7 MISTAKES MOST APPLICANTS MAKE
Imagine you are preparing to hike the Appalachian Trail. Before you attempt the arduous journey from Georgia to Maine by foot, will you wing it, or will you diligently prepare? If you want to be successful, you need to “count the costs” by understanding the distance, terrain, elevation, and weather forecasts, which will determine how much help you need to reach your destination.
If you’re reading this, you want to get into a Service Academy. The reality is, the path you’ve chosen is the most complex undergraduate admissions process in the country by far. In earlier years, we’ve helped college clients apply to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and the Ivy League application workload compared to Academies is not even close. The costs to your own time and stress are astronomically higher than filling out the good ole common app with your high school guidance counselor. You need knowledge. But even more importantly, you need experience, which you don’t have.
What we’ve learned from coaching applicants across the country over the past three admission cycles is this: you only have a 10% chance of getting into an Academy, but if you follow what we teach, you can drastically improve your odds. Over the last 3 years, 100% of our clients have earned Congressional nominations, and over 90+% have won an Academy appointment and/or ROTC scholarship.
In this blog post, our goal is simple: to help you understand where most applicants mess up, so you can avoid the common traps.
Timing is Everything
You are reading this at the perfect time. With USAFA Summer Seminar applications coming out on Dec 1st, this officially marks the beginning of the application season. The application process begins now, which is why we are excited to announce the launch of our Pro Program for rising high school seniors, where we will take 30 applicants through the application process from start to finish.
Everything you’ve worked so hard for the last 17 years will be decided over the daunting, overwhelming application marathon that will last at least the next 12 months. Get ready for a wild ride, and pay attention to the following so you can avoid traps that most applicants fall into.
What to Expect
Here’s a very simplified version of the entire application process for Academies, Nominations, and ROTC, all in one picture.
On the left hand side, you’ll see Academies on top, Nominations in the middle, and ROTCs at the bottom. We wanted to put these three buckets together in one image because applicants have different deadlines for each of these three categories.
The red lines are due dates for each of these applications, notice they are all different.
The green line is your hypothetical turn in date.
Summer Seminar (SS) applications open between Dec-Feb, and are due between Jan-Apr. Summer Seminar allows you to experience life as a cadet or midshipmen on campus for one week. If accepted, you will attend SS between late May-mid Jun.
Academy applications open over the summer between late May to mid-July. If you didn’t apply to SS, you will need to fill out an Academy pre-application in order for your application portal to open in the summer.
Academies have rolling applications. Nominations require traditional applications. ROTCs have Board requirements.
Expect the following in the application process:
- Essays: Each Academy, Nomination, and ROTC application will require essays, and they are due by the deadline. Academies and ROTCs typically require 3-4 essays, which is twice the average college. The only exception is AFROTC, which does not require essays or letters of recommendation. Congressman and Senators’ essay requirements vary – typically they require 1 essay, but we’ve seen some Senators require up to 8 250-word essays! It depends on the office.
- Letters of Recommendation: Each Academy will require recommendation letters, and they will specify whether they are optional or mandatory. Academies have between 4-5 recommendation letters, twice as much as the average college.
- Fitness: Academy and ROTC both require fitness tests. For Academies, you are required to perform the fitness test before the application deadline. For West Point, you have to record videos of pushups and pullups. All Academies require the CFA, except USCGA, which requires the PFE (physical fitness exam). ROTC fitness tests differ based on the branch. Are you noticing a theme here? The lack of standardization makes it harder to keep track of! Note: Nominations typically do not require fitness tests.
- Interviews: You will be interviewed more during the Academy application process than any other college; it’s not even close. Each Academy, ROTC, and nomination source does interviews. Academies will do 1-on-1 interviews with a former graduate, ROTC does interviews with an ROTC cadre, and nominations are typically a board interview with 2-3 veterans in the area. Note: some Congressional offices do not interview, but this is rare. If you are applying for a nomination, expect an interview.
- Nominations: You will all apply to at least 3 nomination sources, including your Congressman and two Senators in the state that you are legally domiciled. Those deadlines are generally between Sep-Nov, but each application is different and you must check their websites to verify requirements as they vary from office to office.
- DODMERB: All applicants must go through an intrusive and thorough medical process called DODMERB, which consists of a medical history survey, two exams, and much more if they find anything. Medical clearance is due before they can grant you an appointment, which usually occurs in March-April timeframe.
Typical Client
The tediousness of the Academy applications is often underestimated, so the best way to shed light on this is to show you a case study of a real applicant. Due to privacy, we will call our client Joe. Our client Joe, had a dream – he wanted to serve and he wanted to fly. And even more than that, he wanted to fly fast jets. That’s probably half of you reading this right now. So he and his parents listened to our webinar, and soon after, they signed a contract and went through the process with our help. When they came to us, they knew they wanted to apply to USAFA and USNA. Can’t be that much work, right? The reality is, the workload was far more than they realized. Between nominations, Academies, and applying to ROTC as a backup, by the end of the process, Joe had completed 20 essays, 22 recommendation letters, 7 interviews, 3 fitness tests, and a medical process that took 6 months. All in, Joe spent 15 months working with Academy Endeavors to achieve his goal. Sheesh!
How Academy Endeavors Will Help You Win
Here’s exactly where Joe, or any other applicant, would likely mess up if he didn’t have Academy Endeavors.
| 7 MISTAKES MOST APPLICANTS MAKE | ACADEMY ENDEAVORS SOLUTION |
| Procrastinate and miss a deadline. Applicants approach Academies like normal college, thinking deadlines are suggested dates to submit applications. The deadline date is a distraction – if you wait until the end, you have already lost. | We get started NOW and have everything in by August 31. This ensures no deadline is ever missed, and with rolling admissions, this maximizes your chances of receiving your Letter of Assurance. |
| Anxious about CFA, but do not take action | We require 3 mock CFAs and suggest workout plans in between. |
| Follow the “just be yourself” advice for interviews. They wing it. | We hold 2 mock interviews with Academy graduates. This simulates the real thing asking the real questions. |
| Leave points on the table. The Academies quantify everything you do. They don’t know how Academies score applications, they leave points on the table that could have otherwise made the difference. They go in overconfident and compare themselves to other high school students instead of typical Academy applicants. They do not know the applicant pool. | We talk with Academy applicants every day. This is our full-time job! We can clearly tell our clients where they stack up against other applicants, and what they need to work on. We know the Scoring System and how boards view applicants. We start with our 360 Assessment and work with clients through Final Review to ensure they are prepared to win! |
| Lack clarity on what to do next because they have never done this before. The unexpected turns cause confusion and delay. The reality is, this process takes 12-15 months from start to finish. Applicants can underestimate how long it is and how much work is involved. | We offer a structured program that clearly lays out each step in the application process. Each client receives a personalized Workbook to guide them in the process. |
| Underestimate DODMERB. The medical questionnaire is 113 questions. The information can be difficult to find. If you don’t get medically qualified, you won’t be allowed in. Period. 20% of applicants are disqualified every year due to lack of medical qualification. | We offer a full medical record review and help our clients receive medical waivers for any disqualifiers. |
| Try to do it alone. Effort is not enough. You need knowledge that only comes from experience. Ask for help. There is no common application for the Academies – your guidance counselor probably cannot help. This is the Academy, and it is going to take a different plan to get better results. | We are your champions from start to finish. We have the experience that you lack, and the knowledge to help you succeed. |
What Do We Want You to Remember?
The one thing we want to remember is to take action NOW. At the time of this writing, Summer Seminar applications are coming out this week (Dec 1st), which officially marks the beginning of the application season. This is why we are excited to announce the launch of our Pro Program for rising HS seniors, where we will take clients through the application process from start to finish. We only have 30 spots, and now you will have a chance to take the next step to secure your spot.
Your Next Steps to Ensure You Win
- Find a mentor who will walk through this process closely with you. No one gets into the Academy on their own. You won’t be the first. Whether it’s a superstar parent, liaison officer that goes above and beyond, or Academy Endeavors, every admit has a story about those who helped them as they were overwhelmed. To avoid the common mistakes most applicants make, you will need help. The truth is, there’s one hundred other unexpected things that will pop up over the next 17 months, and this is on top of your school work, sports, and extracurricular activities. The stakes are high. One misstep could sacrifice your future.
- Sign up now for FREE Academy Endeavors 1-on-1 for you and your parent: https://academyendeavors.com/apply-now/
Still on the fence? Here is a testimonial video from a parent of a successful Pro Program client! https://www.loom.com/share/379068aad8fa43f286807b4cff764eb3
