no apaches for us though which me and one of our cadre sad).

The week is just pretty cool when it comes to giving you a glimpse into what the cadets do, their culture, and what they're working to be a part of in the US Army. It definitly helped me in cementing the fact i wanted to go there. PM me if you want more specifics although if you do get a chance to go, you'll be taken care of.


Thanks for your reply! I'll take your advise.
 
You probably will want to spend some time reading through the recent posts on SLS; there has been a lot of discussion recently. My cadet did not do SLS.

My cadet's WP Admissions officer and MALO told him to take the hardest classes his school had to offer. Please sign up for honors or AP classes next year. I am concerned that your grades have suffered in light of all of your extracurricular activities. Time management and organizational skills are crucial for success at West Point. You will have a heavy courseload in addition to all of your responsibilities as a Plebe. You don't get to hang back in your room and just study all the time.

What sort of scores do you have on the SAT or ACT?

Thanks for your reply, I'm actually managing time for this quarter of Junior year and all is going well, I just need to make time managements for the extracurricular activities as well as study in school during my free periods when I have a chance. I am yet to take the SATs, but I am attending SAT prep.
 
http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=13574

here's a link to a thread I did awhile back. It's basically an after-action report for SLS. It expands a lot on what Casey said and it has everything I wish I knew before going to SLS.

You've come to the right place here. There's a wealth of information on the admissions process and beyond from some very informed folks including USMA grads, MALO's, Field Force Reps, and current USMA cadets.
 
http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=13574

here's a link to a thread I did awhile back. It's basically an after-action report for SLS. It expands a lot on what Casey said and it has everything I wish I knew before going to SLS.

You've come to the right place here. There's a wealth of information on the admissions process and beyond from some very informed folks including USMA grads, MALO's, Field Force Reps, and current USMA cadets.

Thank you so much. I'm glad I registered with this web site.
 
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