SWO Stat Opinion

[SWOMan]

Hello Air Warriors,
Long time reader, first time poster. I'm currently in the process of applying for officer candidate school and am determined to become a Surface Warfare Officer. I take the ASTB next week, which should give me a bit more insight, but I wanted to post my stats and see what you guys think.

The Goods:
-25 year old male
-3.18 GPA with a double major in accounting and finance from a top State University
(not sure if looked at, but 3.5 in finance GPA and 4.0 on all Quant based courses)
-Internship experience in Investment Banking
-Working Experience in IT implementation consulting.
-Strong Letters from both Employers, a professor who was an officer in the AirForce, a Battalion commander, a friend who is currently an O3 in the Army, The CEO's of 2 non profit and volunteer foundations I worked with ( one of them is a national organization), College Wrestling Coach (club sport.... not NCAA), and high school football coach.
-Zero Criminal Record
-Zero Tattoos

The Bads:
-I'm probably going to need 3 medical waivers for previous things in my life. As a kid I had a broken collar bone, surgery on my right elbow( no hardware), and my doctor put me on anti depressants for 6 months during my parents divorce. I'm going to a doctor this week to receive a written statement for meps.

The Unknowns
- I take my ASTB next Saturday. I feel pretty confident in the OAR material. I have studied all the gouge I could on this site, bought the accepted book, as well as mastered everything in this book from 2004 at my local library. I believe If I do well i can score a 55 or better.

Based on this information, do I make a solid candidate to be a SWO? If there is anyway I can strengthen my application, I would greatly appreciate everyone's input.

 

[Outdoorsman]

I don't know how necessary they are, and from what my OR told me they were optional, but I managed to have officer interviews with an O-4, three O-5s and an O-6 (all in the Navy). I know they probably didn't look at all of them at the board, but in the end even just having the opportunity to sit down and speak with these officers was worth doing, and they gave me tons of great advice about the process and the Navy.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I don't know how necessary they are, and from what my OR told me they were optional, but I managed to have officer interviews with an O-4, three O-5s and an O-6 (all in the Navy). I know they probably didn't look at all of them at the board, but in the end even just having the opportunity to sit down and speak with these officers was worth doing, and they gave me tons of great advice about the process and the Navy.

Unless you have worked for them or they have known you for a period of time these carry little weight.

To the OP, your biggest hurdle is going to be your medical (elbow and meds), the LOR's from employers are really good, as is the non profit CEO (talk about your work with them in your statement), the coaches are good if they talk about how you are as a team player, etc....

You have a good base to start with, your recruiter should guide you through this, my guess is he is waiting to find out what happens with you and your medical issues before investing too much time.

 

[SWOMan]

My recruiter has been great, he's been in communication whenever I need him. Everyone says I should have just never mentioned the medical issues, but I chose the honesty policy.....nothing to do now but get through it. Any idea what my chances of a medical waiver is? My elbow and shoulder are strong. I can bench 315 and do pushups and pull ups without any problems. Since getting off meds I graduated with a 4.1 gpa in high school, did what I did in college, and haven't had any issues since. If im rejected for this I'm not sure what I do next.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

My recruiter has been great, he's been in communication whenever I need him. Everyone says I should have just never mentioned the medical issues, but I chose the honesty policy.....nothing to do now but get through it. Any idea what my chances of a medical waiver is? My elbow and shoulder are strong. I can bench 315 and do pushups and pull ups without any problems. Since getting off meds I graduated with a 4.1 gpa in high school, did what I did in college, and haven't had any issues since. If im rejected for this I'm not sure what I do next.

I hope your recruiter isn't one saying you shouldn't have mentioned anything, that is a big credibility issue.

The doc at MEPS very well might have notices the marks from your elbow surgery, on the psych meds doing well in school after ending them is a big plus, I hope there isn't any mention of self harm in the psych docs, that would not look good.

When it comes to psych it is nearly impossible to say since no one really knows what the doc said about you.

 

[SWOMan]

The doc said that he thinks I was depressed about my parental situation. I never tried to harm myself. The medical record states that after 3 months of meds there was no signs of any issues and was going to continue medication for the remainder of the 6 month period. I'm hoping a note from the doctor I'm seeing this week helps my case

 

[SWOMan]

Also no my recruiter didn't. ...just friends currently in the military

 

[SWOMan]

Just an update for everyone here, I took my ASTB this week. I scored a 58 on my OAR, waiting to see what my other scores are( but that isn't as relevant) How competitive does this score make me based on my previous stats. Also, I just found out that based on the BUMED document, my anti depressant use based on current facts is not a disqualifying situation. I met with a doctor this week for an exam. He says i'm a perfectly healthy human being, and that he's helped much worse people than I get into the military. Once my blood tests get back in he's writing me a letter to send into MEPS.

 

[csabol]

I will admit I am not experienced enough to determine if stats are competitive or not right off the bat, however I can only encourage you to volunteer some more if you aren't currently. The more hours you have documented, the better. One thing I do know is that a 58 is very competitive, heck a 50 is competitive so that will help profusely. And if there is a part in your package where you have to write a personal statement and/or what Honor, Courage, Commitment means to you, not sure if that is just for active duty or not, but I cannot stress enough to put a lot of work into that, make sure it reads EXACTLY how you want it, don't half ass it...have other people proof read it, read it over yourself, come back to it later and keep editing it. It took a while for me to finally complete two sections underneath 250 words but I am very proud of my final result.

 

[SWOMan]

So I didn't include my volunteer experience. I work with the copd respiratory foundation, was part of a service fraternity, as well as a president of my scholarship house where I oversaw the lives of 18 students. I haven't documented my hours....I just have letters of rec to confirm my experience. Will this suffice?

 

[csabol]

I would recommend getting a ball park of your hours documented as part of your package. The Navy likes numbers and stats when it comes to advancements and the like.

For example, saying something such as "has X-amount of volunteer hours documented, overseeing 18 students over Y-amount of time with the copd respiratory foundation" is a lot better than saying you have experience volunteering. So try to get a letter which documents not only your hours, but what you did.

 

[SWOMan]

Where can I document out my hours. There is no part of the application that asks for it? When I get home I'll copy and paste one of my letters for review for my supervisor (who is also now an 03 lieutenant )

 

[csabol]

I put my volunteer hours and letters of appreciation/recommendation immediately after my college transcripts.

 

[SWOMan]

I don't even have my college transcripts with my main recruiter. He told me to have them mailed to someone else in the chain

 

[SWOMan]

On a side note....I currently have 10 to 11 lor.