Chances, Improvements? AD/Guard Pilot Applicant

[Nix]

Howdy everyone,

Current applicant, student pilot and college student looking for a little gauge or recommendations per the community. I'll just jump right into details:

• Age: 22
• Major: Bachelors, mechanical engineering (2.7 GPA)
• Minor: Applied Mathematics
• AFOQT (T/2):
  • 96 Pilot
  • 83 Navigator 
  • 83 Academic Aptitude 
  • 90 Verbal
  • 68 Quantitative
• PCSM: 82 @ 21 hours (C172s, a shock to many), 98 @ 201+ 
• LORs:
  • Retired UPT Instructor
  • Retired Army O-6
  • AD Air Force O-2/Close Friend

I got some excellent feedback speaking with a Guard fighter unit some months back, and the general consensus there was "more hours, increase your PCSM". Essentially was told fighter units would look at my app if I had a 90 or higher. That's attainable, events notwithstanding. I'm currently on the waitlist for finishing my PPL with a local instructor per Part 61.

With that, I'm not getting too many callbacks from Guard units. I'm currently in the process with an AD recruiter going up for the upcoming OTS boards, so I just wanted to gauge my chances or room for improvement. I fully understand my GPA is the standout concern and there's not a lot I can do about it at this stage, unfortunately. In fact, I learned a while back one squadron threw out my app due to it and not having much other information on me. If anyone else is in a situation like mine, I'd advice you to get out in front of it, own it and show your other strengths. The world we live in certainly is competitive and they're looking for anything less than desirable to cull the pile of papers on their desk.

Honest opinions, thoughts, recs, shoot. Feel free to ask any questions or state concerns if I'm not painting a good picture.

Thanks all.
 

[brabus]

I don’t think your PCSM is an issue; we look at what the 201+ score is, regardless of how many hours the person has. I’m guessing there are other units who are similar (and of course those who are the opposite). However, a PPL is a bigger factor...shows commitment to the whole flying thing. 

I would overlook your GPA (tough major, more understandable than poli sci or business) if I had a good pulse on who else you are besides the academic part. That comes first from your cover letter, second from resume, third from LORs. Meeting you in person prior to the board could easily trump all three (hopefully in a positive way). Ensure your cover letter is genuine and does a good job of convincing me why I should spend further time looking through the rest of your package and giving your name some real thought. A meh cover letter combined with not meeting somebody is an easy way to not make the top X who get an interview. Overcoming those things can usually only be done with stellar scores and resume (99s across the board AFOQT, 4.0 in engineering, impressive work/leadership experience on resume, etc.)

[EvilEagle]

Have you visited the units you are applying to?  

 

If you only call, your app goes in the round-file.