This is my point. at this link it says that the Median SAT: Math 649, Critical Reading 613, Writing 605. So with writing no longer part of the equation, let’s call it 650 math and 620 verbal. That’s 1270. Median. So half the class is below this. So explain to me how a young man with 1400, loads of AP classes, 2x captain of his football team gets rejected?
i don’t think that it’s disrespectful to ask for race and gender. It’s a legitimate question. Representative Cummings was issuing subpoenas and introduced legislation (HR3488) to change the admission process to include congressional appointments. He was very focused on minority inclusion. Did that affect the process? It’s a reasonable question. CGA is a public institution and it’s reasonable to ask respectful questions about how these $270,000 scholarships are being allocated.
based on the Academy's own data, I expect over half of the applicants accepted had less than a 1300 SAT. Is my math wrong?
As a graduate, I would assume you understand that high academic and athletic stats do not indicate that a candidate will be successful at USCGA or as a CG officer. That is not to say that your son will not be at some point, it is simply to point out that "hard" statistics only matter to a certain extent. The remainder of the admissions process are those intangible qualities and why USCGA is really pushing to achieve a 100% interview rate. In full disclosure, I am a white female who applied to USCGA with my highest SAT scores as roughly a 660 CR, 640 W, and a 600 M (i.e. 1900 on a 2400 scale) which I'm sure would fall below that 1300 mark you keep referencing if converted to today's standards. There were white males with scores lower than mine and minority applicants with higher scores. The reverse was also true, and people of all races and genders with a variety of scores, from low to high, did not make it to graduation. Of those who commissioned, several with low and high scores of all different backgrounds were involuntarily separated for poor decisions they made in the five years since we've graduated. That's why they call that 1270 an average and not a minimum standard.
Did my gender play a role in my appointment? Of course it did. Do I like that my gender mattered from strictly a metrics perspective? No, because only the "best" people should serve. However, the Coast Guard needs leaders that represent their enlisted force and American society as a whole - that includes people of both sexes and races of all types. Do these people need to be qualified? Absolutely, and I understand your underlying theme indicating so. The question becomes how do you quantify those qualifications and who the "best" is, especially when some of the necessary traits are inherently qualitative? Only Admissions knows and they do their best to ensure a well-rounded group of individuals arrive on Day One.
As
@flieger83 stated, no one on this forum can give you the answer you're looking for, except for maybe
@Objee. Perhaps in the case of the class of 2024, it is simply an issue of numbers. Other posts indicates their class size will be smaller, and it could simply be that while your son could have been accepted in last year's class, the smaller number required Admissions to make more difficult decisions. Those decisions were likely very nuanced and required the splitting of hairs in order to choose one candidate over the other.
Your best resource is to have your son contact his Admissions Officer directly after the holidays. If he really wants this, then he should try again. I have a classmate who had already graduated college when we started swab summer. I have another acquaintance who applied twice and was denied. She enlisted in the CG, made E-4, was accepted to CGAS, and then finally graduated USCGA several years after she first started the process. I myself was setback for my own reasons and had to start all over again. But, I wanted it and I went after it despite external challenges and failures of my own doing.
I wish you and your son the best of luck. This is a tough pill to swallow, especially around the holidays, and I've been there. Yet, somehow, things always work out how they are meant to despite what we want, even when we can't see it at the time.
