Post-Appointment

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CaligulasHorse

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Mar 7, 2020
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Hi all,

I'm humbled to have recently received an appointment. What are the next steps from here? Do I need to keep checking my portal frequently, or can I ignore it until the spring?

Additionally, I don't know what to do about other college offers. I'd like to withdraw my other applications to help other applicants, but I'm afraid something will still go wrong with my USAFA appointment. Is it possible to get disqualified after getting an appointment? Obviously, anything conduct related or criminal would do it, but I'm worried about things I can't control. If, hypothetically, something medically disqualifying did happen between now and I-Day, could I get booted? Would I be offered a spot next year?

Any advice is appreciated.
 
Run and workout ... plebe summer is easier if you are in shape.

Enjoy your senior year and your family and friends. Continue the successes.

Congrats!
 
You’ll get plenty of paperwork soon enough. Be patient and let it play out. You’ll have everything you need when you need it. Remember that SAs have been doing this for a long time.

As for other schools: You’ve earned every acceptance you may get. No need to say no to anyone until you absolutely have to — typically in the form of not sending a deposit to hold a spot by the May 1 deadline. Contrary to a fairly popular belief, you are NOT taking a spot from anyone by not declining now. Schools are very good at managing yield and accepting more candidates than will actually attend. You turning down a spot now will NOT result in the school suddenly sending an acceptance to someone else. That’s not how it works.

In other words, those other acceptances are your Plan B in the remote chance that you may eventually need one. Don’t do anything reckless, keep running, and enjoy time with loved ones. Your report date will come sooner than you think.
 

CaligulasHorse​

Q = "If, hypothetically, something medically disqualifying did happen between now and I-Day, could I get booted? Would I be offered a spot next year?"
A = Congrats!!! For decades I've said "Once you receive your appointment, wrap yourself in bubble wrap! God forbid, should you succumb to an illness, injury, disease, syndrome, etc., you are required to report it to DoDMERB. We deal with it at the time and render the appropriate decisions. It is so case-by-case, there is no formula. But I'll give you an example that will help you understand. "You broke your arm Sep 18th...You were cleared to full and unrestricted activities on 27 Nov. --- You'd be good to go. -----You break the same arm the day before I-Day, you would not be accessed into the Academy for that class////Yes :wiggle:
 
@CaligulasHorse , CONGRATULATIONS!

Look at Plan B colleges now with a slightly different lens -where you would go if you were medically disqualified. We looked at it 2 ways - the temporary heartbreak of a broken arm, and in the event of a catastrophic injury/illness where DD would need to be close to home and hospital system. So this eliminated other "match" and "reach" schools, and we were left with a very strong local private school 3 miles equidistant from our home, hospital, and office. The other was a good OOS University of (State) that gave her full merit aid tuition, had both ROTC and was a listed CSPI school. These 2 were solid university choices on their own.

From today and the next 2 months, check your portal periodically. Last year, early March is when the portal changes and all the forms pop up.

For now, continue to finish strong in academics, athletics, and all your endeavors.

USAFA website, Parents Tab - Read the table of contents carefully, skim the material in parents handbook, candidate handbook, other links, and go over to Academics tab and skim the core curriculum. I say skim because you will get your Class year's and then you should print and use that version. But for now, just familiarize yourself.

Continue practicing fitness. I would think of it as 3 things:
1. Run
2. Specific exercises for the PFT. Great news here is you can piggyback your base fitness from the CFA, the b-ball is eliminated, and you add a standing long jump. I would get in the habit of doing a few pull ups when you leave your bedroom (is the bar hanging in your doorway?) and then every time you leave the garage or front door (wherever you have a safe flat surface and mark it with chalk or something), give yourself a heave ho and do a standing long jump! Try to easily hit max on the first elements, and then anything you have left for the run. About 3 months out, start really gearing up for the PFT, like you did the CFA. My DD started her big push right at Spring Break, mid-March.
3. "Sense of play". When is the last time you played kick the can, dodgeball, etc? The fitness from "sense of play" comes in especially for Jacks Valle plus all that marching stuff, moving heavy sandbags, running up 6 flights of stairs, and all natural body movements in a very BCT way. The better overall fitness you have, this helps greatly with not only the physical, but mental side. You will have the mental energy that also sucks away at you - the homesickness etc. Being fit for a particular sport is not the same, you really need to be all around fit.

For your parents:
Join the USAFA parents page, see if there is a Class of 2025 page, and a local parent's group.
Join Webguy (AOG)
Make Parent's Weekend reservations now, at least for fully refundable lodging. Let's hope it happens.
 
Will those applicants who have received appointments have an opportunity to visit campus before deadline?
 
Pre-pandemic, a recipient of offer of appointment was free to visit the SA if they so chose. As long as their decision to accept the offer was made by the deadline (typically May 1). Some visited, some already had prior to applying, many didn’t. Now, with pandemic protocols, SAs are generally shut down. Of course, that may change over the next few months. Hard to say how things will unfold.
 
My daughter waited to turn down other college offers until the April time frame. The academy will be sending you updates on what to do next so keep checking your portal. One piece of advice though is don’t procrastinate on getting the paper work done once you know what they are asking for. The clearance paperwork will take some time to complete and it asks for detail information that you may have to call friends and relatives to get. Also if you have traveled out of country in the past they will asked where you went and dates. Congratulations
 
CaligulasHorse said:
Hi all,

I'm humbled to have recently received an appointment. What are the next steps from here? Do I need to keep checking my portal frequently, or can I ignore it until the spring?

Additionally, I don't know what to do about other college offers. I'd like to withdraw my other applications to help other applicants, but I'm afraid something will still go wrong with my USAFA appointment. Is it possible to get disqualified after getting an appointment? Obviously, anything conduct related or criminal would do it, but I'm worried about things I can't control. If, hypothetically, something medically disqualifying did happen between now and I-Day, could I get booted? Would I be offered a spot next year?

Any advice is appreciated.
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Congrats! I am an applicant and I was wondering how you received notice of appointment? Did it appear in your portal, snail mail, or email?
 
Jman0714 said:
Congrats! I am an applicant and I was wondering how you received notice of appointment? Did it appear in your portal, snail mail, or email?
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Thanks! I got an email around 5:00 am EST that the portal had updated, and I checked my email that afternoon and found it. Ironically, it was the first day in a few months I hadn't woken up and checked my portal first thing.
 
I can confirm USAFA pushes out appointment emails at roughly around 03:00 MST, going off of what a ton of my classmates and I experienced last year. Back to what the OP was asking about, here are some of my personal recommendations considering you may likely have a similar BCT experience to us:

1. I believe the appointee kit was released on 1 March, so you have a lot of time. I wouldn't stress opening your portal until then, assuming you have no outstanding requirements (medical). Once it opens, it can be an overwhelming list but just work through it slowly and you'll be fine.
2. A lot of people talk about running and how important it is; they are 100% correct and I would highly advise following past advice on running plans and the like. My only addition is to make sure you practice your 600m for the PFT. I've seen many athletic cadets come close to validating but couldn't because they got failing scores on the run. The PFT has recently been modified where the validating score is 401 (used to be 400) which means you must run a "passing time" and get at least one point. It doesn't sound hard but it's absolutely brutal at altitude and after the other events. If you think you can just sprint and "hang on", you probably can't unless you train for it.
3. If you are currently taking a foreign language class or took one in the past that is potentially validatable, make sure to keep studying it and review the basics before BCT. Having foreign language requirements out of the way is a huge plus and you can use that time to take more advanced classes or work on a language minor instead. I think a lot of cadets who took the language assessments were relatively solid in their languages but forgot some of the basics which really hurt them when they took the test.

You have tons of time before you report so overall keep your grades up, keep working out, and enjoy your remaining time as a civilian. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.
 
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If you look at the Appointee Handbook from last year, they have recommended workouts and plans there to get used to the elevation and to get you in shape. I haven't gotten an appointment decision yet, but I'm following that plan to a T and it really helps.
 
A1Janitor said:
Fantastic. I would love for you to post it here. That would be very beneficial to a lot of people.
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It really was beneficial for me. We've spoken in the past and she's emailed me her workouts + tips for the ALO interview and it really helped me out.
 
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