<p>I was wondering how important it was to have martial arts expeierience for the acadamies???</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s important at all. </p>
<p>You take classes like that during P.E.</p>
<p>It can be included in your application as an extra-curricular activity if that’s what it was. If you are good enough at it they may be interested in your participation on a competitive team. In any event it could be as important as participation in a club would be on your app. If the participation is involved enough it could show the academy your ability to stick with something long enough to be proficient at it.</p>
<p>Are you saying that the academies do not view martial arts as a sport? Most martial arts require years of training and vigorous testing to advance in rank. The difference between self defense type classes offered in PE and a structured martial arts program that often requires regional and national tournament competition is vast.</p>
<p>Word from USMA admissions is that Varsity letter status can be applied for if the candidate can provide documentation to support the rank attained (2nd degree black belt in my son’s case) and any awards won at tournaments.</p>
<p>Ann - </p>
<p>No reflection on the difficulty of martial arts as a sport. The experience of other posters on this forum is that it has sometimes been difficult to get the recognition from the service academies for non-school sports. Martial arts has been mentioned specifically.</p>
<p>Thanks KateLewis - Sorry, I haven’t seen the posts you mention, do you perhaps have a link. I can only report on the response that my son has had from USMA admissions. I appreciate your feedback.</p>
<p>I do not know how USMA would judge martial arts, but in general they do give credit for excellence in any endeavor.</p>
<p>I do know for a fact that they highly value participation in contact team sports such as football. Extra bonus points are given to varsity letter winners and even more for team captains. Look at any of the class profiles and these characteristics are noted. The keys attributes they are looking for are TEAM players and LEADERSHIP ability. These are the same characteristics taught at West Point, how to be part of a team and how to lead.</p>
<p>Some of the advantages beyone the obvious when training in any of the martial arts include:</p>
<p>-actively working on both short and long-term goals. You can’t become a black belt without earning many of the color belts, and in most arts there are multiple steps before earning each color belt.
-helping to train the junior belts develops leadership skills
-learning from many teachers which may include children, senior citizens, individuals with physical handicaps and generally, learning that not every martial arts teacher looks like Jackie Chan or Chuck Norris, but you can learn from them and must treat all with respect.
-performing with an exhibition team requires precision and commitment to practice
-learning emotional control (likely to be useful during Beast)
-discipline, discipline, discipline</p>
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<p>Ann - </p>
<p>I searched and could not find the reference (so you’re free to ignore my post above). But I’m sure I recall the general tenor - which was somewhat along the school/non-school, team/individual sports divide.</p>
<p>I think if you can highlight the persistence over a number of years, the high level of achievement, and the leadership inherent in teaching others your candidate will be able to overcome any bias.</p>
<p>Katelewis - It may well be true that there is inherent bias against non school sports making it more difficult for those candidates to obtain a high athletic score. My post was merely pointing out that martial arts are not automatically discounted by USMA admissions. If one has achieved in this field it is not automatically thought of as a PE class or a club activity. USMA admissions will consider granting the candidate Varsity Letter status towards their athletic score if the candidate can provide documentation to validate their claims of rank and awards. Although this is done on an individual basis and may vary according to the martial art form that the candidate is proficient in, rank and awards achieved, other prospective candidates may be interested to know that this option is available to them.</p>
<p>I have been taking tae kwon do for 9 years and Im a 2nd degree black belt also like your son Ann. I hope its worth more than just a varsity letter. I was also on the track team and its so easy to get a varsity letter that people with much slower times than me also got one. I HOPE tae kwon do will be viewed with a little more respect than just some old varsity letter.</p>
<p>You need to understand the reason WP looks for Varsity sport participation—it isn’t about “what” sport it is, or if you were “All League”. All of that is nice but WP is looking for the “whole person”—excellent academics with the ability to juggle those time committments that are faily substantial with High School Varsity sports (usually practices every day plus competition time). Multiple Varsity letter winners garner even more application points because of the time and committment it indicates. To WP it is a good indicator of success at the academy where academics is being coupled with a physically demanding routine which is pretty intense.</p>
<p>Shogun - do you have the specifics on the point system used and how they are allocated? From an admissions link that Big Green posted, I know that points are awarded and weighted in the areas of academic ability (60%), leadership potential (30%) and physical aptitude (10%), and these make up the total candidate score. This fulfills their “whole candidate concept”. However, in addition USMA looks to enroll a class of “desired composition and diversity”: leaders (20-25%), soldiers (12-15%), athletes (20-25%), scholars (20-25%), minorities (20-25%), and women (10-12%). Do they fulfil their composition and diversity criteria first and then take those with the highest total candidate score?</p>
<p>The “point” calculations are not published. Just the relative weights of the big three categories (academic, leadership/ec’s and physical). The highest candidate score “wins” but there is a category of points (I forget what it is called) that can only be described by me as “discretionary”. If there is one common factor that is shared by most of the accepted candidates (besides having passed the physical fitness test and DODMERB) its that the vast majority have earned at least one Varsity letter (87% for the class of 2008). Keep in mind that leaves only 13% who did not earn a varsity letter and if I were a betting man I would think that of the 13% who did not probably the majority of those came from active duty or the prep school. A myriad of outstanding academically oriented candidates apply, but that Varsity letter attached to their file helps complete the “whole person” in the academy’s mind.
All that being said, it’s not impossible for someone to be offered admission straight out of high school without a varsity letter, but it is not the norm.</p>
<p>Ann - </p>
<p>If you’ve seen the National Geographic tapes, they profile a cadet who was very strong in the martial arts who was admitted (I’m almost sure it’s in there). He’s profiled as a leader on the WP TKD team.</p>
<p>For sure, candidates get admitted without varsity letters each year. It’s just a slightly (ok, shogun, significantly) different profile than the average.</p>
<p>Thanks Shogun, KateLewis - It’s a pity the point system is not published. It would be interesting to see how the leadership/athletic points are extrapolated from the various activities. I do understand that those without varsity letters are unlikely to be admitted, but I did not previously understand that one does not actually have to earn a varsity letter at school to be given that status. It was a bit of welcome news from the admissions department this week. His alternative is to run Varsity cross country this coming season.</p>
<p>An additional twist is that all of the academies must also admit a geographically diverse class. This is accomplished through the nomination process. The academies have a certain latitude to utilize some unfilled vacancies from congressional districts for candidates with a nomination from another congressional district. These are used for some LOAs and most recruited athletes. If you are not in this group, you compete with others in your district. Therefore, some competitive districts may have 10 nominations for each vacancy that may have whole candidate scores that exceed the one or two candidates from less competetive districts. However, the likely end result is that only one from each district gain an space in the class. So location also plays an important role. This makes it important to have a backup plan.</p>
<p>TakingBackSaturdayz - If you have a varsity letter already that side of your application is covered. I do not know how the points are allocated, and as KateLewis has pointed out you may get leadership points for the TKD as well. My son’s question to admissions asked if he was at a disadvantage in the admissions process since he did not have a varsity letter. They replied that he would receive varsity letter credit if he could send documentation validating his rank and awards. Good luck with your application!</p>
<p>Focus on the complete package. While varisty letters are important it will not complete a “winning” application, hence my prior post about the competition within the district. My son earned a varisty letter and was a team captain in football in a very competitive Texas district along with an application package that exceeded many of the ‘what are my chances to get in’ posts on this forum. However, he still had to compete with others in our district. He has an ROTC scholarship a well respected university and will try again for an appointment to USMA this fall. Another son received an LOA early in the admissions process and was able to bypass the local competition after securing the nomination. So again, make the application as competitive as possible and have a backup plan.</p>