Stephanie,
You need to understand the system, the AFA is going to assign you their gpa, and I would assume by now it is on your portal.
The 3.48 and the 3.64 really doesn't matter much. What matters is what the AFA places you in for their board. It could be 3.48, 3.64 or something different totally. It is my pet peeve when someone says this is my gpa from my school. That's great, but the fact is on your AFA portal they place their own gpa using their system. 3.48 AFA and 3.64 are two different things.
What is your AFA portal saying for your gpa?
PAR is 60%, obviously they will take your ACT because your SAT is below the median. You have the EC's for the 40% remainder, but the question is: Is that enough to win the WCS for your slate with a 3.48 gpa, and 20% class ranking? Is the school competitive that 50% go Ivy or Tier 1 IS colleges? Or do they only send 10% Ivy? That hurts you because the school profile is saying as top 20% you are at a reach.
The AFA doesn't ask for GC recs and profiles for giggles and grins, they use it to determine the academic background/basis for the candidate. Does the school inflate grades? Is the school on par academically with the AFA for prepping their students in regards to college? What is their academic rigor?
Flieger can answer the issue regarding AD time. From what I know via our AFA friends, when you retire the SA yrs can be used for yrs served regarding GS jobs. If you retire at 20 you do not get retirement pay of 24 yrs, but, you do get it for GS and yrs served of 24. You don't enter O1 with 4 yrs. You enter O1 with 0 yrs. There is no pay or promotion bennies as an AD because you went AFA. The only bennie I can think of is that ROTC will always go AD after the AFA, hence their DOR for an AFA will be earlier, which means promotion line number will be higher. YRS and YRS away.
