What’s going on, everybody? My name is Brandon, and welcome back to my channel where we talk about all things Air Force related. Now, if you remember in a previous video, I had talked to you guys about why, from my perspective as a 2018 graduate of the Air Force Academy, that I think that you should apply to attend it. So I thought it’d be interesting to actually walk you through the steps and tell you how to apply to the academy. Now, while it’s been a couple years since I was a cadet and even more years since I was going through the process of applying to the academy, don’t worry, all the information in this video is up to date and comes directly from the Air Force Academy’s official admissions website, and the link to that website will be in the description below.
So without further ado, let’s begin it step one of the admissions process is honestly making sure that you’re eligible to attend the academy. The academy has three main points for basic eligibility, and they are that you’re between 17 and 23 by July 1 of the year that you would start at the academy. Two, that you’re a United States citizen and three, that you’re unmarried and have no dependence, meaning that there is no one out there that you’re legally required to provide financially or in any other capacity. Once you verify this basic eligibility requirement to attend the academy, then you’ll start step two, which is the precannedate phase. This phase goes from March 15 to December 31 of the year before you attend the academy, and in this phase, you’ll fill out the precannedate questionnaire, which will ask information of you from your name to other basic information about yourself, as well as information on your academic record to include your high school, your class size, your class rank, your GPA, as well as at least one of your test scores going from the PSAT pact, SAT or ACT.
Once you have all of this information, then you’ll submit the questionnaire to the admissions office at the academy and they’ll decide whether or not you become an official candidate. If you’re lucky enough to move on to the next phase and be notified by the admissions office that you’ve been named an official candidate for admission, then you’ll start step three. And this is quite honestly where a lot of the heavy lifting to attend the academy starts. Step three is the candidate phase, and in this phase, you’ll provide information to include your official high school transcripts and recommendation letters from three sources, one of which has to be from your 11th or twelveth grade math instructor, your 11th and twelveth grade English instructor, and the third one comes from another instructor who has taught you while in high school. Additionally, you’ll have to fill out the extracurricular activities record, which is a detailed list of every extracurricular activity that you’ve done while in high school.
So whether it was a sport or honor society or a president of a club, you’ll have this down, and the academy will review your extracurriculars. On top of that, like most colleges that you apply for, you’ll have to submit a writing sample. And this is actually your opportunity to kind of get your story across to the academy and for the most part, tell them why you would make a great candidate. A couple really interesting things about applying to the academy that are in this candidate phase are the interview with your a low and the medical evaluation. The interview with your a low or admissions liaison officer is really your chance to sit one on one with either an air force officer or an air Force academy graduate and be able to talk to them and share your experiences in life as well as your reasoning for applying to the academy.
The medical evaluation is really unique because while a lot of people apply for the academy for the academic reasons or for so many other reasons, at the end of the day, you’re also applying to become an officer in the United States Air Force. And so the academy wants to make sure that you’re actually fit to serve in the military. The very last part of the candidate phase is the candidate fitness test. What this test will consist of is five events. There is a basketball throw, pull ups, sit ups, push ups, as well as a 1 mile run.
Each event needs to be done consecutively and in a certain order, and you’ll have to have someone proctor your exam for you. Once you have all of these things submitted to the academy’s office, then you’ve officially completed the candidate phase of the admissions process. But there is another huge process in of itself, and that is the nomination process. Another really unique thing about applying to the academy versus other colleges out there is that if you want to attend the academy, you’ll have to have a nomination from either a member of Congress. So your senator or your congressperson or the president of the United States or vice president of the United States.
In this phase, you’ll first find out who your representative in the House of Representatives is and who your senators are. Then you would go to their congressional websites. Then you’ll go through their process in order to get a nomination to the academy. When I was applying to attend the academy, my congressional nomination was a lot like the actual academy’s nomination. I had to provide documentation from recommendation letters to writing samples to my high school transcript and extracurricular log.
Then I had to do an interview with a panel of military officers from every single branch in the United States military. Once you received your congressional nomination, your presidential nomination, or your vice presidential nomination, and you’ve completed the candidate phase of the application process or the academy, then you’ve officially completed the admissions process and you wait to hear back from the admissions office whether or not you’ve been accepted to attend the Air Force Academy. I thought it would be interesting for any of you guys out there watching this video to actually hear some of the demographics of the people who applied to attend the United States Air Force Academy. For the class of 2024, 10,669 people applied. Of the people eligible and interested in applying to the academy, 10,669 people applied and became applicants for admission.
Of that, 9197 moved to the candidate phase, 2588 were considered qualified and met all academic and extracurricular requirements to attend the academy. From that number, 1416 people were offered admissions to attend the academy as part of the class of 2024. The average GPA was 3.86. Out of a possible 40 GPA, 54.6% of the people offered admission were part of the top 10% of their graduating class. The average SAT scores in the reading, writing, and math sections were in the mid to high six hundred s.
The average ACT score in every section was above a 30, and for extracurriculars, the most popular or the ones that were listed by the most people were being a part of a sport or a member of the National Honor Society. Looking back at the stats for my class 2018, there were a couple of areas where I didn’t actually fall into the average and I was below it. But what’s amazing about the academy is they’re just not looking for the smartest or the most athletic. They’re looking for a well rounded person who not only can contribute to the Air Force academy, but can also contribute to the Air Force as a whole. If you apply to the academy and you don’t get in the first time, please don’t feel discouraged because you can apply to the academy as long as you meet those basic eligibility requirements year after year.
Thank you so much for watching this video. If you liked it, please make sure to give this video a thumbs up. I truly appreciate all the support from you guys from liking my videos, watching them, leaving comments if you have any questions about the admissions process, make sure to leave a comment below, subscribe to the channel and have a great day. See ya. Bye.