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Septempter 11, 2005

School gives hopefuls new shot at academies
By T.A. BADGER
Associated Press

KERRVILLE - Emily Cox just can't march away from her childhood dream.
Three times she has applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, and each time she ended up with a rejection letter. In a couple of months, she'll apply yet again to wear the blue and gold of an Annapolis midshipman, just as her dad did more than 40 years ago.
"I never quit anything," said Cox, who's from Crowley, near Fort Worth. "This is something I've told myself forever that I'm going to do."
To help her chances, she's counting on David Bailey, a retired Navy commander who runs a prep school for students who aren't ready to surrender after being turned down by one of the nation's highly competitive service academies.
Bailey started his school, called Greystone, last year and has had quick success. Of the five students in the inaugural class, three now are enrolled at the Naval Academy and one is at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York.
"I know what [the academies] are looking for," said Bailey, who failed to get into Annapolis on his first try but later was accepted and eventually became a teacher there. "It's a little bit of a game, but I look at it as a strategic game."
This year Greystone has four students, including Cox - the only one of last year's class not to be accepted by an academy last spring.
"I was devastated," Cox recalled of the day she got the news. "I cried for hours, and then I came in and started a plan of action."
Bailey's plan of action for the students is straightforward: Treat them as if they already are middies or cadets, so when it comes time to apply again they're more prepared and more confident.
For the students, that means being up before dawn six days a week for circuit-training exercise. It means keeping a neat, well-groomed appearance all the time. And it means learning the little things that can score points in an admissions interview, such as the maximum air speed of an F-16 or decades worth of scores from Army-Navy football games.
"I will do whatever I have to do to get them to where they need to be," Bailey said. "And I expect them to deliver."
Students carry 18 credit hours per semester at Schreiner University, where Greystone is housed in several converted dormitory rooms. Bailey says the courses his students take - calculus, chemistry, American history and more - are the same ones taken by first-year academy students.
Schreiner, a small private college, cuts its tuition for Greystone students from $23,000 a year to about $19,000.
Bailey, who is working without pay while his program gets established, says the partnership with Schreiner is one of the distinguishing features between Greystone and other academy prep programs that are at the high school level.
Will Israel, a Greystone alumni at the Naval Academy, said the year he spent in Kerrville is proving a big advantage for him and his two Greystone classmates there.
"When we got to the academy, we weren't blank. Greystone gave us a head start," said Israel, from suburban Chicago, by phone from Annapolis. "Time management, prioritizing and being able to multitask are absolutely key here."
Benny and Noni Barrett of Dallas say they consider it a solid investment to send their 18-year-old son, Brett, to Greystone this year. After all, if he's accepted at Annapolis, the rest of his education is free.
"We've never applied to the academies, so we don't what it takes," said Benny Barrett, a retired Marine officer. "[Bailey] nurtures them and makes sure they don't fall through the cracks."
Brett Barrett said Bailey has gone easy on them during the first few weeks of the school year, but that he's made it clear that will change.
"Slowly but surely he's starting to put it on," said Brett Barrett, who aspires to be a Navy doctor. "Circuit training has gotten harder every day, and he's getting onto us a little more about how much of our to-do list we've accomplished."
The to-do list is a core element of Bailey's strategy, and he hounds them about it. Have you signed up for as many SATs as possible? What's the status of your admission applications? Have you contacted your congressman to start the nomination process? Do you know any prominent people in your community or academy alumni who can write letters of recommendation?
"There are 14,000 candidates for each academy each year," Bailey said. "We've got to make these kids stand out of that crowd."