CC - I'm having difficulty following your reasoning here. Using your example above: Let's assume that your MOC has a separate SA panel interviewing ONLY candidates that have listed USAFA as #1 and a 2nd (separate panel) interviewing ONLY candidates that list the USMA as their #1 choice. Doesn't matter what or even if you have a 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice SA...you are interviewing ONLY with the panel that you listed as your first choice.
At the end of the day the USAFA panel ranks their candidates 1-30 and you are (as in your example) ranked #13 or #14. Clearly you do not make the slate of 10.
At the end of the day the USMA ranks their candidates 1-20 - BUT you never had a chance to interview in front of this panel because you were interviewing ONLY in front of the USAFA panel. How does this USMA panel insert you in position #5 ahead of 14 candidates that they actually interviewed AND who have listed the USMA as their 1st choice? Based solely of your application stats? Why interview the 19 other candidates then? I thought the purpose of the interview was to make a determination between those that are equally (or closely) qualified and to answer some questions about bearing, interest....ect....that couldn't be gleamed just from an application.
Actually, that's where the different MOC styles come into play. In our state, where there's very few people, the MOCs interview for all the academies. If you put air force, army, and navy; it is possible to be interviewed 3 times. The moc's don't necessarily do all their interviews for all academies, all on the same day. At the very least; can only speak for my state; they will internally score you and put that score on their list of applicants. Then they take the top 10 scores from each academy list, and that's their slate of 10. Our senators and rep don't interview on the same day. So even the one senator that I know exactly how he does it, has the exact same interview and questions for ALL candidate. No matter what academy you're going for. His scoring is mainly subjective. e.g. presentation, attitude, confidence, etc... along with scores he gives for gpa, sat/act, extra curricular, etc... Then, if you put in for 3 academies, he makes 3 copies of your "Score-card" and puts one in each academy list. Then, when all is done, he takes the top 10 scores from each academy pile and makes that his slate of 10.
So, if ALL individuals wanted air force, your score might make you #15. But if only half ALSO wanted West Point, you might be #5 if you were in that pile also. Then again, he doesn't require you to list a preference of which academy. Our other senator actually wants you to list preferences. He also has his scoring, but it's a little different. Our representative use to do the principal nomination. Our new representative does the competitive list.
Some would say it's not fair the way our state does it, because some individuals can get 4 nominations to all 4 academies. But honestly, rarely do individuals in our state apply to ALL the academies. I don't know the last time I saw a merchant marine. RARELY ever to navy. I've seen a couple coast guards, but they don't require nominations. Most are air force and some army. That's the state we're in. Not a lot of water or interest in the navy from wyoming. The good news is: If you want the navy, and are from wyoming, you are guaranteed a nomination if you have half way decent grades. Considering Air Force gets the most applications, and that's only around 15-16 for the ENTIRE STATE, most everyone gets a nomination. If we have more than 10 eligible, and they are all decent apps, the senators and rep will communicate so that while the top 5 will get 3 nominations, the others will get at least 1 nomination to air force. Same with army, navy, and merchants. Again; each state and moc is different. We can do things like this because of our low population and application numbers.
But because we basically can only give out 3 to an academy per year; each senator and 1 representative; it behooves you to apply to more than one academy, so you can possibly get your 2nd or 3rd choice if you're not one of the top-3. Of course, we also get a few Presidentials thrown in there also. Guess what I'm saying is; our state is a good example of getting your 2nd or 3rd choice. Only 3 individuals can go to air force, or army, or navy with a MOC nomination. We only have 1 representative. So there's 7-13 others who might have nominations and not get an appointment. You can't accept more than one, so it's quite easy for someone to get their 2nd or 3rd choice if they put in for it.