USAFA - Rejected / Possible Wait List

I got a letter in the mail from the Air Force Academy today, my top choice.

It says they couldn't accept me, blah blah regret to inform you blah blah many qualified candidates and blah blah blah for a few paragraphs more. You know, the standards classy school rejection letter.

It also added that I was, in fact, a qualified candidate. That I met all the criteria for an appointment, but since they are by law limited to 1120 acceptances per year, I just couldn't be accepted. I wrote a previous post on the depressing application statistics here.

Alright. I understand, and it's kind of nice to know that I was qualified (if not too useful in a practical sense). Also, I never got the Vice-Presidential nomination, so that didn't help at all. Then they added: "Why don't you consider AFROTC?". That hurt. Just a bit.

The almost-positive part, the "Possible Wait-List" in the title, is that if someone turns down an appointment, then they go back to the list of Qualified Candidates (to which I belong) and pick out someone else.

So now I'm desperately hoping that some kid was accepted to Harvard or Yale or some other really prestigious school and chooses that over USAFA. C'mon, you accepted students! Do really great and go to an Ivy League/MIT/clown school so I can go to this one!! You can do it!

PS: I learned that another person applying to schools in the US reads my blog. She refers to me as her archenemy. She was accepted into a really great school. Hi, Arch-Enemy! Congrats on your acceptance!

School Admissions

Here are all the schools to which I've applied, and my admissions
status to date.

Harvard - Denied

Cornell - Denied

ROTC - Denied

USAFA - QVA (qualified, no vacancy) Denied, for all practical purposes. Except bragging rights. I'll reserve those, thanks (kidding, of course)


Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Accepted

• Major: Aeronautical Engineering
  
• AFROTC: on campus Detachment 550

Drexel - Accepted

• Major: Mechanical Engineering
• AFROTC: crosstown agreement with Saint Joseph Detachment 750.

Arizona State University - Accepted

• Major: Aerospace Engineering
• AFROTC: on campus Detachment 025
• 
  

Hofstra - Accepted

• Not actually considering it.
  

Harvard - Denied

Harvard did not accept me.

And what is with sending out admissions decisions on April 1st? Does no one else think that's a terrible idea? How many cruel friends/siblings/anyone are tempted to call some poor applicant and go "Congratulations! You've been accepted to Harvard!", let them go crazy for a bit and then go "Gotcha! April Fool's!"

Even I want to do that, and I'm usually a pretty decent person.Is it really so hard to send it out in March like everyone else, or even just wait until the 2nd?

Cornell - Denied

Cornell did not accept me.

ROTC Denied

Well, I got a call from an official from AFROTC, and despite my attempt to appeal, I was definitely denied.

The second set of SAT scores I sent were taken 3 days after the December 1 deadline. The only December SAT date is December 4th, why does the website say the last possible SAT test is the December test, when they meant "before December 1st?"

Bright side: I can apply for AFROTC almost immediately once I start college, and possibly get a 3-year scholarship.

Dark side: RPI is going to cost me 20,500 for my first year, not even taking into account international flights and everything I need to move into college. Which includes an obligatory laptop.