What is Flight Academy?
Flight Academy is a scholarship offered by the Air Force for cadets enrolled in Air Force JROTC corps across the globe. The scholarship allows selected cadets to obtain their private pilot's license at an 8-week summer program at one of many universities. The cadets will also receive college credit for the classes they take, and get to experience normal college life in dorms and facilities at the university. The value of this scholarship is up to $25,000 per cadet.
Who is eligible to apply?
Anyone who is enrolled in Air Force JROTC and will be 17 years of age on or before June 30th of the upcoming summer is eligible to join. Cadets wishing to attend also need to score at least a 75 on the (updated as of 2024 application cycle) physical fitness test as well as having at least a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Cadets will also need to obtain an endorsement from their Senior Aerospace Science Instructor and/or their school counselor.
How many people are selected?
The answer to this questions varies from year to year. Like everything else government-related, a lot of it has to do with budgeting. Nevertheless, the continue success of the program had led to slow rises in the number of accepted students each year. In 2017 during the program's first year, only 150 were accepted. In 2022, when I went, 200 scholarships were awarded.
What is the acceptance rate?
The average acceptance rate is around 15%.
What does it mean to be a select or an alternate?
Selected candidates are the cadets who are guaranteed a position in the flight academy program, provided that they obtain all of their documentation in time and that they choose to accept the offer of admission. An alternate is a candidate listed by the Air Force as not quite meeting the application standards to be deemed a select, but can still get an offer to go if a selected candidate does not choose to go or does not get their documents in on time.
How often are alternate candidates accepted into the program?
Extremely often. Every candidate from North Allegheny from 2017-2022 that has been deemed an alternate originally has been promoted to a select candidate. At my specific flight academy location, 6 out of the 20 cadets were originally given an alternate slot before eventually being promoted to a select.