Jjust wish to extend hearty congrats to you for your completion of this ASAFA Prep School! I truly wish you the best experience with your journey through the Academy. Blessings and best wishes going forward.
I am applying through the LEAD program this year! Your videos have helped me out drastically in becoming an airman and also applying for the USAFA. Greetings from Ellsworth AFB SD
Great video. I hope that USAFA Prep has improved. I was a '76 grad and our attrition was 67% of the 350 that started the program. I attribute much of that to lack of oversight/leadership during the off duty hours where mentoring and socialization of new candidates needed adult leadership. Out of the 100+ that graduated, we had maybe 50 that made it through the Zoo. It's a tough road to follow by all measures.
Congratulations on attending the Academy now, man! Quick question, do prior enlisted airmen HAVE to attend the Prep School before the Academy? I want to know if I can just go to the Academy right away instead of going to the Prep School first. Thanks and great video!
You get prep school only if you get selected , you’ll apply and maybe don’t get into the Air Force directly but sent to Prep School Is a 10 month school which prepares you for the Air Force Academy, so then you’ll get into the Air Force Academy next year It is guaranteed that you’ll get in if you finish prep school
Ryan Mac I can’t speak for him, but I got accepted to the prep school for this years class. My high school GPA was like a 2.5 My college GPA was like less then a 2? Idk, but I failed two classes out of like 4 total. Tbh tho I had a decent excuse, at the time I took those classes I got short noticed deployed with like 3 days to get ready. I also didn’t know the distinction between dropping out of a class and failing them so I just missed the deadlines and failed without realizing I could have made my transcript look a lot better. My admissions councilor even called and asked why I had F’s in my transcripts during the application process and I had to explain. My SAT scores were good though. I scored a 1250 which is the exact average score for direct admission applicants to the academy. The prep school is like 1150 is what I’ve been told. So I was not very confident in my application at all. But they emphasized a lot that they focused on the “whole airmen concept” because I’m prior enlisted. They were also oddly persistent in making sure I followed through with the application, which to me indicated that there was a high chance I’d get accepted no matter what. Almost like a “wink wink” sort of moment. At the end of the day I can only speculate though. I think my SAT scores and the fact I was prior enlisted got my foot in the door and from there they were willing to give me a shot via the prep school. For which I’m extremely grateful! Let me know if you have any questions. Especially if your prior enlisted!
Ryan Mac no problem. I do want to emphasize I was prior enlisted in the Air Force though. This gave me a direct way to apply to the preparatory school specifically. In fact, in my applications writing samples I specifically said stuff like “If I have to go to the prep school to prove what I’m saying then I’ll do it!”
ooff! You asked an embarrassing question right away. But please ask away, i'm so happy i got accepted that im just trying to outreach to as many people as i can! I don't remember the exact numbers, but i got like 7 pull ups, 50ish push ups, 60ish sit ups, and i ran like a 7:30 mile. I'm really out of shape right now and i think all of my stuff was below average but none of it was "failing". They don't give you a score though and I have no idea how it effected my overall application. One prior USAFA grad told me he never heard of anyone ever not making it in because of the fitness test. But the cynical mind i have just thought "well yeah, everyone around you clearly passed" BUT he might also have been saying that from the position of someone who's heard what other people have scored and perhaps he knew a lot of people who didn't do well either. My overall advice is to not worry "too much" about the fitness aspect and to instead try and beef up your SAT scores/college grades as much as you can. But maxing out fitness is an obvious bonus too.
I took some college classes online. Like two math classes and a public speaking class. The math classes actually helped me on my SAT but besides that I haven't studied at all. But based off what he says in the video, i'll be taking some standardized tests when I get there and from there they'll decide what level difficulty of classes they'll put me in. The hand book they sent me said that because of the higher elevation and the fact that BCT will be physical that I should max out on my push ups, sit ups, and pull ups every day and also run 30 minutes a day in preparation. Really not that hard if you think about it. Well, the running part is kind of annoying.
So I’m currently in the enlistment process and I’ve been watching your videos. I’m 22 years old and am very interested in USAFA however you said the age limit is 23. Is it a very strict age limit or are they willing to work with an airmen based on their situation?
I can’t speak for him, but I got accepted to the prep school for this years class. My high school GPA was like a 2.5 My college GPA was like less then a 2? Idk, but I failed two classes out of like 4 total. Tbh tho I had a decent excuse, at the time I took those classes I got short noticed deployed with like 3 days to get ready. I also didn’t know the distinction between dropping out of a class and failing them so I just missed the deadlines and failed without realizing I could have made my transcript look a lot better. My admissions councilor even called and asked why I had F’s in my transcripts during the application process and I had to explain. My SAT scores were good though. I scored a 1250 which is the exact average score for direct admission applicants to the academy. The prep school is like 1150 is what I’ve been told. So I was not very confident in my application at all. But they emphasized a lot that they focused on the “whole airmen concept” because I’m prior enlisted. They were also oddly persistent in making sure I followed through with the application, which to me indicated that there was a high chance I’d get accepted no matter what. Almost like a “wink wink” sort of moment. At the end of the day I can only speculate though. I think my SAT scores and the fact I was prior enlisted got my foot in the door and from there they were willing to give me a shot via the prep school. For which I’m extremely grateful! Let me know if you have any questions. Especially if your prior enlisted because I just went through the process.
Also, as a side note, one of the biggest things every POC and liaison emphasized while i was researching the LEAD program kept saying "dont self eliminate! let us be your judge!" ect ect..... I kept getting vibes from all sorts of people making it sound/feel like that if i just finished and followed through on the application, my chances of getting into at least the prep school were very high. to back up what i said with some stats, a recent LEAD program webinar said that about 400 people in the Air Force in 2017 completed the online questionnaire which is basically like.... signing up to the website. Of those 400 people, about 300 people were upgraded to "candidate status". This consists of the actual application process where you have to do a whole bunch of stuff like getting SAT scores, letters of recommendation, commanders nomination, evaluations ect... this part takes a decent amount of footwork on your part and because of that, there's "about a 50% attrition rate" (according to the webinar). They were taking forever for my upgrade so I actually called my local admissions councilor and was like "hey im prior enlisted, whats up with my pre-questionnaire, do i need to do anything else?" and she was like "oh your prior enlisted? okay I'll just upgrade your status now and get you into the system" (slight paraphrase) So anyway, 50% attrition rate to 300 people means that only about 150 people finished their application in the whole Air Force. From there, about 30 were directly admitted to the academy, with about 50 being admitted to the prep school. So do the math right? according to them, if you just finish your application, on average, you have about a 50% chance of getting admitted to at least the prep school assuming your prior enlisted. Go ahead and ask questions if you want. If you want to watch the webinar (which i recommend) just type in "Air Force LEAD Program" and its like a 40 minute video with actual LEAD POC's.
sdf3123, Thank You for the information, it is very helpful to know. I was not asking the question for myself. My son just graduated high school last week. From about 8th grade until his junior year in high school he was dead set on attending the USAFA. What stopped him was his SAT score of 1060 that he took as a junior in high school. He knows that he would not have been competitive with that score, so that knocked him back and killed his confidence. He has know been looking into enlisting into the Air Force or Navy. I came across Wild Blue Yonder when he was still enlisted and have been following his journey as he was accepted into the Prep School and it sounds like my sons dream of attending the Academy is still alive if he chooses to follow it. As long as he studies before taking his SAT the next time. Thanks again for your information, it is very helpful and kind of what I figured. I was enlisted in the Navy many moons ago and what I saw then was that people get wrapped up in their daily life and very few actually engage enough effort to apply for the academy of into other officer accession programs (even if they already have a college degree) which is really kind of sad since there are a lot of enlisted folks that would make great officers.
T Mac yeah so I won’t say that joining enlisted beforehand is the best decision. It’s just a different path. The academy has an acceptance rate of 15%. So if you apply every year for 4 years right out of high school, you might have better odds that way. But then again, because I’m prior enlisted i think I was given some leeway for my poor academic performance in college/high school. And as I’ve pointed out in this comment section, it seems like airmen who apply through the LEAD program had about a 50% acceptance rate for wild blues class (at least to get into the prep school). The SAT’s were mostly easy I thought. If your son takes like an online algebra 100 class and then goes and takes an SAT, he ought to be able to score well enough. I can’t stress it enough though, the biggest thing the academy emphasized to me throughout the process was to “not self eliminate”. Almost to the point of excess. Like “hey, wink wink, you should finish your application”.
also, when I was going through tech school, some people I met literally got in right after they got to their first duty station, I'm talking a matter of 4-6 months from leaving tech school dude... get started, and ill meet you there.
Nothing then. Worry about just getting into the Air Force right now. Once you get to tech school or your first duty station, start working on the application immediately by going to "academy admissions . com". From there the process is pretty straight forward. You can help yourself by studying/taking SAT's and also taking online classes and doing well in those. you'll be given an Academy Liaison Officer based in your area and they'll help you throughout the rest of the process though.
hey I literally just got accepted to the prep school for the class of 2019. If you have any questions about the process feel free to let me know and I can help you out.
Hey Wild Blue I'm in the process of applying to USAFA with the lead program. I added you on snap and sent you some messages with some questions and stuff about the prep school. Hit me back!
Michael Chaffin hey I literally just got accepted through the lead program myself so if you have any questions feel free to throw some at me as well. Even without asking I want to tell you that you should absolutely finish your application! For last years class the acceptance rate was about 50% and it’s because a huge amount of applicants didn’t even finish their application.
Heck yea congrats! Idk how to private message or anything on here so find me on Instagram or Twitter @mchaffin_99 and message me I've got lots of questions for you.
no but nice straw-man, I actually support knowing the definition to the word racism. Racism is defined as: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. so by definition, its not racist because no race, WHITE, or other, is being shown prejudice or discrimination. Nobody is going "oh wow, that person is white so i'm going to throw their application in the trash can". You could make a case for it being biased. But i think in either case your leaning too heavily on the guy in the videos use of the word "diversity". When you consider he's literally just a student there and not an actual recruiter. go to the Air Force Academy website. They mention that they have a very diverse campus because they want to present the idea that your background doesn't matter and anyone can potentially get in. But nowhere on the site does it say "if your black were going to give you special attention" nor did i get the vibe during my entire application process that I felt like I had any less of chance then someone who was a minority.
did you even watch this video? he ADMITS that you have a better chance of being admitted if you are a minority. also, you purposely omitted the other definitions of racism.... 1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 a : a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles b : a political or social system founded on racism 3 : racial prejudice or discrimination........ how convenient that you omitted the third definition
and how does he know that? Because other students told him? I know its not from his application process because i did the same one he did. You cant admit to something you don't actually know about. He's not a recruiter dude. Also, even if I humor your assumption and being a minority does help you out. I literally just gave you the definition of racism. Giving a race a hand up IS NOT the same as pushing a specific race down. Therefore, it is NOT racism. But whatever, im not going to debate with someone trying to push some nonsense victim-hood agenda. I hope you find it in yourself to see the world for what it is one day.
