I agree that the Naval Academy students are just really academically and athletically strong students. They come in with high test scores and rigorous academics.
I know that a lot of my former students, who applied to the NA, were National Merit finalists. Their courses at the Academy included lots of engineering and calculus courses. They have tough academic and ability expectations.
I know personally that with our son, once he got his 1580 SAT score, he had Naval Academy recruiters calling him out of class. He was also invited to meet with our State senators. He was an athlete, and had a perfect 4.0 UW GPA. He and 4 other classmates were vying for valedictorian. He had absolutely no interest in becoming a valedictorian, nor in becoming a Naval officer. At that time in his life, he was only worried about his Eagle Scout project.
We just wanted him to study what he liked, to be content and to do well at his university. That’s what he did. Oh and for the record, he is Hispanic-Mexican-American kid who works as a Computer software engineer.