Scoutpilot,
I dont feel the poster was complaining--and I am going to apologize in advance for straying waaaaayyy off topic here.
This topic leads me to address something that is known but never really talked about-which is the true minorities in a service academy. I would love to see data on income of those accepted to the service academies (not couting enlisted)
It is naive and foolish to think that money-and a lot of it- doesn't play a part in the admissions process. Comparing the application fees to a top university and to a service academy is like comparing sea monkeys to big foot.
1) My son had knowledge of the history of the act scores of the previously admitted from our district. We live in a very competitive area. Every point towards WCS had to be treated like a golden nugget. Multiple SAT/ACTs had to be taken with results that had to be sent to four nomination sources, ROTC, and the academy. Yes, the ACT/SAT may been retaken but the amount of times taken for my son was directly related to the competitiveness of our district for the service academies-which leads applicants to not only take the test a million times but then all of the scores have to paid to be sent a million times. I can honestly state my son ended up taking the ACT/SAT 8 times-with each super score on a different test. Thus sending the score to a million different places. For his plan B school once his junior year and then again senior year would have been plenty. The Plan B school took test scores on the transcripts-no extra charge and no requirement to send MOCs his scores.
2) Transcripts to the academies plus each nomination source cost money-and it all adds up. Our school also charges for each. The Plan B school does not require that extra transcripts to go to MOC.
3) Yes, we could forgo the 1,000+ dollars to fly to 2 summer leadership seminars, but then he wouldn't be able to correctly answer the MOC when he asked "have you visited the academy? And did you attend SLS?" Also my son had to go buy appropriate clothes to wear to SLS-yup he didnt have a bunch of khaki shorts. He has dress pants for church and track pants for school. When he visited plan B colleges he was fine with what he had. Believe it or not he didn’t have a bathing suit to wear to NASS-he swims in shorts at home (im not kidding).
4.) The CFA costs money. My son had a 7:20 mile initially-he had to shave off a lot of time. He owned basketball shoes-not running shoes ($100.00)running shoes-in an effort to shave running time down to pass the CFA (something plan B did not make him do) he had to invest in running shoes, sounds silly I know-but it is what it is and you cant run fast in basketball shoes. (he got down to a 5:25 mile). There is a personal trainer in our area as well who charges 50.00 per hour to help with the CFA. My son didn’t use him but we know those who did.
5) ten million incidentals that all add up. My son, for example had 4 interviews at our house. I spent about 15.00 each time on cookies, fruit and lemonade to serve. ($60.00)-no interviews for plan B school. The weeks he traveled over summer made it impossible for him to get any consistent summer job. The summer before he raked in the money with three different jobs-this past summer he couldn't do that-with his home for a week, gone for a week, home for a week. gone for a week, home for a week etc schedule.
6.) Boys State. Our state charges for boys state-its not cheap. He got no points for this for his Plan B school. He couldn’t sacrifice the points that he needed towards his WCS by not going to boys state.
Something to additionally consider—not directly related to any application process but to further illustrate that putting together the “right profile” costs money. My son has used a private coach over the years-this put him in a position that allowed him to play a very high level of sports. This cost A LOT of money over the years. What about the families who couldn’t pay for that? My son got a 36 on the math section of the ACT. He also had a math tutor once per week since freshman year (his math classes were beyond my scope from 6th grade on
what about the families who couldn’t afford that? My son had speech therapy-privately (not covered by insurance) for years to fix that “R” sound that just wasn’t coming. Without that he would most likely have failed the read aloud portion of dodmerb. What about the families who couldn't afford that? You may argue that there are special circumstances with some applicants-those who had to work to help support their families for example. However, when you look at the athlete, scholar, citizen profile listed on the demographics page…well those kids aren’t really represented are they? Its high test scores, high level multiple sports and hundreds of volunteer hours. That cost money.
All of this for no guarantee and with the knowledge that many apply and few get in. Will he get a free tuition (one nickel at a time…) perhaps, however his Plan B school will be about that given Merit scholarships.
Additionally,These are not complaints-just the facts. It's "nonsense" not to give credence to the fact that this process can be a large financial strain on parents. Its also short sighted to chastise them for illustrating that fact. Though perhaps to some this money is not relevant. However, to others, every dime counts.