what can i do to improve

[dav1y]

Sorry for another one of these but I'm just nervous going into junior year, so I need all the help I can get haha

About me:

I'm an Asian male going into 11th grade in the fall
I live in Tokyo, Japan but I still go to an American high school
I maintain residency in Arizona so I'll be applying for noms there

3.8 gpa unweighted, school doesn't rank
taking 7 aps over the next 2 years, already took 2 this year (ap world and ap chinese)
planning to take the sat in august, but i got a 1380 on my mock (i know its not really the same but i just wanted to include a benchmark)


Sports- Made varsity baseball as a freshman last year but our season was cancelled this year so I only have one varsity letter
JV cross country this year

I play violin both in and out of school (been playing for around 8 years now), and next year I'll start teaching violin to elementary schoolers twice a week

In terms of clubs I mainly do one service club, it's basically just doing a bunch of community service and I'll be applying for a leadership position next year

I've been a student ambassador for 2 years (our job is to reach out to new students and families and introduce them to the school and whatnot, so when we meet them in person we give tours of the school and we keep in contact with the student throughout the year [its an international school so we get a lot of new families each year])

Also starting a job at school next year (my school offers a couple of different job opportunities for upperclassmen), it's around 15 hours a week

I occasionally do a few jobs here and there at school (scoreboard, filming, etc.)

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BuckeyeDad20]

This looks pretty solid, but your post did not share anything that demonstrated leadership. Look for and gain leadership experience.

 

[FlyFalcon]

Ok from what I've seen on other posts, here's my two sense.
1). Start taking ACT or SAT as soon as possible and get as high as score as you can. You don't want to be the person with a 30 when you could have had a 33. Your practice score looks great but you have to keep it up.

2) Leadership, leadership, leadership. Does your sports teams allow Juniors to become captain or Co-Captains? If so try to become the Captain. Does your student ambassador group have a leader/ leadership position? If so try and get that position. If you have student council try and join it and get a leadership position.

3) Write down allll of your community service hours no matter how small. Write down events that changed you or gave you in sight ( poorer communities vs richer communities, diverse people, or just something that changed you) this will help with interviews latter on.

4). Reach out to your ALO. They may not respond, that's ok. My responded and was very impressed when I showed up in my uniform. It's best to start off on the right foot with your mentor ALO, mine has really helped with even the tinyest of details on my application and has already done a practice interview with me.

5). Keep that GPA

6). Lastly, take the time to see if USAFA is you for you. It might not be but if it is be prepared to give it your all and love every second of it.

I hope you enjoy your junior year, have fun it won't come around twice.

 

[Voyager3811]

I agree with everything @FlyFalcon said, and also since you're a (rising?) junior you have time to ensure you knock AP tests out of the park, especially math and science. Maintaining your GPA in difficult classes (i.e. AP classes) looks really good for any school you apply to. And If not for the sake of applications alone, you're going to want to be prepared for the coursework at USAFA, so STEM stuff is always good. Definitely make sure to build/ keep up good relationships with mentors or teachers or coaches in your life because you're going to want the best recommendation letters you can get. You haven't mentioned this, but I'm sure you've thought about it if it's relevant, you can take the AP Japanese test if you speak Japanese, foreign language is a huge thing for a lot of military and government careers, though idk if it'd help you specifically for USAFA. And honestly, if you're going to continue living in Japan for the foreseeable future (but don't already speak the language), you might want to look into learning it just because you're already in the optimal environment, and it looks great to speak lots of languages! But I digress, good luck!