My roommate and I just finished BCT: Ask us anything

What's your biggest piece of advice for a future applicant?
 
dav1y said:
What's your biggest piece of advice for a future applicant?
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My biggest piece of advice, is to get your application in early (without lacking in quality). Lean on your peers and parents to help you through the process. It's not a normal college application, there's a lot of coordination with many groups of people. Also, take your cfa seriously, train for it, because if you do get accepted it will be a lot easier to do well on your PFT and AFT when you take it here (doing well on those tests here is one less thing you have to worry about).

My roommate

Application-wise, we're not pros on the in's and out's of "what are my chances." Check out the advice from the ALO's and other folks on this forum - some of them really know their stuff! I'd advice just to do your absolute best in everything you do, take opportunities, and enjoy your time still at home - you will really miss the small things in life once you're here. Enjoy being a civilian :)
 
hopeful25 said:
What was the hardest/worst part about basic for you?
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A lot of basic is not fun. Here's a nice list for ya:
  • Standing at attention for years on end
  • Never knowing what's coming next
  • Not being able to sit down all day long
  • Having to memorize infinite lists of names
  • The assault course
  • Making your bed to perfection, getting yelled at for it being not perfect, ripping it apart, making it again, getting yelled at, ripping it apart....
  • The guilty feeling when you wake your roommate up so you can have a battle buddy to go to the bathroom (with your camelbak on of course) at 0300
  • Waking up in the freezing cold in Jack's valley
  • COVID caused a lot of HUGE frustrations but you hopefully won't have them
  • Reveille
  • Waking up at 0500, changing in to PCs, getting yelled at for changing to slow, changing into OCPs, getting yelled at for changing to slow, changing into blues, getting yelled at for changing to slow, changing into PCs, getting yelled at for changing to slow, changing into OCPs.....
  • Memorizing a billion quotes while you're too tired to even stand up
  • Having to do so many things for a simple question. They may change it in future years but for us it was this:
    • Cadet (last name), pardon me please, sir/ma'am
    • (They say "Yes")
    • Sir/Ma'am, Basic Cadet (your last name) reports as ordered.
    • (They say "Yes")
    • Sir/Ma'am, may I ask a question?
    • (They say "Yes")
    • Sir/Ma'am, may I utilize the latrine?
  • The march to Jack's with 20 pound rifles on your shoulders
  • The general repetitiveness of the days
  • Always being filthy - showers are short
  • Watching the Domino's delivery golf carts pass you by on the T'zo when you're been just eating Mitch's for a month

But there are great memories and experiences too - seek them out. Also, a huge help to me was I would keep an eye on the cadre and look to catch glimpses of their real personalities, they're all great guys and girls, they're just doing their job. Once I could see through their cover, I could be confident that they were just doing this to help us, and it helped me appreciate them more. Cadre are the worst and the best part of basic - but you will grow to love them (our cadre compared it to Stockholm syndrome).
 
Our DD is in your class! Just completed Basic and is smiling away now. Congrats you two - only the best of the best are awarded an appointment. Crush the next 4 years!
 
Congratulations on finishing basic! Now that you are 4 degrees what kinds of privileges do you have and what privileges do you have to wait for until spring? Can you go somewhere like Subway in Arnold Hall by yourself?
 
"Getcherchinin!!! Getchershouldersbackanddown..."

Oh, wait...they don't do that anymore. 🤣🤣

My bad.
(Ya'll know I couldn't resist that, right? Old "brown shoe days grad" here..."when dino's walked the TZo..."

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
Airbud123 said:
Was the DoDMERB hard for you in any way and what were your Test scores if you mind sharing
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Hi, Airbud123.

I also just finished BCT and I’m in squad 4. In my opinion the reason DoDMERB can be hard is because it can be long and tedious. Regardless of your health or physical condition it truly pays off to be on top of your email and ask for help From them when you need it. A lot if times I wouldn’t understand what they were asking me to do, or I simply sent them another email and usually I was given a prompt response. I personally have undergone two surgeries in high school. I had to fill out forms for them which delays the process a little. Despite that I was given the green light to show up on I-Day. If I wasn’t on top of my emails and asking them for clarification about what they needed it would’ve been a lot more difficult. Long story short, do what they ask you to do as quickly as possible and don’t drag things out.

I don’t really know what you mean by test scores but here are my CFA and ACT subscores:

CFA:
BB throw: 94’ average
Pull-ups: 18
Shuttle run: 8 seconds
Sit-ups: 95
Pushups: 75
run: 5:54

the big thing with the CFA is practicing the events back to back. That helped me the most.

ACT:
35 english
31 math
32 reading
33 science
 
whynotnow said:
Congratulations on finishing basic! Now that you are 4 degrees what kinds of privileges do you have and what privileges do you have to wait for until spring? Can you go somewhere like Subway in Arnold Hall by yourself?
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So for us, we can go to A-Hall (Arnold Hall) on the weekends, but we are allowed to order domino's whenever we want. That could be because of Covid, but as of right now we have access to A-hall on the weekends. We still have to run on the strips, still have to greet, and can't wear civvies. Things may change, but as of right now that's the general rules.

Compared to Basic you have infinitely more privileges. Walking alone, going places without asking, but that also comes with added responsibility like knowing where and when to be places without being told. It's a good trade off IMO.
 
What is weapons qualification like at BCT? Rifle, pistol, level of importance, course of fire, etc.
 
whynotnow said:
Congratulations on finishing basic! Now that you are 4 degrees what kinds of privileges do you have and what privileges do you have to wait for until spring? Can you go somewhere like Subway in Arnold Hall by yourself?
Click to expand...

The hardest thing for me is having to be in uniform for me 24/7. If you want to go on the tzo you have to be in the Uniform of the Day. Meaning if you are in PT gear (you can only be in PTs after Academic Call to Quarters), you have to change into the UOD just to get something as simple as Dominoes.

Greetings are pretty funny because upperclassmen will avoid being around doolies because our greetings are annoying. We have to be able to greet all of the upperclassmen in our squadron (name, rank, and position).

There are a bunch of other minor rules that are annoying that us doolies have to follow, but those are the major ones.
 
Airbud123 said:
Was the DoDMERB hard for you in any way and what were your Test scores if you mind sharing
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Dodmerb was just like a normal sports physical, just tell the truth and just do your best with the eye exams and hearing exams.

My SAT score was a 1410. There are people here with a huge range of Test Scores, it's more about the strength of your application more than one single test score.
 
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Congratulations! I’m so proud of you 2024ers!
I cannot believe you guys get to eat at rest! When I was there I was on nasty weight gain shakes my doolie year bc I could never get enough food in during meals. Although it looks like you have to stand in long lines outside Mitch’s due to crowd numbers...does this mean you get out of morning/noon meal formations?
 
Congrats from a 2024 parent!

Do y'all know how many completed BCT and made it to Acceptance Day?
 
usafaco9496 said:
Congratulations! I’m so proud of you 2024ers!
I cannot believe you guys get to eat at rest! When I was there I was on nasty weight gain shakes my doolie year bc I could never get enough food in during meals. Although it looks like you have to stand in long lines outside Mitch’s due to crowd numbers...does this mean you get out of morning/noon meal formations?
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So the way noon meal works here is that one half of the wing will eat on one day at Mitches and the other half will eat a box meal in the dorms and they will switch. We don’t do noon meal formations simply because of Covid and that many people that close together is not something that is doable.

Almost every athlete I know was losing weight because nothing has changed, there’s deffinatley not enough to eat especially during basic. I think not getting enough to eat during basic is a tradition.
 
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