6/7 Advanced classes
Stem subjects (coding, engineering)
1350 SAT CFA 90% overall
C/ 2nd Lt /(became battalion commander after being clerk) (MCJROTC)
40-60 community service hours
Criminal Justice vice president
N.H.S
Chemistry club
3.6 gpa/ 4.0 weighted gpa
jrotc 12 awards
Jrotc drone (won contests)( coder and pilot)
Jrotc raiders (attended 2 competitions minimum)
Lacrosse Varsity
Job
Leadership opportunity's/ Paris island/ YLC/ Recruiting/ Community service/

Hello! When will the cadets be back from Jacks and be allowed their phones? Also, my understanding is that that’s only one day and then they get it back for good later. When do they get it back for good? Thanks!

This is a serious question, which is better? Any input will help me. I am guessing ROTC and college would be an easier experience than USAFA. Correct me if I am wrong. But isn’t it also most likely you’d become a USAF pilot through USAFA? And becoming one through ROTC would be harder?

It's optional, but they recommend writing it. The problem is, I don't really have anything I could talk about. My life is pretty normal and uninteresting. Should I talk about my summer seminar experience and how that took USAFA from not even an option to my top choice?

Hello everyone, I’m about to become a senior in high school and I really want to get in the academy. Unfortunately, I can’t apply because I am not a US citizen and recently just moved to the States in June 2024 (I am a green card holder). I found out about the Air Force Academy through my JROTC instructor, I’ve looked it up and since then it’s been my goal to get into the Academy.

For me to immediately get my citizenship, I plan to enlist first and spend at least a year or a year and a half in the AF. I also have 20 credits left to be able to graduate high school early. I am also thinking about graduating early to enlist so that I have enough time to apply just in case there would be a problem.

My question is:
I was wondering if finishing HS early to enlist would be a better choice or should I finish my final year of high school?

I would appreciate any insights and advice.
THANK YOU!

(sorry english is not my first language)

How often do they meet? For how long? And what is done? And is it fun? And, I hear the kids in CAP are odd, is that really true? And how much do you think CAP helped for USAFA.

I’ve been hear time and time again of how bad USAFA. Why? Why does everyone think USAFA is not a good school. I want to be a USAF pilot, and USAFA is my dream school.

I took the CFA recently and scores are as follows:

Pull ups: 16
Push ups: 65
Basketball throw: 65
Shuttle run: 9.7
Crunches: 70
Mile run: 6:49

I’m considering submitting this now, and I was looking for help in my placement. Thank you for all help!

Howdy, I have been very interested for a long time and am almost done with my application.

3.67 GPA. (I know.... It is not great)

1430 SAT first time without studying, I have been studying and am aiming for a 1500+ this August.

Class President Jr Year. Highest fundraising in school history potentially, need to verify.

On a couple club boards.

250+ hours volunteering at my local Veteran's home.

Attended USAFA and USNA seminars, got a 5 at USNA.

Boys State

NHS member

4 Year Varsity Track/XC. 16:36 5k jr year. 4:44 mile. Mental Attitude Award XC

I passed the CFA but my score was terribly, ( I wasn't planning on passing, I thought it was impossible). Retaking soon and will be able to get a much higher score. only 1-2 maxes.

Thanks! any tips/guidance are very appreciated.

(reposting because I somehow forgot athletics first time)

I’m wondering about people’s experience reapplying to the Air Force Academy after doing the AFROTC route your freshman year of college and if anyway it was different from your initial application that year prior. I’m going through that route right now at Emery Riddle aeronautical University in Daytona, Florida, and I’m gonna start my reapplication here soon, but I wanted to hear from y’all. I’m looking to improve on everything that they might have docked me on in my initial application. I think the biggest thing I wanna know is if you did the AFROTC route and got accepted by the Air Force Academy which route did you choose and why? Just for y’all’s information I got direct entry waitlisted the first time around.

I’m currently in high school and will be going into my junior year. My goal is to become a pilot, and I’m trying to figure out how competitive my college application will be.

My parents aren’t crazy wealthy, but we’re doing fine financially. I’m an active cadet in my local Civil Air Patrol squadron, and while my cumulative GPA is currently around a 3.4, I think it’s mostly because my freshman year hurt it. During my sophomore year, I earned all A’s and A-minuses except for two B’s, so my grades have improved significantly.
I also played junior varsity basketball during both my freshman and sophomore years, but I don’t plan to continue next year. Outside of school, I stay active through boxing and archery. Does USAFA value achievements in sports outside of school, such as placing in local championships, or do they mainly care about varsity sports?

I’m also planning to attend a local flight school to earn my Private Pilot License before I apply to college.

My main question is: how much of an impact would Civil Air Patrol, earning my Private Pilot License, out of school sports, and continuing to improve my grades during my junior year have on my college application for an aviation program? And what do you recommend I do to increase my chances of getting accepted?

Hello! We’re going to see my cadet for acceptance day. we plan to bring him some food - probably jersey mikes and a bottle of coke - are we allowed to bring those in with us when we check in with our base passes? i don’t want to keep the food in the car because we already will have limited time, but i wanted to see if we’d be allowed to in the first place. also, are small pocket digital cameras allowed? if you guys who have done this before have any tips and tricks, please share!

Class of ‘31 applicant here. Just looked at my portal and saw that a “letter of interest“ was posted. I’ve heard those are good, but I just wanted to figure out how significant they actually are. I’d appreciate any insight people have

Foreword- Hello, I know “what are my chances” posts are discouraged here, but please consider my post.

I am currently in HS going into my junior year. I started HS off strong with a 3.6 GPA freshman year and all advanced classes. I really slacked off sophomore year mainly due to Spanish, ending with a 2.9 GPA bringing my total average down to a 3.4 GPA. I am totally and 100% motivated now to do whatever it takes to bring up my grades and increase my GPA. My pre act score was also a 26, but I am prepared to increase it focusing more on math and science balancing out my near perfect scores in English and reading.

I worry about my fitness evaluation because I am basically starting from scratch, so if you have any tips on fitness please share them. I have a strong leadership base with me being section leader in my marching band. Other things I have completed or I am working on include: my taekwondo black belt, membership in my city’s public safety cadet, the CAP, auditions for Allstate choir and band, multiple productive not leisure clubs, and I am going to try to be a student ambassador for my school.

Edit- I am fully prepared to join the military in whatever role I am placed in, preferably aviation. It has always been my personal plan to join the armed forces, as my grandpa was a ranger in Grenada, and I look up to his grit and determination it took to get through training.

I would like to make a sincere thank you if you have read this far, and I hope you consider giving advice.

'12 grad here. I See this come up every cycle with appointees who've wanted to fly since they were 12 so figured I'd give the perspective I wish somebody gave me.

I got the dream. Pilot slot, UPT, the whole thing. Did my commitment, got out. Nobody tells the 19 year old showing up to BCT: the thing waiting for you on the other side, the FedEx/United/Delta pot of gold everybody talks about, is basically bus driver with better pay.

And I don't mean that as a shot at the guys doing it, some of my buddies love it. It's just what it is. Autopilot on at 1000 feet, off at minimums, sleep in a Marriott, do it again. Long stretches of boredom in a metal tube punctuated by trying to find decent food in Memphis at 11pm. The actual FLYING part, the part you dreamed about? It's like 90 seconds per leg.

And the seniority system is brutal. You're junior for YEARS. Garbage schedules, gone every holiday, miss your kids stuff constantly. Want to switch airlines? Cool, back to the bottom of the list. Your entire career is a number that only moves when the guys above you retire or die. Not exaggerating. That's the system. The pay isn't even that great. I know a guy who was almost a Rhodes scholar who flew helos and then converted and is making like 80k flying regional jets right now.

Meanwhile my classmates who went cyber or acquisitions or intel or whatever... a lot of them are doing genuinely well. Sleep in their own bed every night. Remote work. Skills that actually compound instead of just waiting your turn in line. Couple of them run side businesses. If you're smart enough to get into USAFA at all, you have options, and a lot of those options have way better quality of life than anyone will tell you at 19.

I'm not saying don't fly. If it's truly YOUR dream and not one an airshow sold you when you were a kid, go for it. But pressure test it first. Talk to actual line pilots, not the recruiter, not the LTs at your ALO visit. Ask them about their schedule, their marriage, their commute. Then decide and go for the pilot slot

just sayin', wanted to get that off my chest

Hello, I really want to go to USAFA and am currently all set to start working on congressional nominations, besides my CFA. Here are my current stats from a CFA I took for practice(female)

Basketball throw - 30 feet
Pull ups- 5
Shuttle run- 9.9
Pushups-45
Sit-ups-60
Mile run-5:40

I’m really struggling on sit-ups and the basketball throw. I think I can improve my shuttle run easy with training. I was wondering if anyone had tips for training as well as if I should shoot for above average or just average, like if it will help me have a higher chance of getting a nomination( my rep. is Henry Cuéllar) (and Texas is very competitive) (and I do not even live in Texas because my dad is active duty)

Basics:

GPA: 4.0, weighted 4.4

Class Rank: 10/290

6 APs, AP Scholar award, taking another 5 APs next year and another dual enrollment course but it goes on my HS transcript

2 dual enrollment semester long courses through local JC, both A’s.

Athletics:

Varsity Waterpolo (3 years) hoping for captain this year.

Varsity Swim (4 years) captain both sophomore and junior year.

ECs:

Private Pilot (under the Ray Scholarship from EAA)

250+ volunteer hours at local airport every available Saturday raising funds for our EAA chapter to sponsor youth to go to Air Academy at Oshkosh.

1 year seasonal position as a lifeguard

Model UN (3 years)

Link Crew leader junior year

NHS (3 years) side note: My school has NHS as a club, but is t really active in terms of volunteering, but I’m hoping my previously mentioned volunteering makes up for it.

Planning to found an aviation club next year, doing things like volunteering at the airport, small-scale ground lessons potentially, and Young Eagle activities monthly.

Planning to launch a side gig flying drones under FAA Part 107 for realtors and construction companies.

Other Info:

Attended USAFA Summer Seminar

Arranged personalized tours of my two local AFBs to learn about the operational AF. Maybe use in essays?

Trying to get my SAT scores up and my physical condition in peak shape before DoDMERB, but I’m not sure the right way to do that. I’m 6’0” and hovering about 192-197lbs. The USAFA standard is 184lbs. for 6’0”, so any tips on how to get there would be appreciated. Also any training tips for the CFA would be helpful.

My daughter is going to be a freshman and is already planning on applying to the Academy. She's mapped out her high school plans in order to be a strong candidate when it's time to apply. One thing that she's concerned about is that she doesn't play a traditional varsity sport. She's currently a second degree black belt in karate which she has been doing since kindergarten and plans to continue training throughout high school. Her dojo has a tournament team and she's Jr captain of the team and has competed internationally. She's concerned that it's not a varsity sport and is considering joining the cross country team just to have a varsity sport on her resume which I think is just crazy. Do you think her karate will be looked at the same as a traditional varsity sport? She will be a third degree black belt by the time she applies to the Academy.

I am in the summer right now, going into junior year soon. I want nothing more than to go to USAFA and be a USAF aviator.

I had ~3.1 GPA freshman, dropping out of Spanish about a month before the Spanish 2 final because I severely struggled with Spanish for some reason, and was only hurting my GPA. I had a 3.55 GPA sophomore year. I go a very competitive high school, where the average GPA is a ~3.6, scoring a 10/10. So, the classes are more challenging and the standards are higher. Sophomore year, I was in geometry, biology, and taking AP world history.

I have 171 volunteer hours from being a junior fire fighter. And I will become an actual volunteer fire fighter as soon as I can once I turn 17.

I am also an amateur boxer, boxing for 3.5 years so far, and a record of 1-0, boxing year around.

I was in 2 clubs freshman year, 1 sophomore year and plan on doing 3 next year, and being apart of a club senior year.

ANYTHING helps. If you can give insight to how competitive I am, along with how I can make myself more competitive, please do! I appreciate ANY feedback!

I have to make a decision on colleges this year, and I really have no idea what I want to do. I freaking love the outdoors, I love junior ski patrol, I love whitewater rafting; so I want to go to a school with a cool outdoorsy background. I live in Colorado so I always thought about going to the Air Force Academy, but I’m not sure if I could still stay in ski patrol in the winter or not. I also am not into partying or anything like that, but I just really don’t know what I want to do. I’ll prob just go to CU.