Hello, I am a sophomore in a private college preparatory school.
I take all AP class and have a cumulative unweighted GPA of 3.97 and a weighted of 4.97. I do five sports (track,volleyball,cheer,pole vault, cross country) I have gone to state for track and placed 5th in the two mile and first in the 4x4 relay. I work in multiple volunteer programs. Do people who have gone West point think that this is doing well enough to get accepted? I have a long history of military family members and my father won soldier of the Year in the Western States in 2007 so it’s important to me I’m doing what I can to get accepted.
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@ChoatieMom - can you refer this poster to some of your excellent posts on this topic?
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https://westpoint.edu/admissions/summer-program
Decades ago one of my close friends attended the USMA at West Point with the intention of entering the private sector after 5 years of active duty. Spent his career in the US Army retiring as a General. Just loved being in the military.
I hope that you achieve your dream.
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Yes, it’s likely competitive but there are many facets to the application and a very long process. There are separate/additional parts to the application (nomination, medical, fitness test) which require additional applications, effort and a lot of patience. It’s best to start the app in your junior year. Apply to the SLE program next year as a rising senior but also know that if you are not accepted it will not hurt you when you apply for ‘real’. Best of luck!
Our son is an Army Cyber captain six years out of West Point currently serving with Cyber Joint Forces at Ft. Meade, MD.
As I always post, there is no chancing for a service academy due to the complexity of the nomination process; without one, USMA cannot offer you an appointment. You can peruse any of my similar responses to other candidates asking what they can do to enhance their candidacy, such as this one and this one, and any of my other posts on this subforum.
You are currently doing well in two of the most important categories, sports and academics:
Keep it up, earn varsity letters in your sports, and rise to team captain in at least one of them.
Toward the end of your junior year/start of senior year, your focus will be on applying for a nomination from all sources available to you. Everything you could want to know about nominations you can find on your senators’ and congresspersons’ websites along with the Nominations subforum of serviceacademyforums.com (the equivalent of CC for those pursuing service academy appointments). I suggest you create an account on that site to get any further questions answered by current and former military officers, parents, and cadets.
You are on the right path, but now is the time to deeply consider your answers to the most important questions you will be asked by both the nomination panels and the academy:
- Why do you want to serve your country as an officer in our armed forces?
- Why are you choosing USMA as your path to a commission as opposed to ROTC or OCS or other academies? (Are you considering these alternate sources?)
- How deep is your commitment to service?
They will not care about what anyone else in your family has done. They want to know only why YOU want to serve and what your understanding of and commitment to service mean. And, they will want to know that this is your choice, not something you’re doing for anyone else or to satisfy anyone else’s expectations other than your own.
I am happy to answer any questions I can either on this thread or via PM, but as you face the many moving parts of the application to a service academy, you will also want the benefit of the experience of those on the service academy site I linked above.
Good luck!
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USMA and ROTC both deliver the same final outcome as a 2LT in the U.S. Army. USMA is a way of life for four years, while ROTC is an extracurricular activity with a heavy time commitment (similar to a sport at a DIII school).
I just wanted the scholarship, so I chose ROTC. I ended up serving 10 years on active duty post commissioning.
Do you research and then start making inroads with your Congressional Representative. Good luck.
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Definitely make sure you understand the various branch service commitments, too. Our son branched Cyber which, at the time he commissioned, was six years (Congress is considering upping it to ten), plus the time for his masters and PhD will put him at 16 years. By then, it probably won’t make sense for him to leave, so most likely he will stay in for 20 to earn the pension and benefits.
The least amount of time you would serve is four years for ROTC in, say, the Infantry branch. Minimum out of the academy (any branch) is five years plus three years in the Reserves (all branches).
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Thank you so much for all the helpful info! Do you know any JAG Officers or forums
I could check out?
Yes, serviceacademyforums.com is still the place you want to go. Any questions you have about military law/yers can be answered there.
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