SilverWings
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2012
- Messages
- 4
Huge disappointment Silverwings, and yes, you have every right to be disappointed for your son. Rejection hurts - and it hurts big time. But things happen for a reason.
The process is in no way perfect, and USAFA/ROTC make errors in their selections, but now it's up to your son - not you - to pick up the pieces and carry on. HE needs to decide what HE wants to do next.
He can still do ROTC this year without a scholarship - apply for a scholarship while at school, or reapply to USAFA.
IMPO USAFA messed up on their process this year. They knew they were limited to 1050 for their class, and thus didn't do many LOA's or early appointments. Kids who normally would have received early offers didn't - I assume it's because they wanted to look at the whole group. As Batmom said - that's comparing thousands of kids who all deserve a slot - how do you choose? Next year there will be more slots, and a kid with a year of college under his belt (with good GPA in those math & science classes) will have an edge on kids right out of HS.
kdc246 had a valid question - when was his application completed? Earlier is so much better than later.
You say he was 2 sport varsity athlete and NHS president. That's great, but what other EC's? If that was it - maybe that was the differential. -- was he recruited at all? Did he at least contact the coaches in his sports? If not, why?
While you say he got a 5 on a Calc AP, what was his Math SAT portion? You can score 2240 on SAT and only have 640 on Math; maybe they wanted that higher this year.
I think the TWE letter tells everyone to take Calc 1 & 2 and reapply. They can't personalize the TWE letter. Have him talk to his ALO & USAFA contact and ask where he was lacking.
Northern VA is extremely competitive - to get two nominations is huge. I'm pretty sure though N.VA doesn't rank their slate.
Listen to soccerdude - he took the rejection the first time and turned it into a positive.
Best of luck to your son.
Greentrees, and all of you who responded with kind thoughts, thank you, it is much appreciated. It's still a mystery to us as to what happened.
To answer your questions, his SAT breakdown is Reading 710, Math 790, Writing 740. ACT is 33. AP scores Calculus 5, Government 4, Latin 4, US History 5, and Literature 3. SAT II scores Math L1 780, US History 720, Latin 660. I just listed a few extracurricular's before, but more detail: Varsity soccer: First team All Conference + leading scorer, Varsity Squash: Captain, NHS President 2012, Student Govt. VP 2011, Red Key Club, Co-leader/Co-founder Student Peer Leadership and Counseling, volunteer with Paralyzed Veterans of America, JMSG High-Power Rifle Shooting Team: Top ten finish junior two man team match 2011 Camp Perry National Matches + NRA rifle expert rating, Virginia Governor's School for Science and Technology Summer 2011 (#1 candidate for region), USAFA Summer Program 2011. One Congressional and One Senator nomination, No. VA.
I can't recall exactly when he finished the last element of his application, all of the work on the nominations and application is blurring together, but it was a few weeks before the deadline - not months before as we parents would have preferred. He has learned a lesson about timing.
Over the next two weeks, he will be making a decision on an alternate path, which will be accepting an offer from Georgetown University, Washington University in St. Louis, Rice University, or University of Virginia. I think he may now be thinking more intently about doing HPSP for Medical School after undergrad at one of the above, which provides a direct commission, rather than re-applying to USAFA after a year. But it all depends!