A mere nine minutes from Air Academy High School is the United States Air Force Academy, a prominent service school residing within the Rocky Mountains. At 7,258 feet above sea level, the altitude is high, and so are the standards of excellence. Eleven thousand, five hundred students apply each year, but only nine percent of those students have the opportunity to attend.
Rarely, however, do Air Academy students apply to the United States Air Force Academy, despite its close proximity and free tuition. Air Academy is not a feeder school for the Academy, though. It simply resides on the same military installation.
“I know that USAFA is very competitive, so I’m assuming that a lot of kids can’t get in,” said freshman, and first year JROTC student, Cooper Rogers.
While this is true, the admissions process is long, demanding, and fiercely competitive. Due to popular belief, one would assume that a high school as closely connected to military culture as Air Academy is, more students would be inclined to join USAFA.
Rogers said, however, that he wasn’t interested in attending the Academy. He “personally [did not] want to go into the military. JROTC [would] get [him] a scholarship to help pay for college.”
Rogers told me that he suspected only “a few people every year” got accepted into the United States Air Force Academy from AAHS, but that admission into USAFA was a dream among many JROTC students nonetheless.
For most prospective students, the school is a reach. At Air Academy High School, the reputation of the United States Air Force Academy is definitely one of the most academically rewarding and elite schools in America.
“We’re a public high school on a military base but we don’t have any more military students than other District 20 high schools. We’re probably like fifteen to twenty percent military students only,” high school school counselor, Sean Brotherton said.
“USAFA wants a diverse clientele from all different states, so the most applicants from the Academy come from Colorado.”
“You’re definitely in a deeper competitive pool if you’re applying from the state of Colorado.”
In asking multiple students why the Air Force Academy wasn’t in their plans for college, the majority of students were more interested in enlistment, ROTC scholarships, or officer training schools. Military career paths like enlistments were more favorable among students, while paths like the Naval Academy, West Point, and USAFA were viewed as more unattainable.
“The Academy was difficult, but it was the best decision I ever made in my life, “the Commandant of Cadets at USAFA mentioned while reflecting on the application process he endured as a former cadet in the class of ‘96.
“The Academy is what you make it,” he said.
“If you don’t know your [reason] for joining the academy, then you’ll most likely struggle. But if you know why you want to be here and what you want to accomplish in your four years, then you’ll enjoy your time at the Academy much more.”
However, USAFA is not for everyone. For some high school students, the idea of marching in uniform at 6:00 a.m. is enough to make them projectile vomit. For others, the sense of structure is a type of freedom within bounds.
Ultimately, finding the right school for your future is of the highest importance. Students should go wherever their heart desires, whether that be a service academy, an historically Black university, a community college, or an Ivy League. Anything is possible.
“World Class Is Our Standard,” said USAFA’s Commandant of Cadets, Brigadier General Gavin Marks of the Academy’s high expectations for prospective students.
