nomination help

futureAFA

futureAFA

5-Year Member
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
270
Im only a freshman at high school, and Im very interested in being a cadet at AFA. Can anybody give me some advice on how to get nominated? Would sending an email to my senator asking him what he thinks should be in a probable cadet?

also what are my odds of getting into AFA(im only a freshman so I can work on everything)

  • about a 3.5 GPA(unweighted)
  • AP bio
  • Honors math’
  • Honors intro to law
  • Honors Psych
  • student leader prep(optional class)
  • school baseball team
  • AAU baseball team(4th national)
  • student council
  • volunteer at community camp in the summer(around 60 hours so far)

what can I do to improve my chances?

Thanks!
 
Sometime in mid-May of your junior year, go to the websites of your representative and 2 senators. They will have instructions for you to complete their requirements to be considered for a nomination. Around the same time the VP nomination sheet will be released. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to be punctual with all of the forms and letters of recommendation. The first hoop for candidates is the time-lines your MOC set. A lot of candidates get thrown out of the running this way.
 
You're on the right track.

Search this website/internet and learn more about the nomination process. Its great that you're starting to research all of this early. Some very qualified kids get screwed when they learn about the academies too late in their high school careers.
 
Do you think if I continue on this rate, I would get in?
What should I try to improve on?
What would you say is my biggest weakness?

By the way I appreciate all the answers so far!
Thanks!
 
Study for SATs and/or ACTs. Student council is good; maybe try to gain another type of leadership experience, such as in a club or sport. Stay out of trouble. Other than that, you look like you're on the right track, but no one can tell you if you'll get in or not. There are many factors that go into it. All you can do is try your best, and so far your work looks good.
 
FutureAFA,

Congratulations on doing so well in school your freshman year!

In response to your question;

Continue to do the best you can in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom.

I believe you listed yourself as being within the 7th Congressional District? If so - contact Congressman Markey's Office/visit his website - and get info on their nomination process. Also contact both senatorial offices about their processes. Although you are "only" a freshman - you could get from their office the calendar of activites that you will need to follow your junior/senior year to be considered for a nomination by those offices.

Additional things I encouaage you to do;

Take advantage of leadership training programs like Norwich University's Future Leader Camp. I believe your high school participates in the Massachusetts American Legion's Boys State Program - which would occur the summer between your Jr and Sr year. Get info on Boys State and try to position yourself to be selected (more about Boys State below.)

Attend any local college info program/college fair - sometimes USAFA admission officers attend. Keep an eye out for the Annual Service Academy Info Night that occurs in November at the Danversport Yacht Club, Danvers MA. All service academy representatives attend that event.

If you get chosen for Boys State at the end of your Jr year - I run a Service Academy and ROTC Workshop at that event.

Finally - stay on this forum - it is one of the best sources of info/advice you will find.

Good Luck!

Fuji
 
Try to get leadership positions in sports and student government. Take difficult math and science courses as they come available to you, like AP physics and AP calculus. You'll have a great shot of getting into USAFA if you keep up the good work.
 
I am going to take a different approach than other posters.

Your resume looks great. However, as a parent, I would say start taking an honest approach to why the AF or the military.

You want to do what as an AF officer?
Fly?
Doc?
Engineer?
Intel?
JAG?

Take the time to research now those fields. After you research them, ask yourself if I don't get that career field would I be happy in whatever they assign me to? For example want to fly, wash out of UPT and now they say congrats you are being assigned to Accounting and Finance or Maintenance. It happens, it is not a rarity that someone will bust UPT and spend their remaining time in a field they had no desire to be in when they started this road.

Also, remember you are 15 at tops, your life is going to change, don't get into tunnel vision. Many cadets are at the SA's because this was their goal since they were 6, many others only found the SA at 17.

The point is to take this time and play devils advocate with yourself. Make sure that no matter what the most important thing is to wear the blues.

The only thing I would suggest to you is to get your pilot's license. I would also suggest finding the DVD that is out there about the SA life. If you can't find it, I would suggest checking your local tv schedule. I am not sure, but it is either Memorial Day weekend or 4th of July that the Military channel runs a series regarding life at the SAs. It is very unique and very worthwhile to watch. It seems cool on tv to watch it, but again as a parent I would suggest that after you watch it, you remove the allure and understand the stress of their daily life.

Additionaly, if you go on the AFA, you can see required curriculum for ALL cadets. This is important because you can plot your hs career to guarantee you are not going to have academic issues. Too many times I have seen candidates state I want the AFA and intend to major in Military history because I stink at Math. The fact is you may stink at Math, but the AFA requires a lot of it. There is a reason it is known as the little engineering school in the rockies.

Finally, I would suggest that you drop intro to law and pick up any AP course you can. The SA's will look and weight your hs course curriculum. The harder the rigor the better you will look. AP GOV or APUSH is better than Intro to Law. DO not confuse this with taking AP Human Geography. You want to get your mandated hs reqs, but at the same time you want to show that even though you weren't the valedictorian, you did not slack and take the easy courses.
 
Pima, If you look at this again, I want to be a pilot, and I am going to work at get a pilot license this summer, and next year.

Also Intro to Law, and Psych in a prerequisite for other AP classes. I am mostly doing them because I am interested in it though.

I am OK with doing whatever job I get assigned to(although I would prefer being a pilot, obviously).
 
Every town, in every county, in every state, may have different reqs. for curriculum.

For example, in VA and NC Intro to Law or Psych is not a req for APGOVT, however, I am assuming for you Intro to law is a REQ. for APGOVT.

The point is you need to take the most rigorous course load offered at your school. The AFA will not give lower points for PAR to one candidate if their school stops AP CHEM over another candidate that their school stops at AP PHYSICS. They look at the RIGOR of your schedule.

My true intention was to say if Intro to Law or Psych could be replaced with a more strenuous class than you should take the harder class.

If Intro to Law is required to attend APGOV than you need to take Intro. You need to show to the board you took the hardest courses available at your grade level...end of subject, period, dot.

BTW, please show me in your original post where you stated pilot, because I did look again and re-read post #1 several times, but no where did I see "pilot" mentioned.

I responded as a Mom, who watched her children go through this process. One is a rising jr at college, the other is a rising freshman. Our DS (rising jr-college) threw us for a loop when he was a rising sr in hs and applied for the AFA.

Freshman yr---DUKE
Sophomore yr ---Notre Dame
Junior yr---Notre Dame
Fall SR Yr ---AFA
Winter SR YR ---UMD

He always intended to go AF...AFA or AFROTC, but as you can see it constantly changed. He has Duke and Notre Dame Hoodies because we bought them to support his dream.

YOU ARE 14 or 15 at best. Dreams and goals are great, but the only thing I hope for you is that you keep spreading your options open.

BTW, DS PULLED his AFA packet Feb., (he had 4 noms) because we were hard arses. We made him set at the kitchen table at dinner, 7 inches away, recite the school lunch menu for 3 days, 2 news articles, back straight, pour milk into his glass without looking down, eat 7 bites and swallow, woke him up at 6 a.m., do PT (run before school) etc, etc., etc. We made him endure his sr yr of hs as a cadet on the easy side.

We have consistently received hits for being horrible parents by doing this. I have never apologized, nor will I ever apologize. Our DS by enduring the easy pain decided he wanted to be an AF officer, but after 18 yrs as an AF dependent he wanted to be a kid. He opted for full ride ROTC over the AFA. He was great at Math (720 SAT), yet hated it. We also made him look at the required curriculum. He saw for himself that he would be required to take classes he had no desire in partaking,

You will be a great AFA cadet, but my true intention was to highlight the fact you have an image of what the AFA is and I wanted you to see the under belly. Without a doubt the AFA is the best way to go! HOWEVER, the only cadet that succeeds is the one who understands that they will endure a lot of crap for 4 yrs and that their dream when they entered may never occur.

FINALLY...Mass is not seen as a very competitive state. CO, NY, VA, TX, CA are competitive states. You should be fine!
 
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I think I would not mind all the strict discipline (too much), one of the reasons I play so much baseball and at the level I do is because I love the feeling of being in uniform and being part of a team. The team aspect of the AFA is one of the main reasons I want to go there.

Also its Honors Intro to law and Honors Psych so It is challenging(not sure if I mentioned that earlier), I think at least. This is just my opinion but Law and Psych aren’t easy to start with (I haven’t taken them so I wouldn’t really know, its just a guess).

I guess I did forget to mention that I was interested in being a pilot before, since I didn’t see it in my first post.

Also if I have a −1.75 correction in both eyes(no astigmatism) am I still pilot qualified assuming thats the only problem?
 
Pima:

Your posts have been most helpful to me as a mom fairly new to this whole thing. I greatly appreciate your candor and honesty.

My DS is currently doing his apps to MOC's. His app is underway with AFA as he was accepted to SS; is actually on his flight home right now. Everything you say encouraging these kids to understand what they are getting into is so true. I'm doing all I can to make sure my DS is aware. I think he is. He's been in JROTC for 3 yrs (I know no comparison to SA!) but has attended JROTC SLS for 3 summers with active duty MI's. I think the experience this week at AFA SS is an eye opener for him too. We spoke to him twice this week during free time and he sounded even more excited and sure than before.

Anyway, a few questions in regards to nominations you might be able to shed some light on since you've been down this road. He has to provide letters of rec for his 3 MOC's. I assume it's easiest to get this all from the same people and just have them change the salutation? or do the MOC's pow-wow and it wouldn't look good for the letters to all be same?:confused:

Also, I know he has to provide letters of rec to AFA directly. I've heard/read that shortly after SS the SA's send out app packets and that there are instructions in there for letters of rec to AFA to be sent DIRECTLY there via email. Have also heard that the ones to AFA have to be from his core teachers (i.e. math, science, english,etc). True:confused: He would like to have his clergy and scout leader do two of his recs because he feels they are intimately knowledgeable of his character, integrity and leadership. Probably more so than anyone other than his JROTC instructors.

So basically ANY advice/info you can give me on letters of rec would be great. I know they are an important part of the nom process.

Thanks in advance,
acesmom
AFA Pre-candidate Class of 2015
 
acesmom; the recs that the airforce academy require online, MUST be from the teachers they mention. There is absolutely NO changing that. However, there is nothing to say that you can use the recs from the church, scouts, etc... added to your MOC's. They normally mention certain mandatory recs, but not that you can't add more. So, if your MOC wants 3 recs for certain people; get those. But add the others to the package. Nothing wrong with that. We did that with my son's. We added additional recs from state level legislatures, lawyers, government officials, etc.... to the package for the state MOCs. mike....
 
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