Mom of USAFA 18 Candidate
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2014
- Messages
- 1
16 y/o dd has a principal MOC nomination, a great academic record, and stellar SAT scores. However, she saw a counselor and took Citalopram for situational anxiety intermittently for four years, ages 11-15. This occurred after her father left the family and while I was experiencing serious illnesses and surgeries that led to my job loss and bankruptcy.
As she matured she needed less and less outside help coping, and has now been off of medication and counseling for more than a year and has functioned exceedingly well. For example, during this last year she has been able to earn 29 hours of college credit with a 4.0, including a five-hour engineering calculus course, linear algebra, and physics, all without counseling or medication. (She has gone to the local community college as a dual-enrolled homeschool student and is graduating high school a year early.)
She also went through us losing our house and having to move twice in three months during this time, and handled it all very well emotionally despite having no mental health treatment. I am not at all trying to brag, just to show that she has functioned well despite adversity and is no longer affected by any significant anxiety.
However, she has just been DQ'd by DoDMERB for the history of anxiety, and we are waiting to see if the AFA will request a waiver. My question is: What steps can I take to make a waiver more likely?
Should I get a copy of her medical records from her pediatrician and counselor? Should I ask them each to write a letter explaining how well she has functioned in the last year without any treatment? Would it help to have her see an independent psychologist for a psychological evaluation?
Should any of these letters/evaluations be sent to the AFA to help them decide that they do want to ask for a waiver, or should they be submitted to DoDMERB?
Is there anything else we can do? She has so much potential, and has triumphed already after being abandoned by her father and having to help care for her autistic younger brother during my illnesses. Through it all she has persevered cheerfully, worked hard, challenged herself, and desperately wants to go to the Academy and become an Air Force officer.
She is also applying for an ROTC scholarship, but I realize she will be DQ'd by DoDMERB for this as well, though she may or may not be able to get a waiver more easily from them than the Academy.
Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions would be most welcome!
As she matured she needed less and less outside help coping, and has now been off of medication and counseling for more than a year and has functioned exceedingly well. For example, during this last year she has been able to earn 29 hours of college credit with a 4.0, including a five-hour engineering calculus course, linear algebra, and physics, all without counseling or medication. (She has gone to the local community college as a dual-enrolled homeschool student and is graduating high school a year early.)
She also went through us losing our house and having to move twice in three months during this time, and handled it all very well emotionally despite having no mental health treatment. I am not at all trying to brag, just to show that she has functioned well despite adversity and is no longer affected by any significant anxiety.
However, she has just been DQ'd by DoDMERB for the history of anxiety, and we are waiting to see if the AFA will request a waiver. My question is: What steps can I take to make a waiver more likely?
Should I get a copy of her medical records from her pediatrician and counselor? Should I ask them each to write a letter explaining how well she has functioned in the last year without any treatment? Would it help to have her see an independent psychologist for a psychological evaluation?
Should any of these letters/evaluations be sent to the AFA to help them decide that they do want to ask for a waiver, or should they be submitted to DoDMERB?
Is there anything else we can do? She has so much potential, and has triumphed already after being abandoned by her father and having to help care for her autistic younger brother during my illnesses. Through it all she has persevered cheerfully, worked hard, challenged herself, and desperately wants to go to the Academy and become an Air Force officer.
She is also applying for an ROTC scholarship, but I realize she will be DQ'd by DoDMERB for this as well, though she may or may not be able to get a waiver more easily from them than the Academy.
Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions would be most welcome!