I hope that you have read the posts on Academics, Athletics and Community Service prior to reading this section.  If you haven’t, please go back and read those sections as this section is the last “leg of the table” that make up who you are in the eyes of an evaluator.

What is leadership?  Leadership is not standing in front of a group and telling them what to do and how to do it, and it certainly isn’t barking orders and threatening people.  Leadership is your ability to pull people together for a common cause and, many times getting them to do something that they normally wouldn’t do on their own initiative.

Why is leadership grouped with Academics, Athletics, and Community Service?  The primary role of the academies is to train leaders, officers that can lead men and women in defense of this country.  You may have heard the saying, “You have to learn to follow before you can lead.” While true, it’s also important to realize that the formal academy leadership training will only be over a four year period. Very shortly after graduation, you will be leading men and women in situations that are potentially dangerous.  Because of the relatively short time that the academy has to train you, they are looking for people that have exhibited leadership skills and can quickly refine those skills as junior officers.

There are many ways a student applying to an academy can display leadership whether it be on a sports team, in the community, through scouting, in a club activity, at a job, or just through life experiences.  Many students are team captains and have experience leading their team, sometimes even acting as an assistant coach. Others organize clubs or a community service project and achieve a planned goal Some are required to step up due to a personal challenge.  There is no right or wrong example of leadership but there is a proper way to describe the challenge that you faced, your leadership style, and the outcome.

Machiavelli asked,  “It is better (for a leader) to be feared than loved if you cannot be both?”  That was a tough question for 15th-century

kings and princes.  Today in the 21st century, Machiavelli might ask. “Is it better to be respected or liked?”  I don’t know the answer, but I do know that it will be important for you to be able to describe your leadership style.  If you don’t know what your style is, think about a situation where you had to get a group to work together and how you directed them to achieve a shared goal.  Also, think about what you learned about managing people and yourself during that example.

Let me give you two examples of leadership; both examples are based on real candidate interviews. 

The first is a soccer player.  The soccer player was the varsity team captain during his sophomore year.  He went to a small school and all the senior players were his friends. During the middle of the season, the coach had a heart attack.  The coach had directed every aspect of the team from each play of practice to when the players could take a water break; the coach was king.  After the coach became ill, the team began to flounder; there was no organization, no rigor, and the practices tuned into just a bunch of friends kicking the ball around for fun.  The team captain stepped up and organized the practices and basically took the coach’s place until a replacement coach could be found. He described his challenges in getting his friends and older team members to listen to him and how he overcame their resistance to a new leader and leadership style.

The second is similar to the soccer player but with deeper consequences.  This person told the interviewer how her mother was a single parent of three children; she was the oldest.  Her mother worked full-time leaving many of the household duties to her including taking care of her brother and sister.  This candidate made sure that her siblings got home safely after school and completed their homework; she cleaned the house and got dinner started for her mother.  She was effectively a surrogate parent for a good part of every day. Is this leadership? I think so. Is there any more responsibility than the daily welfare of your younger brother and sister?

My point is not only to frame examples for you but to show you that leadership is more than just being a team captain or a club president.  You have to find your own example and be prepared to articulate it to the interviewer. The time to think of that example is not when the interviewer asks you, “Give me an example of a situation where you were a leader?” or “Please describe your leadership style.” The time to think about those questions is now.

I hope you found this section useful; please look for the next post where I tie  

Academics, Athletics, Community Service, and Leadership together.  

I hope you had time to read my last blog on athletics and I hope that you had time to incorporate some of the ideas discussed in that blog into your plan to get accepted into a service academy.

This blog will discuss the importance of community service in your plan to securing an appointment to a service academy.

What do the words ”Service Academy” mean? It means an academy, a place of study or special training, to prepare men and women for service to the nation. There are not five federally funded universities; there are five federally funded service academies that train men and women to be in service to their nation. Since service to our nation is the key role of the academies, it’s important for potential candidates to be of service to their communities.
In addition to an excellent academic record and athletic competition, the service academies and congressional academy selection committees look for meaningful service to the community. Unlike SAT scores, or athletic accomplishments which are measurable, community service is subjective and therefore how you record your activities and how you present your accomplishments is extremely important. It’s easy for a candidate to say that he/she received a perfect 1600 on the SATs and was a four (4) year varsity letter winner with a state championship but quantifying your work in the community is more difficult?

First, let’s discuss why service to the community is important. Volunteering is important because it shows that you are willing to sacrifice your time and effort for others with no personal reward. It’s significant because service shows that you contribute to society and not just take from society; service shows that you can balance your time and commitments with school and athletics. Service, selflessness, life balance, and time management are all criteria needed for success at any academy and afterwards on active duty. As previously discussed, the service academies are not looking for a one dimensional person, one who is a stellar athlete OR an exceptional student OR a volunteer; the academies are looking for all in a well rounded person.

So what exactly do you need to do? The specific volunteer activity that you choose is not really important to the academy admissions office or the congressional selection committee. The fact that your chosen activity is done consistently over time and that you make a meaningful contribution is critical. Gaining leadership experience through volunteering is an added benefit. Let’s look at some hypothetical examples of community service. Candidate A participates in an annual walk for a charity, possibly participating four times during his/her high school career. Candidate B spends every Saturday morning at the senior center helping serve breakfast and cleaning up. Which candidate made a bigger impact? Another hypothetical example of comparison. Candidate X organized a backpack drive for a poor inner-city school as a senior project, this project was it was a one time event during their senior year in high school. Candidate Y came up with an idea to gather winter coats for the homeless. Y organized the project, encouraged classmates to get involved, found a local church to store coats, and worked with the local police to help distribute the coats to the needy. Candidate Y started the project as a freshman, continued organizing the project through senior year, and passed the project on to younger volunteers after he/she graduated. Both of these students did community service, both contributed, but only one candidate took it to the next level and displayed leadership.

Please don’t misinterpret that one project is a more worthy cause than another. These examples are simply used to illustrate that you must do something, you must contribute, and you must be able to demonstrate on an application and in a personal interview what you have accomplished. So, what do you do? Find something meaningful to you, a cause that you feel strongly about and one that you wish to devote a portion of your time to help. Hopefully, you can find an organization that matches your passion and you can contribute your time and efforts on a regular basis. Ideally, you start early and over time you take a leadership position on some aspect of the cause that you have chosen to help. What if there is no existing organization for your passion? You can choose another passion or take a leadership role and form an organization with your friends, family, classmates and other members of the community interested in your cause.
While you’re doing good and making a difference, be sure to document your time and accomplishments. It’s important for your service academy application and congressional review board. Ideally, your community service activities will span all four years of your high school career and encompass many different activities, even if for the same organization. Documenting these actions on a regular basis will ensure that you don’t leave out important events when trying to recall the last few years for your applications. You will also want to review before your selection interviews.

Before I end this section, I want to talk a little about Boy Scout Eagle projects and Girl Scouts Gold Star projects. Being a scout is a plus for academy selection; it shows leadership, teamwork, and activity outside of school and sports. Overall, scout participation is an excellent addition for a service academy candidate. In my opinion, a scout project is not truly community service. If you’re a scout you are required to complete a project to receive your Eagle or Gold Star. I view this as something more for you than for the community. I understand that the community greatly benefits from a scout project, but it is often a one-time event that is never repeated. A quarterly project such as a food drive for a year or two is more impactful than most one-time projects. This is not meant to diminish scout projects! A scout project is an excellent display of leadership, organization, and problem solving and I am very supportive of scouting. My only suggestion is to try to include additional community service opportunities during your high school years.

Thanks for reading this blog, please subscribe, and pass on to others. I’m sure this post has raised a lot of questions, please send them in and I’ll respond.

I hope that you’re finding this blog useful and making notes on how to chart your course.  In this blog post, we are going to talk about the importance of athletics. 

There is no doubt that some students are “scouted” by athletic coaches at the academies.  There is also no doubt that some high school coaches and athletic directors help exceptional athletes make their way to Division 1 schools such as Air Force, Army, and Navy.  If you are an athlete destined to play in a D1 school, you know who you are. This blog is for those who are not elite D1 athletes, those who either play a sport or haven’t played a sport yet.

Athletics is a big part of academy life and a big part of the selection process.  The academies are looking for well-rounded students, students that not only can handle the challenges of academy academics but those who can also handle the physical demands of academy life and active duty.

Congressional Academy Selection Committees1 and the Academy Admissions selection panels give a lot of weight to participation in sports.  Participation in sports shows that the candidate can function as a team member, is physically fit, can balance the demands of academics and another activity, and shows that the candidate has a competitive spirit. 

If the candidate holds a leadership position on the team such as captain, co captain, starter, etc, that is also a plus because it shows that he/she is not only a team member but has developed some leadership skills.  Leadership is also a key item that selection committees are looking for.

Many candidates ask, does it matter if I’m not the best athlete on my team(s)?  In my opinion, no it isn’t. It’s important to participate and important to compete.  When I see a candidate that isn’t the best but he/she plays more than one season and puts the work in to contribute to the team and be physically fit, that goes a long way.  It is also impressive to read a coach’s recommendation letter that says something like this, “Ms/Mr. Doe has played XXX sport for all three (3) years, he/she has been a great contributor, a leader and can always be depended upon.”  When I read that, I know that this person wasn’t the top athlete but he/she was probably the one that made every practice, was a fierce competitor, and supported his/her teammates.

The other question that I frequently hear is,” Is it important to play three seasons of sports?”  In my opinion, it is, except if you’re an elite athlete. Elite athletes concentrate on one sport and train during the off season.  It is understood that many coaches frown upon playing other sports because of the risk of injury. Playing more than one season shows that you are committed to physical fitness and understand team dynamics and leadership.  Please don’t think that those that play only one season have a lesser chance of acceptance; they don’t, but they use the off season(s) to do other extra-curricular activities. Successful candidates that play only one or two seasons spent time in the off season pursuing other activities such as community service, the arts, other possibly higher academic interests, or a host of other activities to make them a more valuable candidate.

To put this topic into perspective, recent data from the Naval Academy shows 92% of the incoming class were varsity athletes in high school and 72% of those were a team captain or co-captain.  Data from the U.S. Military Academy shows similar statistics; 92% of the incoming class were varsity athletes and 65% were a team captain or co-captain. The Coast Guard Academy shows 85% of the incoming class were varsity athletes and 70% were a team captain or co-captain.  The data verifies the importance of athletic participation.

1 Academy Selection Committees – is a committee assembled by a Member of the House or Senate to review potential candidates for the four service academies that require a congressional nomination (USCGA does not require a congressional nomination at this time). These committees usually review the candidate’s files, conduct interviews, and make recommendations to the Member of Congress or Senate. (More on this topic in an upcoming blog post.)

Thank you for reading this blog; if you haven’t already, please subscribe and pass it on.

My next blog will discuss the importance of Community Service.

• Academics
• Athletics
• Community Service
• Leadership

ACADEMICS – Without a doubt ACADEMICS is one of, if not the key item that is going to

make or break you from getting into one of the Service Academies.  All the Service Academies are looking for well-rounded students; students that have taken a variety of subjects from the typical math and science courses to interesting electives that challenge the student to explore new areas.  But in the end, it all comes down to test scores and the depth of classes that you have successfully taken.

Let’s talk about “English Composition”.  By “English Composition” I mean the ability to read, write, and present.  At the academies, you will have to do a lot of reading in a very short time and you will have to write a lot of papers; the ability to read and write is critical to your success.  Fortunately, this is easy to work on. 

You can practice writing on a daily basis. There are programs that will review your writing, make corrections, and let you know your writing level.

To sum up, the average SAT scores for all five (5) academies is 639.6 Verbal and 667.1 Math.  Note that Naval Academy is at the top of the stack while the Merchant Marine Academy is at the bottom.  No matter which academy or academies you are competing for, the SAT requirements are demanding.  The positive thing about the SAT exam is that you can take it as many times as possible and all the academies will “super score” your results (take the highest scores in each category).

   Welcome to my blog and welcome to the process of applying and getting admitted to one of our nation’s five service academies.  If you found this blog, then you are pretty serious about taking the steps necessary to apply and get accepted.   First, I hope you are here because it is something that you want for yourself not something that your parents, teachers, coaches or others want you to do.  This is something that you must truly want for yourself.  Attending a Service Academy is not a free education; it is a sacrifice that you make in service to your country.  Four years at any of the academies is not a cakewalk; it will place demands on you not only academically but also physically and mentally.  While your peers will attend a few classes a day, you will have a full academic schedule plus a demanding physical fitness regime in addition to an equally demanding regimental life.  Upon graduation, your peers will leisurely enter the civilian job market while you will be committed to at least five years of a military commitment that will be exciting but could also be dangerous.  

   Did you add up four years of the academy plus five years obligated to service?  That’s nine years of your life dedicated to service to your country.  Most students enter the academy around eighteen years old; your minimum service obligation will be completed around the time you are twenty-seven years of age. It is important that you understand this service obligation before applying to a service academy. 

   The process doesn’t start with an application to the academy or a letter to your Senator or Member of Congress telling them of your interest.  The process begins while you are a sophomore or junior in high school.  These are the years that you have to evaluate what you want to do for the next 10+ years.  So, what do you need to do?  I’ve outlined them in these six items.

1. Do a self-evaluation.  Is this what you want to do or is it something that others want you to do?
2. Do an assessment of your future career goals.  Do one of the five service academies offer a career option that you are interested in?
3. Do a fair evaluation of your academic accomplishments and how you stack up against those in your school and the nation.  You can ask your guidance counselor or a trusted teacher for help with this.
4. Do a fair evaluation of your physical fitness level and potential physical fitness level at the time you will enter the Academy.  We will discuss this later on.
5. Are you active in your community, scouting, service organizations, house of worship, or volunteer activities? 
6. Understand the process of acceptance and develop a plan.  That’s what I’m here to help you with.

Let’s discuss each of the above:

1. Self-evaluation – This is an individual assessment; only you will know what the right answer is and how to get there.  Some make a pro/con list by taking a sheet of paper, drawing a line down the middle, and listing out all the pros/cons, the positives the negatives.  You may want to talk to a trusted teacher, pastor, relative, whoever but do talk to someone; this is one of the biggest life decisions you will ever make.  Take the time to do this and, most importantly, be brutally honest with yourself.
2. Asses your future career goals – If you want to go to med school or be a graphic designer then starting your life out at a service academy probably isn’t for you.  Yes, people do go directly to med school from a service academy but the number is one 1 or 2 from a class of 1200, that’s a 0.17% chance of being selected and not all the academies offer the option. Other options, like graphic design, are not possible.
3. Evaluate your academic ability- Are you in the top of your class? Do you have a strong math and science background? Can you read and write at or above your level in high school?  Have you taken the PSAT, ACT and/or the SAT and scored well on a national level? These are all important questions to consider.  The earlier in high school that you think about a service academy, the more time you’ll have to work on these items and improve.  We’ll spend a lot of time on academics in future posts.
4. Physical fitness – Can you run more than a mile? Can you do pull-ups and sit-ups? Are you physically fit, or can you get yourself physically fit?  If you play a sport, you are on your way; if not, consider going out for a team.
5. Do you contribute to your community?  Do you do more than just study or more than just play on the soccer team?  Are you an active contributing member to your community? The academies are looking for scholars, athletes, and leaders in the community.  We will discuss this too in future posts.
6. THE PROCESS – There’s a process. The Senators, Congressmen, and academy admissions offices all have a formal process. You need one too.

  I hope you found this post useful and thought-provoking.  Please like, subscribe and pass it on to others.  Also, ASK ME QUESTIONS AND I’LL RESPOND HERE.

Disclaimer – This information is offered for your personal reference only.  I do not represent any Service Academy.

Thank you for taking the time to link to this post and thank you for your interest in our Federal Service Academies.
The purpose of this page is to share my forty years of experience with you and help you achieve your goal of attending a service academy.  I graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1980 and have been involved in recruiting, counseling, prepping of candidates, and serving on the Academy Selection Committees for three Members of Congress and five United States Senators.   I have interviewed hundreds of candidates, made countless presentations, and helped hundreds of students with “the process” over the years. I’m happy to share my thoughts and advice with you.

On a personal note, my family has been blessed with the opportunity to attend our finest academies. My wife is a service academy graduate, my oldest son and his wife are service academy graduates (he was accepted to USNA, USMMA, and USCGA). My second son is a service academy graduate as are both of my twin daughters (accepted to both USMMA and USCGA).   I understand the process, understand the challenge, and have a clear understanding of what it takes to get in and what is required to make it to graduation day.

Please enjoy the posts. Feel free to send me emails and ask questions.  Remember you don’t have to agree with everything you read but you do have to be a critical thinker.