What should I do

[ThePilotDude]

Hello I am currently in 8th grade. At this point I am set on what I want to do, which is join the United States military specifically the Air Force to be a pilot. A couple months back I was looking into potential commissioning sources into the Air Force. I was going to go with AFROTC until I looked at the USAFA and all of its benefits and what it offers. So at this point my main goal is to get into the USAFA, now I know it is very challenging and since I am going to be a freshmen in a couple of months I really want to lay a strong foundation so that I can get accepted into the USAFA. If you have the time could you please provide me with some tips on what I should in my freshmen year. I plan on playing sports and doing volunteer work, is there anything I should do. If you could give me some advice it would be much appreciated.

 

[A1Janitor]

Take the hardest classes offered at your school and excel.

Look for leadership opportunities that can help your peers, school and community.

Do well in your sports, be a good teammate, and look to be a captain down the road.

Read this site thoroughly. You will learn a lot.

 

[ThePilotDude]

Thank you sir. I hope you have a great day

 

[Gaffer]

Since student council is an instant plus for leadership, try running for student council freshman year. If your speech when running is funny and you are confident and charismatic, you would have a much easier time securing a spot on the council. I was full remote freshman year and therefore had to wait until sophomore year to run, its just easier to get on freshman year.

Note that it is a huge time commitment, at least at my school, so consider that as you will have other things to manage.

 

[99Gold]

To start: head over to the USAFA admissions page. They have a lot of info for middle schoolers. Sign up for the Future Falcons program.

Next, what @A1Janitor said.

Look at ECs to join. It isn't too late to join scouts at your age and make Eagle. CAP is a great option. Ect. These programs are great because they provide leadership opportunities, great experiences, and points on your application. Once you get into high school, be purposeful with ECs. Rather than joining a bunch of clubs or activities, focus on making a difference and being a leader in the ECs you join. Sports are important.

 

[A1Janitor]

Since student council is an instant plus for leadership, try running for student council freshman year. If your speech when running is funny and you are confident and charismatic, you would have a much easier time securing a spot on the council. I was full remote freshman year and therefore had to wait until sophomore year to run, its just easier to get on freshman year.

Note that it is a huge time commitment, at least at my school, so consider that as you will have other things to manage.

Not sure how it affected my son’s application - but he was a class officer since 7th grade.

Although it is a time commitment, it was largely during school hours.

Although I am not sure he did much in that role - it did show he could handle a full schedule while maintaining his grades.

Excellent point.

 

[Ger0nim0sal]

Look at ECs to join. It isn't too late to join scouts at your age and make Eagle. CAP is a great option. Ect. These programs are great because they provide leadership opportunities, great experiences, and points on your application. Once you get into high school, be purposeful with ECs. Rather than joining a bunch of clubs or activities, focus on making a difference and being a leader in the ECs you join. Sports are important.

Couldn't agree more with this sentiment. For my application, I only had two or three ECs, but they were long-term and impactful. As an Eagle Scout, I definitely agree that joining scouts is a great option, not as a resume buffer, but as a life experience that you can learn a lot from if you try. It will take a lot of work but you could make Eagle. Good luck!

 

[AIMster_보리차28]

Stand out, gain athletic and academic prestige, and above all, have good character. If you have any opportunities for JROTC in high school, you should try to grab on. National Honors Society is almost an unspoken requirement for college apps, and USAFA loves STEM so you may want to join a math or science club. Leadership is key when it comes to the academies, so climb the ladders and be there for your peers. Bear your passion for the academy and corps. Learn about your academy and service, learn why it's important. Stay dedicated and informed, and always have an open mind. Be kind, make an impression everywhere you go. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[hopefulmominva]

Your counselor and math/science teachers are going to be key players when it comes to recommendations - establish strong relationships!

 

[OldRetSWO]

National Honors Society is almost an unspoken requirement for college apps,

USAFA loves STEM so you may want to join a math or science club.

Not sure about your background, are you an ALO or Academy Grad? Be careful about giving advice based on what you THINK or what other candidates have told you.

A couple here:

Not true about NHS. I'm an Academy Grad/retired Officer and now a University professor and guess what. . . I was never in NHS. I've known many
mids and college students who for one reason or another were never in NHS.

Joining a math or science club has NOTHING to do with USAFA liking STEM. The correct thing to understand is that USAFA and the other Service Academies REQUIRE a lot of STEM so TAKING MATH AND SCIENCE courses should be a high priority for motivated candidates. Doing Well in the most advanced Math and Science courses that your school offers is how you answer USAFA's liking STEM.

I've been a Congressional/Senatorial interviewer for a couple of decades and have interviewed a LOT of kids who are applying for USAFA.

 

[Academician]

Lots of good advice from the previous advisors. To add a few other pointers . . . try to achieve a good, strong balance of academics, athletics and activities. Work toward engagement and leadership in all three areas. I like Scouting, as a former Eagle Scout, but many of my students are in either Civil Air Patrol or Sea Cadets. Both are good programs with a military orientation. It is not too early to think about the Candidate Fitness Assessment and preparing for each of the events. Being a good runner will be an important part of your preparations. I hope this additional information helps -- best of luck with your preparations!

 

[Cerberi]

Strongly suggest you understand what the service academies consider important in their evaluation criteria, but don’t spend the next 5-6 years doing things because you think it makes you a better candidate.

My DD did nothing to become a better candidate. She just happened to love STEM classes, she loved to compete athletically, and she had the desire to be involved in many other school and church activities. She didn’t even have the desire to attend a service academy until the end of her junior year, but by doing what she loved it turned out she excelled at the things USNA was looking for in a candidate.

At the end of the day if you’re deciding between option A or option B and your relatively neutral about both - then choose the option that might add more weight to your application, but I don’t recommend planning your life around what the Academy admissions board may or may not consider ‘important’

The advice you will get here is usually centered around the ‘mean’ of the bell curve and staying inside one standard deviation of the ‘typical’ admitted candidate. It’s typically good advice, but in the end you have to decide what matters to you.

 

[AIMster_보리차28]

Not sure about your background, are you an ALO or Academy Grad? Be careful about giving advice based on what you THINK or what other candidates have told you.

A couple here:

Not true about NHS. I'm an Academy Grad/retired Officer and now a University professor and guess what. . . I was never in NHS. I've known many
mids and college students who for one reason or another were never in NHS.

Joining a math or science club has NOTHING to do with USAFA liking STEM. The correct thing to understand is that USAFA and the other Service Academies REQUIRE a lot of STEM so TAKING MATH AND SCIENCE courses should be a high priority for motivated candidates. Doing Well in the most advanced Math and Science courses that your school offers is how you answer USAFA's liking STEM.

I've been a Congressional/Senatorial interviewer for a couple of decades and have interviewed a LOT of kids who are applying for USAFA.

Sorry for my incorrect assumptions, I'm a USCGA '28 prospect and I'm just going based on what I've experienced with the academies personally. Thank you for letting me know and thank you for your service.

 

[moho]

Sorry for my incorrect assumptions, I'm a USCGA '28 prospect and I'm just going based on what I've experienced with the academies personally. Thank you for letting me know and thank you for your service.

I never did National Honor Society because I always viewed it as a waste of time. They just sat around once a month for lunch and talked about stuff. Now this is the experience at my school, but there is not a single thing on my resume that is filler. I worked hard for every award and title on there. I've had that philosophy for a long time so I just avoided organizations that had fancy names (and at least at my school) did absolutely nothing productive.

 

[USAFA10s]

Lots of good ideas here. I strongly agree with the posts that suggest identifying a few ECs you love and excelling in them across the board. For me this was pretty set by 7th grade: tennis, saxophone (jazz band, concert band, marching band), and the hardest classes out there, especially the STEM ones. When I started to consider a service academy (summer after sophomore year of HS) I added CAP and promoted all the way to the Billy Mitchell award and gained some valuable experience. I wish I'd joined that a little sooner, but I didn't know about it. CAP was great because the scheduled time commitment was minimal (once a week), so I could fit it in around my tennis and band commitments.

Those are my concrete examples - but the general advice is find a few activities you can truly commit yourself to and don't just be good, be GREAT at them and work to obtain leadership roles in all of them.

Take the PSAT when you can, and then the SAT/ACT early so you know which you are better at. Become a great test taker if you aren't already. If it isn't already a part of your sport, begin to develop a fitness routine. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, just start building it into your life now.

A laundry list of activities like NHS, math club, or random volunteer hours with minimal actual impactful leadership or involvement doesn't really help. Choose meaningful activities you love. If you aren't sure (about clubs or sports you might enjoy/be good at), try a bunch, but then stick with the ones that you get the most out of.

 

[A1Janitor]

A laundry list of activities like NHS, math club, or random volunteer hours with minimal actual impactful leadership or involvement doesn't really help.

I don’t understand this, and many people say it.

From @A6E Dad in 2018:

USNA uses a Whole Person Multiplier (WPM), not WCS. It's not the same as what was published in the Rand report from years ago, and the numbers used are very different, but the basics are similar. It is very tempting to get caught up in the details, but in the end it's not important. The only think you really need to worry about is putting forth the best package you can, with demonstrated excellence in all the things that USNA is looking for - which is easy to find with a minimum of effort.

Re: the WPM, it's not that mysterious. There is a very detailed process to ensure that each candidate gets a very thorough look, and is fairly evaluated.
Points are initially calculated from Objective metrics (class rank, test scores, CFA, and assorted check in the box categories like varsity captain, eagle scout, national honor society etc etc), then modified based on Subjective factors. There are many, many subjective factors that can add OR SUBTRACT points. These extra points are called Recommendations of the Admissions Board (RABs). As someone noted above, the person that is presenting the package to the board (who is also a member of the board) spends a few minutes summarizing the candidate, highlighting the major pros' and any con's, recommends any +/- points and recommends an outcome. While the record is being presented, all the members of the board have the candidate's record up on a laptop, and can pull up any of the details (transcript, letters of rec, test scores, bgo writeup, etc) and can read the details while the presenter is speaking. After discussion, the RABs could change, up or down. After a few minutes, the board votes. Possible outcomes are Qualified, Not Qualified (this is the Red/Green blocks, yes still used), as well as Defer , NAPS or Foundation. BTW, for a re-applicant, the board has the previous year's info available as well. This is why re-applicants should not cut and paste from the previous year.

My son was in a ton of stuff. NHS required community service.

Points are points. Isn’t that the similar way WCS points work for USAFA?

 

[AIMster_보리차28]

Points are points.

I agree. I don’t want to think anything in my resume was ‘fluff’ or ‘filler,’ things like NHS or clubs are great even if not everyone chooses to do them. Leadership opportunities exist in everything, and anything you can use to add to your prestige makes a difference.

 

[USAFA10s]

I don’t understand this, and many people say it.

It doesn't hurt to have all of those things- but if you have them AT THE EXPENSE of impactful leadership and excellence (i.e you are a member of a bunch of things, but not a leader in any) then it becomes a problem.

This is advice I give because a very common mistake is to load up on activities, to the point where it isn't possible to maintain great grades in the hardest classes or play a sport at an elite level. If you can be valedictorian, captain of a sports team, have excellent SAT scores, AND have a nice long list of activities, that's great, but the problem comes when the list is too long and what is being sacrificed to keep the long list is excellence/leadership in all of them. I've interviewed a lot of kids (and adults) and the ones with mid-level roles in a lot of different things never stand out. It's the kids that are the best in their chosen area(s) that stand apart - and that needs to include academics, athletics and leadership.

 

[A1Janitor]

It doesn't hurt to have all of those things- but if you have them AT THE EXPENSE of impactful leadership and excellence (i.e you are a member of a bunch of things, but not a leader in any) then it becomes a problem.

This is advice I give because a very common mistake is to load up on activities, to the point where it isn't possible to maintain great grades in the hardest classes or play a sport at the varsity level. If you can be valedictorian, captain of a sports team, have excellent SAT scores, AND have a nice long list of activities, that's great, but the problem comes when the list is too long and what is being sacrificed to keep the long list is excellence/leadership in all of them.

Agreed. My son did every single activity at his school (outside of the arts) and was an officer of everything since 7th grade - well before SA was a realistic chance. By doing that - his teachers loved him and he was friends with everyone in his class.

 

[pv123]

It doesn't hurt to have all of those things- but if you have them AT THE EXPENSE of impactful leadership and excellence (i.e you are a member of a bunch of things, but not a leader in any) then it becomes a problem.

This is advice I give because a very common mistake is to load up on activities, to the point where it isn't possible to maintain great grades in the hardest classes or play a sport at an elite level. If you can be valedictorian, captain of a sports team, have excellent SAT scores, AND have a nice long list of activities, that's great, but the problem comes when the list is too long and what is being sacrificed to keep the long list is excellence/leadership in all of them. I've interviewed a lot of kids (and adults) and the ones with mid-level roles in a lot of different things never stand out. It's the kids that are the best in their chosen area(s) that stand apart - and that needs to include academics, athletics and leadership.

Correct! This kiss of death is a student who spreads himself/herself too thin. "Jack of all trade, master of none". Elite colleges hate this. No longer wanting "well-rounded" students, but selecting students who are experts in 1 or 2 activities to make up the college's well-rounded admitted freshman class. In my opinion, NHS is a "pay to play" club that means little to elite colleges and the USAFA.