Yes-now more than ever. With nearly 15,000 applicants annually at each academy plus the highest academic and physical entrance requirements ever, an academy candidate must present outstanding qualifications both in the areas of math and English and in physical conditioning.

We believe that thorough, guided preparation is a distinct advantage to a prospective cadet or midshipman because top levels of academic skill and physical conditioning are necessary not only to gain admission, but to survive to graduation.

With this in mind, Northwestern has developed a unique concept of academy preparation-the total environmental experience. Because all of our students live in, and because all of our students are service academy candidates, the entire focus of Northwestern's training is on service academy admission and survival. In fact, a top level academy admissions officer has stated that he wishes all incoming academy candidates had the post high school training which is available at Northwestern Preparatory School.

We hasten to add that Northwestern's program is not an easy one-nor could it be and produce its outstanding results-an academy appointment rate of over ninety percent for more than thirty years.

We are the only civilian preparatory school devoted exclusively to the overall development of our candidates' readiness for entrance and success at a service academy. This does not mean merely helping students enter so that they can only just scrape by for four years. This does mean a thorough comprehensive skill and maturity development program to equip our candidates with the academic, physical and personal skills necessary for success in the many demanding areas of a service academy experience.

In our ongoing dialogue with the academy admissions officers we are urged to focus on the academic and physical aspects of academy preparation because the academies have their own complete system of military training. They tell us that what they really need is an incoming candidate who is academically strong and physically fit to meet the tremendous challenge of the service academy program.

Therefore we totally concentrate our work with our students to the end that they will be as thoroughly prepared as their and our combined efforts can make them.

Our term runs from late August through mid-December for two reasons. First, since the Academies now begin offering appointments in early January, it is in the best interest of our candidates to have their admission files complete and ready for Academy Board consideration by this time. Second, we feel that it is a real advantage for our candidates to have college level academic work as a continuation of our program. Therefore, our students return home in December to attend their local colleges in January. This gives them the best of both worlds, Northwestern's exceptionally thorough skill development, plus a semester of pre-planned college level experience. Together, these two phases provide an extremely comprehensive Academy preparation.

Since both of these aspects are extremely important in the overall Academy preparation process, post Northwestern college attendance is mandatory and courses must be taken for grade and credit.

Because of this two part preparatory program, Northwestern offers service academy preparation that is widely recognized as the best available.