What are my chances for admission at the moment?

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Morgan2021

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Hey, I'm a junior in High School that's wanting to be a career officer in the armed forces and I believe West Point is the best place for me to make that happen; at the moment, I have a 31 ACT score which I'm definitely proud of, but my GPA is holding me back at a 3.45. on the leadership side, I'm the Deputy Group Commander in my local AFJROTC Unit, I've held an officer position for 3 years now (with one of those years having me in charge of planning and executing our HQ unit evaluation), and have also held positions on the student council. I'm the captain of our Marksmanship and Orienteering teams and have been and plan to be apart of them and our drill team for all 4 years. I was offered a position at Boy's State by my local American Legion post, but it was cancelled due to someone in the program embezzling money through it. I haven't had my CFA or DoDMERB yet, but assuming that I pass the MERB and pass my CFA with an average score, what would my chances be at being admitted? I understand that admission chances vary from year to year, but does anyone have an idea of how my chances look? Thanks for any responses in advance!
 
Your chances appear to be higher than 0% and lower than 100%. That’s not a flippant answer but an honest one. No one here can tell you with any meaningful significance what your chances are. There are too many variables we don’t know of, and we don’t even know your full application package — not the way Admissions will see it. So keep plugging away, do tons of research on the SA website, and show that you’re worthy of offer of appointment.
 
I would say you are a strong candidate but no guarantees. Work on raising your GPA while remembering they look at the whole person. Weakness in one area can be overcome by strength in another.
 
Stealth_81 said:
I don’t see any athletics. If marksmanship and orienteering are the extent of your team participation, your CFA score will need to be higher than average to show the ability to perform at USMA physically.

Stealth_81
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I joined the Track & Field team this year but due to Covid the season's been all but cancelled. I plan on joining Football once we're back and continuing with Track, but I definitely planned on getting a solid CFA score to try and counteract my GPA.
 
GPA is not the measuring stick; "class standing" is, in terms of that portion of the academic component. Athletics is certainly your Achilles heal. I would also work to make a high officer spot on student council, or NHS, if possible. And lastly, I wouldnt take your decent ACT score as "good enough". Keep taking the test and get those section scores higher; particularly math and English. Nobody here knows what your chances are. It depends on who the competition is within your district. Continue to work to build your application where you can. Get a great score on the CFA. You get specific amount of points for your score, and that is part of the WCS. It isnt pass/fail. Everywhere you can create some separation between you and your competition you should. And this is a competition.
 
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Study study study and try to get good scores on your SAT/ACT. In addition to advice from those above.
 
MidCakePa said:
Your chances appear to be higher than 0% and lower than 100%. That’s not a flippant answer but an honest one. No one here can tell you with any meaningful significance what your chances are. There are too many variables we don’t know of, and we don’t even know your full application package — not the way Admissions will see it. So keep plugging away, do tons of research on the SA website, and show that you’re worthy of offer of appointment.
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After watching this process over the last year, with my Class of 2024 DS, I 100% believe what MidCakePa wrote is the most accurate information anyone could provide you. Hands down.
 
Work on what you can control. Fine tune your resume, set up (via skype maybe, ie social distancing) practice interviews. Improve on your essay skills. Continue to communicate with your teachers, they will be writing evaluations of you and your performance in their classes. Yes, we are socially distancing right now, but what a time to seek out and lead a service project of some type. Good luck to you!
 
A couple of things here as I read through to clarify. The process is fairly objective in terms of how you are deemed qualified and how competitive you are. For the most part it is not a normal admissions process where you are competing against the entire applicant population and you need to look unique. You will be competing against the other individuals on your nomination slate. The biggest unknown is who else is applying in your year. I see districts that had six highly competitive candidates one year and the next year there is just one average candidate.

The WCS has three components with Academics weighted the highest, then leadership and ECAs, then the CFA. West Point officially announced this year that it would focus more on GPA than class rank as it had in the past. This is a black box that admissions and the Math Department keeps as a closely held secret to the inner workings but taking the most challenging classes and doing well is the secret sauce. While none of us know the exact formula used, we can make some very intelligent assumptions. Your test scores are above the averages but your GPA may be a little below. You either need to improve your GPA, (which is very difficult as a Senior) or increase your test scores to compensate. ECAs are similar in terms of evaluation. An individual who was all-state and Captain of the football team would score higher than a JV participant on the golf team. Your JROTC will help some here but you are lacking other team sports. While your CFA is not pass/fail, the nature of the weighting makes the impact on your WCS very small.

So what advice do we have:
1. Do your best and take the more challenging schedule.
2. Study for your SAT/ACT. These are the single factor that can significantly improve your WCS.
3. Seek out leadership opportunities and chase your passions.
 
I would recommend doing more leadership outside of jrotc. JROTC good for bout everything you "need" for the academies but being involved in the community if very helpful.
 
Everything looks good, but like many people have already said, athletics outside of ROTC is a big one. The other piece, no one on here knows for sure what your chances of acceptance are. Your file definitely is strong but you can still improve. Just keep working at it.
 
What kind of Orienteering is it? Is it like West Point's where it's basically Cross Country Land Nav or is it more relaxed and not as serious? Because I at least consider WP's Land Nav extremely athletic-focused
 
USMA 1994 said:
A couple of things here as I read through to clarify. The process is fairly objective in terms of how you are deemed qualified and how competitive you are. For the most part it is not a normal admissions process where you are competing against the entire applicant population and you need to look unique. You will be competing against the other individuals on your nomination slate. The biggest unknown is who else is applying in your year. I see districts that had six highly competitive candidates one year and the next year there is just one average candidate.

The WCS has three components with Academics weighted the highest, then leadership and ECAs, then the CFA. West Point officially announced this year that it would focus more on GPA than class rank as it had in the past. This is a black box that admissions and the Math Department keeps as a closely held secret to the inner workings but taking the most challenging classes and doing well is the secret sauce. While none of us know the exact formula used, we can make some very intelligent assumptions. Your test scores are above the averages but your GPA may be a little below. You either need to improve your GPA, (which is very difficult as a Senior) or increase your test scores to compensate. ECAs are similar in terms of evaluation. An individual who was all-state and Captain of the football team would score higher than a JV participant on the golf team. Your JROTC will help some here but you are lacking other team sports. While your CFA is not pass/fail, the nature of the weighting makes the impact on your WCS very small.

So what advice do we have:
1. Do your best and take the more challenging schedule.
2. Study for your SAT/ACT. These are the single factor that can significantly improve your WCS.
3. Seek out leadership opportunities and chase your passions.
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There was a study done several years ago that is an interesting read. Undoubtedly some parts have changed, but it can provide some insight.

 
brovol said:
GPA is not the measuring stick; "class standing" is, in terms of that portion of the academic component. Athletics is certainly your Achilles heal. I would also work to make a high officer spot on student council, or NHS, if possible. And lastly, I wouldnt take your decent ACT score as "good enough". Keep taking the test and get those section scores higher; particularly math and English. Nobody here knows what your chances are. It depends on who the competition is within your district. Continue to work to build your application where you can. Get a great score on the CFA. You get specific amount of points for your score, and that is part of the WCS. It isnt pass/fail. Everywhere you can create some separation between you and your competition you should. And this is a competition.
Click to expand...
FYI - West Point Admissions apparently removed 'class rank' from their candidate scoring this year. So academically it's now all about GPA and SAT/ACT scores.
 
What are your scores from the Matksmanship team and do you shoot sporter or precision? If you shoot precision and have your own equipment that could be another avenue providing scores are on par.
 
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