SLS and USNA Summer Seminar

derbyman

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
20
My son is interested in the Service Academys and has applied for their Summer Programs. He has his order of preference based on what he knows about the Academys through meetings, research etc. He feels like he should attend their programs if selected to get a good feel for each academy and because our understanding is its a good first step in the admissions process. He has been selected for SLS and we are looking at the first session. If he is fortunate enough to be selected for the USNA Session, their first session runs after that one. I was looking for opinions on doing those back to back. The advantage to us is we are not located on the East Coast so he could fly to SLS, atteend, be picked up and driven to USNA Session about 5 hours away. The last day of SLS is the ceremony and the first day of USNA Session appears to be introductory so from a physical standpoint, he has somewhat of a break. Maybe not much of a mental break. Yes we'd have to take care of clothes and all. He's a competitive soccer player, would just completing club season, so he should be very fit and mostly be prepared for the physical. He'd like to see all 3 academys to help with his decision and of course its not a given he would get into his first choice or any choice for that matter. So maybe I'd like opinions in two areas 1) advantage of doing all 3 (AFA, USMA, USNA) summer sessions and doing SLS and USNA back to back. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
 
My son did NASS and SLS back to back. Actually he attended Boys State, came home from that and flew the next day to NASS. He flew home from NASS and had one day at home for me to do laundry. repack, and he was off to SLS. The security lady at the airport even asked him where he was going so soon when he left for West Point. My son thoroughly enjoyed both programs and would recommend SLS and NASS as well as Boys State to anyone interested in the Service Academies. He was also accepted to the AFA summer program, but there was no way to do that too!

Also, he did the CFA at Navy and West Point. His score at Navy was a little better, I'm sure because it was first and he was tired by the time he got to WP, but he passed and is now a cadet at West Point.
 
Thanks for the reply, doing SLS then NASS back to back is feasible then...anyone else who has opinions on this is appreciated. Congratulations on West Point!
 
Hi - my son did NASS, WP and then AF SS's last summer along with two other boys he met there or knew from these forums. He had a blast and said they were the best 3 weeks of his life so far. He had one full day off after NASS and two after WP. He is also a soccer player.

I'll be glad to give some more details when I get home. Currently camping In the UP of Michigan in the snow in a cabin with no electricity, running water, bathrooms, or, more importantly- cell phone coverage!! We were out hiking and stopped at a gas station with wifi so just responding fast from my phone! More later or pm me with any questions.
 
Sounds like he could handle it...you are up in my summer stomping grounds...spent many a summer in Florence WI, heading over to Iron Mountain for things...family still has hunting ground over in Florence. Say hello to all the Yoopers for Cripes Sake! Thanks for the info.
 
Thanks - back in the real world now! Sounds like we were a bit east of where you're thinking of - were at Wells State Park, right on Lake Michigan. Surprisingly the lake wasn't frozen this year - just a short distance out. Last year the boys were able to walk as far out as they could and still couldn't see any unfrozen areas. And the gas station we were at when I typed my last reply had all the Yooper merchandise you could want!

Just one bit of advice I'd have for your son. You will take the CFA at both NASS and WP SLS. They will (or can) both count towards your actual applications. My son went to NASS first, and although he had practiced some at home, of course it was kind of new and overwhelming to him. So he did well, but not quite as well as he would have liked. He was determined to do better the next week at WP, but they were MUCH more stringent about what qualified a correct pushup, etc. there (ie he did had about 20 not counted since they weren't "correct"), plus just having sore muscles from the last week and not as much sleep as he would have liked meant he did much worse overall. I'd definitely have your son be psyched and ready for the first one he takes before he gets tired, especially if it's at Navy.

I do think a lot of how "intense" it is depends on the cadre. My son had an awesome squad leader at Navy. They never had any down time and he was always working with them or having them do some kind of activity. His WP SL didn't seem to want much to do with the candidates, and any time the schedule allowed for "squad time", just sent them back to their rooms to hang out. Although my son appreciated the down time (after a hectic week already), he found that seminar to be much more boring and thought it lasted too long.

Incidentally, we did consider doing the same thing as you last year. Doing the two East Coast ones back to back, but decided he'd rather fly home and sleep in his own bed (and since we weren't going with him, the logistics and transportation issues made the prices about the same) for a night. He wasn't nearly as tired after each one as I'd been expecting, but cumulatively it was definitely exhausting. I think the main complaint was simply the lack of sleep - they usually didn't go to bed until around 11 or later and were up at 5ish and were active all day. He'd looked at a sample NASS schedule before he went and was very "ooh, that looks tough, a whole hour of PT, ooh, and then intramurals too! :rolleyes: ", but had a very different attitude when he got back. Many of his texts from that week said simply "I'm SO tired". However, he said the PT at any of them as a whole was very easy but of course they used lots of different muscles and think everyone was sore/tired by the end no matter what!

I do think it there's any way you can juggle these that it's definitely worth letting them get this experience to know what's right for them. If you haven't, check out youtube for some videos of some of the activities or the summary DVD/videos from some of the summer seminar programs which may help get a feel for what they'll be doing. Until we watched these, my son was kind of debating between doing two or three. After watching them, I kind of felt like he should skip one and take a week to recover, but he was completely psyched by them and felt he didn't want to miss anything and try each of them!

Good luck!
 
I appreciate the thoroughness in your thoughts...I don't want to diminish the experience. At this point we are in SLS, waiting to hear from AFA and of course waiting to submit for UNSS. We may not get the opportunity for the other two but will get him set up for SLS and probably spread them out for his best experience. Thanks again.
 
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