It is completely different than applying to a civilian school, including the nature of the competitiveness. To get a nomination, which is required for 4/5 of the academies, you only compete against other applicants in your same congressional district (U.S. Representative nomination) or state (senatorial nomination). If you get a nomination, you're competing against the others on the same nomination slate -- again, from same district or state. Each nominating source has 5 spots at an academy at any one time over the course of 4 years, I believe. So, you have to at the top of that slate bc the congressperson/senator has only 1-2 open slots at an academy per year. If you don't make it off that slate, you can still be placed into a national pool and selected from there.

The academies are not test optional and, I believe, don not allow esting accommodations such as extra time.

There are also many medical conditions that will DQ an applicant, including medications. Therefire, medicated ADHD, anxiety, asthma, are no-gos, for example.

Then, you have to be willing to serve active duty in the military for 5 years for all but the Merchant Marine Academy.

Once you whittle away at all these factors, including passing the physical fitness test, the pool of fully qualified applicants becomes smaller.

I think, like most things, it is somewhere in the middle. Top 1% and elite athlete is exaggerated. Near the top of the class and a decent varsity athlete is generally fine. It is not easy to get into these schools. And once you are there they are very academically rigorous, particularly since you are balancing academics with all of the military requirements.

But as others have said, it also depends on the school a kid comes from. All of these schools say you have to be top x%. If you are coming from an elite NYC private, only so many kids can be top 5% or 10% (especially at the smaller schools), yet a lot more than that get into Ivies. Similarly, only a few kids can be top 1%, yet there are plenty of academic superstars who are incredible potential Academy students who might be 4% or something like that at a school with 200 kids in a class - no shame in being 8th if 1-7 are going to HYPS and the like.

Also, as others have noted, if you are a minority student from a random flyover state that doesn't often send kids to academies, it might be easier. Though interestingly, given where military bases are located, some states that might not be huge feeders for HYPS might be more competitive for academies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot that goes into an academy application. Grades and test scores are one part of it. But fitness requirements are also very high. So too is the need to demonstrate community service. And most importantly is leadership - class president, captain of the football team etc. And then you need a Congressional nomination.

There really aren’t a lot of 18 year olds today that can meet all the academy requirements. Right now, less than 30 percent of 18 year olds are even eligible to join the military at all in any capacity - too fat, too medicated, too criminal and so on. Plus the academies need their classes to look like America with every state represented.

So yes, it’s very competitive. But it’s different than normal schools. Someone might have a 4.0 and 1600. But if they’re not an athlete or a community leader, they are not going to have a shot at an academy. A student needs all the components for a successful application.

And an applicant with much lower test score will get in because of other intangibles. Like you said, it's the other things. I don't think the fitness requirements are very high at all espeically if your kid is active. It's clearing DODMERB that causes a lot of interested applicants to not make it further.

This - was shocked to see who got in from our HS. Not at all elite.

Anonymous wrote:Are you serious? Yes, they are looking for the best of the best.

They are great kids and well rounded, which often makes them stronger than most kids in many ways, but certainly not the best of the best from an academic standpoint.

Where you live also affects how competitive the process is. If you live in the middle of nowhere, fewer people will be applying for the available places, so it might be easier. If you live in Northern Virginia, on the other hand, it will be extremely competitive and you will need to be the best of the best. Lots of kids are interested and apply from Northern Virginia and they can only accept a small number of them.

Not really.
Search the forum.

Yes, my service academy graduate (now an Officer in grad school) was salutatorian of her class, merit Semifinalist, three sport varsity player and team captain, had over 500 hours of community service, and a genuinely kind person. She is healthy and was able to get through DODMERBS without any issue, though there is an appeal process that many of her classmates went through to gain admission.
I have a rising senior in college who recieved a full ride Army Reserve scholarship and a rising freshman who recieved full ride Navy ROTC scholarship. These 4-5 year scholarships are very competitive.
They all receive monthly stipends while in college and my son who chose the Army Reserve Option also receives pay for his monthly drills and summer training.
They are all three choosing engineering paths.
Our fourth is still in high school and would like to apply to a service academy, we’ll see how that goes, he is currently in the top five of his class.

Within the first year, about half quit and don’t continue rotc even on scholarship (quitting before 2nd year don’t have to payback anything) and afrotc only about 75% are selected between 2nd and 3rd to go to field training to continue. It’s tough

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot that goes into an academy application. Grades and test scores are one part of it. But fitness requirements are also very high. So too is the need to demonstrate community service. And most importantly is leadership - class president, captain of the football team etc. And then you need a Congressional nomination.

There really aren’t a lot of 18 year olds today that can meet all the academy requirements. Right now, less than 30 percent of 18 year olds are even eligible to join the military at all in any capacity - too fat, too medicated, too criminal and so on. Plus the academies need their classes to look like America with every state represented.

So yes, it’s very competitive. But it’s different than normal schools. Someone might have a 4.0 and 1600. But if they’re not an athlete or a community leader, they are not going to have a shot at an academy. A student needs all the components for a successful application.

And an applicant with much lower test score will get in because of other intangibles. Like you said, it's the other things. I don't think the fitness requirements are very high at all espeically if your kid is active. It's clearing DODMERB that causes a lot of interested applicants to not make it further.

Anonymous wrote:Are you serious? Yes, they are looking for the best of the best.

The best of the best who are willing to die for their country. Mostly that's kids of military vets and poor kids who are looking to get out of where they are from.

There’s a lot that goes into an academy application. Grades and test scores are one part of it. But fitness requirements are also very high. So too is the need to demonstrate community service. And most importantly is leadership - class president, captain of the football team etc. And then you need a Congressional nomination.

There really aren’t a lot of 18 year olds today that can meet all the academy requirements. Right now, less than 30 percent of 18 year olds are even eligible to join the military at all in any capacity - too fat, too medicated, too criminal and so on. Plus the academies need their classes to look like America with every state represented.

So yes, it’s very competitive. But it’s different than normal schools. Someone might have a 4.0 and 1600. But if they’re not an athlete or a community leader, they are not going to have a shot at an academy. A student needs all the components for a successful application.

Competitive in the sense there are hurdles to jump through the biggest of which is getting physically qualified through DODMERB and in some states getting a congressional nomination can be more difficult depending on the level of interest in that state. Total number of applications are far below what you may think. You have to really want it to jump through these hurdles for sue.

They all have a PG program for athletes who aren't academically ready. So that's a backdoor way for less competitive applicants to attend.

Are you serious? Yes, they are looking for the best of the best.

I was reading Air Force's official website. In their admission page, they clearly state that they generally require the applicants' GPA to be top1% in their graduating class to be admitted. There are only 2 exceptions: one is the high school's ranking used UWGPA instead of WGPA. The other is the high school is super competitive.

I was shocked to see it. I had thought service academies admit great but not the tippy top students. I mean, GPA. I know overall those students are in the top tier because they also emphasize character, leadership, fitness, and etc. But for GPA, I had thought probably top10% but not top1%.

Does anyone know real cases? Do service academy so selective nowadays?

Are ROTC scholarships in the same selective level?