Seriously, in the recent past - and all the way back to the 60's - about 30 per cent of the incoming classes were composed of midshipmen who had tried more than one time or had been out of high school for a year. Now, things change, but this is the history. Consider that NAPS has had a capacity of about 300 prospects and the Foundation has been awarding about 50 scholarships of late. That doesn't take into account the prospects who are in college. My plebe year room, the four of us all had at least one year out of high school before earning our appointments (one of us had THREE years in AROTC before seeing the light!).