I am currently a freshman in highschool and have decided I would like to go to the AFA, thus this post asking a guestimation from readers of my chances of getting accepted in. To start off:
-My GPA for last grading period was 3.8 My GPA is now a 4.0 unweighted--been working my ass off. (I am in all advance core classes such as English, Math, Science, History, etc. so this GPA is unweighted.) I also am in the middle of my Spanish II class, does the AFA appreciate a second language course heavily (encourage me to take the optional Spanish IV?, as it would lower my GPA because of the difficulty of the class). I attend a very well-educated school so a 3.8 GPA, even with the 1.2 multipliers for advanced courses, puts me nowhere in the top 10% for my class. That is my main fear as of now.
-As for sports, I play on the football team and will through highschool on the varsity team eventually. I also run track (Last year 100M, 200M and 400M relays) and went to district so I have more of an impact in track than in football. While on this topic, as of now, I believe I pass the standard physical test with the 60 minimum pushups per 2 minutes, etc. Now for a question... I play guitar pretty seriously and I see how the AFA might appreciate band players, however, I don't think guitar is the type of band appreciated. Comments on if this should/shouldn't be written into an application or if it probably doesn't matter at all in the AFA?
-As for leadership positions, I am an Eagle Scout (however I was told this doesn't carry much weight as I have heard in the past). I only have about 40 hours of community service right now that I know of but I am definately going to boost that up before my senior year of highschool. Also, I have been considering heavily on running for a class president, vice president, type of position to hold at my school, would this help a lot? There is also a program called Learning Abroad in which students are able to travel into other language speaking countries and live with a family there for a period of around 2-4 weeks during the summer and I am pretty committed on going with this trip, HOWEVER, it would be helpful to know if the AFA puts much weight on things like this.
I understand I stated many things I am planning on doing and asked questions on so as opposed to listing what I have already achieved, but I feel I need the information on what the AFA prefers so my choices in the future will benefit my chances of getting applied. And about the congressional reccomendation... how hard are these to get? As for my cons, you can probably sort those out by figuring what I don't yet have that would help gravely for application. And how bad will my GPA hurt me seeing as it is only 3.8?
Thanks for reading and 'diagnosing' if you chose to. Feel free to those in my situation who wish to know their chances to attach their pros/cons onto this thread to be evaluated. Not by me, though, not by me... Thanks again!