ACADEMY ADMISSIONS: VARSITY TEAM CAPTAIN

The Academies highly value leadership positions, and the problem is, non-traditional sports or club sports usually don’t have many leadership positions available like varsity sports do. If archery or karate are your thing, that’s great, but be aware that unfortunately the system designates points in a way that favors varsity sports.

In fact, many of the Academy applications will ask you point-blank, “how many varsity letters do you have?” and “which years were you team captain?” They take the # of years you were team captain and the # of years you had a varsity letter, and compute an athletic activities score.

We call this a “hack” because if you know the formula at a high level, you might taper off the club sports with no leadership positions and dial in on the varsity sports that do have team captain roles. Or you might have that crucial conversation with your varsity coach today to let him/her know how important this position would be for your future!

PS – West Point’s class profile says 75% of their admits in 2021 were team captains. That’s a VERY large percentage, so be aware that getting team captain can be a huge win.