How to Get into The Air Force Academy

Getting into the Air Force Academy requires a commitMent, and a difficult admission process. Your chances of getting into the Academy aren' t good-fewer than one candidate in 50 gets admitted. What follows are the stumbling blocks that stop most candidate applications from succeeding, and how to adDress them.

How to Get into The Air Force Academy

How to Get into The Air Force Academy

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How to Get into The Air Force Academy

How to Get into The Air Force Academy

We are assuming that you're reading this as a high school junior. If you're starting this process in your senior year, you're starting late, and may have to transfer into the Academy from another four year college.

The first stumbling block is fitness. Each year, the Air Force Academy requires all cadets to do at times 1.5 mile run, and the generalized Ph Meter run allin 15 minutes. In particular, this test has to be done in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is at high altitude. Unless you're doing athletics in high school, the odds that you'll pass this test for the first time are pretty slim.

Related to this, the Academy looks for candidates who participate in team sports, and in athletics in general. This shows that a student is willing to work, work hard, and work within a team to achieve group goals, and to use controlled aggression to their own aims. Basketball, football, track, trap shooting and fencing are sports the Air Force grades high in candidate application processes.

Like any college admission program, academic performance is important. It's more than just having a straight A average. The difficulty of the classes you takematters as well. The Air Force puts more weight on the difficulty of the course load (taking calculus rather than math refresher, for instance) than it does on perfect GPA requireMents. If you're weak academically, the time to find out about it is at the beginning of your junior year in high school, where you should focus on study habit improveMent and boosting your GPA. GPA in the last two years of high school will count for more than your early GPA.

The Air Force puts lower weighting on standardized test scores. While most four-year colleges use standardized test scores to differentiate between students with near identical academic records, the Air Force treats them somewhat as a pass-fail test. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, while not asubstitute for the SAT or ACT, is a good adjunct. Be sure to take it as well as the other tests.

The biggest Filter for candidates trying to get into the Air Force Academy is character. Character can be difficult to determine objectively, so the Academy requires candidates to get letters of recomMendation from their community leaders, teachers, and employers, and the coordinators of any volunteer organizations they belong to. Focus on getting the best positive letters of recommendation you can get. When you write your admission essay, focus on events that showcase places where you exerted leadership, or showed strength of character. This is the place to shine if you're worried about your academic performance.

How to Get into The Air Force Academy

High School Resume For College: An Essential Part of Any College Application

What Is A High School Resume?

High School Resume For College: An Essential Part of Any College Application

High School Resume For College: An Essential Part of Any College Application

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High School Resume For College: An Essential Part of Any College Application

High School Resume For College: An Essential Part of Any College Application

Resumes are mainly used to apply for Jobs but that is not what a high school version is used for. This kind of docuMent, increasingly a key part of your college application package, helps the admissions officers at colleges and universities understand you and what you have to offer in addition to your good grades and SAT scores. Learn the difference between writing a resume for college and writing one to apply for a Job. Once you master the special kind of resume, you will have a better chance of getting an admissions offer from the college or university of your choice.

Why Does A High School Resume For College Admissions Matter?

Universities and colleges ask for high school resumes for various reasons. Forprograms with an artistic emphasis like acting, dancing or creative writing, resume can show what you achieved by creatively outside of the classroom. Other colleges ask for a secondary school resume because they want to encourage a thriving student body with a variety of interests, skills and hobbies. Even though a resume follows a certain form, it does let applicants tell admissions officers about themselves and helps them before more than a combination of GPA and SAT numbers.

What Should You Include In Your High School Resume

Before you write high school CV and send it off to the college of your dreams, check to see each college's requireMents first. Some programs will limit you to one page while others want you to comMent on specific abilities such as leadership andcommunity service. Failing to look up and follow the instructions of college admissions staff will undermine your chances of admission. If the college or university provides no guidance or assistance, here are some general ideas on what to include and what not to include.

High School Resume Do's

1. DO Mention community service particularly if you played a major role (e.g. led an Amnesty International club).
2. DO list any languages you know (e.g. Spanish, Chinese, German) especially if your transcript does not show your knowledge of these languages.
3. DO discuss your involvement in high school activities like band or the yearbook club.
4. DO proofread your resume and ask a friend to look it over before you submit it.
5. DO limit yourself to a maximum of twopages.

High School Resume don't

1. don't list every single part-time and contract Jobs you have ever held.
2. don't make up facts or write anything dishonest on your secondary school resume.
3. don't write long paragraphs; resumes should use bullet points.
4. don't include a list of all the classes you have ever taken; other parts of your college application should cover that.

These DO's and don't of writing a resume for college admissions will help get you started. If you need further help and examples, ask your guidance counselor, teacher or somebody you know in college.

High School Resume For College: An Essential Part of Any College Application