Rejection, Possible vacancy due to decline?

GuitarHero

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2009
Messages
18
Hi folks. Great board here, son got the Thin White Envelope today, and still awaits USNA results.3 Q'd, nominated. While no fun getting the rejection, he is holding up much better than me! Can anyone help with the thin hope expressed in the letter in BOLD: "While the selection process is essentially complete, we will notify you immediately if you are chosen to fill a vacancy in any of your nomination categories because another candidate declined an appointment."
Is this standard, or is he now an 'alternate', and is there still a real chance he may still get the appointment?
TIA
GuitarHero
 
Yes, basically he's on the waitlist. The way I interpret, if someone from the same nominating source (senator, congressman) were to decline an appointment, the next person in line would get that slot, which could be your son. Also, the national pool could open up some slots for him.

Anyone confirm this?
 
GuitarHero's post makes me very nervous. They received the letter today and they live in CO. Meaning that if my rejection letter was sent out on the same day I would receive it tomorrow or the next day. :frown:
 
Hey Roman, Best to you, and I hope and pray you get the nom you want. Thanks for the replies, all
GuitarHero
 
GuitarHero's post makes me very nervous. They received the letter today and they live in CO. Meaning that if my rejection letter was sent out on the same day I would receive it tomorrow or the next day. :frown:

Me too. Maybe they sent out appointments too though...
 
My son got the little white envelope today in Northern Calif. It had the exact same wording about being notified if an opening should come up they will let him know. He is fighting a cold so he has a double whammy to deal with. We will have to see what future plan is when he has time to think it over. I am extremely proud of him for him becoming qualified for the AFA. He has learned alot thru the process and will be successful whichever way he chooses to go in the future.
 
Yes, I got the same letter as most of you have...yes, it's hard to accept, but it's the way it is...hopefully some vacancies will show up, but if not, there's always next year...good luck '13 at the beast!
 
Thin White

I also received the same thin white envelope yesterday. The wording about being fully qualified for admissions and eligible to fill a vacancy if they become available may be somewhat generic to these letters. I plan on contacting my ALO and Admissions Counselor next week to find out what I need to work on. I will not give up my dream this easy! I plan on strengthening my application and if I do not get a late selection this year there is always 2014. Every time I drive by the academy this summer I will be thinking about all of you.
Best of Luck to Everyone
 
I know how yall feel but atleast yall are having great attitudes in deciding not to give up. You should be proud of yourselves
 
I just got home a little while ago and I also unfortunately found the thin white envelope. What a let down.:frown:...........but...... I am proud to say I'm going to the Naval Academy!!!!, sorry all you die hard air force fans, (I was once one). but now I'm a midshipman :biggrin:
 
Ok folks; I know it's hard, but take a deep breath. Those of you that have been here a while know me. I don't B.S. you. I am usually cordial, motivated, uplifting, and a number of other things; but I won't blow sunshine up the old keester. This is not to "rationalize" anything with you. It's to explain for those who don't understand why. It's to give hope for "possibilities". And to give encouragement in the hopes that if you don't make it this year, that you persevere and apply again in another 3-4 months. Let's begin.

You have to realize that there are almost 10,000 applicants per year. When all is said and done, approximately 1700 offers of appointment will be given out; of which 1300-1400 will accept them. Of those 1300-1400, some will be those on, as PackerMatt7 calls it, the wait list. Possibly some of you.

If you weren't qualified to be a cadet, you wouldn't even had made it to where you are now. So first off; BE VERY PROUD OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!! So why are you on a "Wait list" instead of getting the 'Big Package"? Well, that is the million dollar question. Let's start by looking at the MAXIMUM QUALIFIED of that 10,000 initial applicants. Remember reading how each congressman can have a slate of 10 people. Well, all the states; all the districts; equals 435 representative. Add on 2 senators from each state. That's a total of 535 congressmen. A slate of 10 each means a MAXIMUM of 5350 "Qualified" applicants getting a nomination. That's JUST FROM CONGRESS. I say maximum because many of those congressmen won't put in all 10. Also; there will be many duplicates where the same name is on a senator's and representative's list. But the hardest part is that a district like that in the Virginia Beach area of Virginia could have 100 or more applicants. But the representative can only have 10 names. And as for the senators, you are then competing against the Whole State. A state like Wyoming only has 1 representative. So everyone in the state is competing to be on 1 list of 10 names. And one of the Senators.

But that's not really the end of it. Even if you are one of the 10 names on the slate from your congressman and has the "Nomination", the LAW states that a congressman can only have so many cadets in an academy at one time maximum. The number, through combination, comes out to be 5. So; some representatives could actually have 2 or more available slots while another representative may already have 5 cadets currently at the academy and therefor can't really nominate another one. So, while you've heard of "Primary Nominees"; that accounts for roughly the 435 out of the eventual 1300-1400 that will attend that academy. That leaves about 900-1000 to go. Then there's 100 presidential nominees given out that will actually attend. That leaves approximately 800+/- left. Then there's miscellaneous nominations from other sources. So,that's where you're at now and competing. So roughly 800 slots left for approximately 4500 qualified applicants.

I generalized a lot of the procedure here, but it's intended not to discourage you, but to uplift you to realize that it's not that you did anything wrong or weren't good enough. On the contrary. You are totally good enough. It's just that there are only 1700 slots offered; knowing that many will choose a traditional college or such and the number will be 1300-1400 when all is said and done. That's an acceptance rate of approximately 17% with a walk in percentage of approximately 14%. If you look at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, MIT, etc... you will see similar numbers.

So, what is the "Bad Luck" part of this that got you the thin envelope instead of the thick package. Basically; the district/state that you live in and the total number of applicants where you live. But this is just the luck of the dice. Some heavily populated states/districts are easier to get that principle nomination or LOA. Some lower populated state/districts are easier.

So; what's next? The first think is to realize that depending on your TOTAL SCORE; you are no competing nationally as some of those 1700 turn down the appointments. If you are good enough to get into the Air Force Academy; you are probably good enough to get into the Ivy leagues; prestigious schools; big name privates; etc... And many of those who received an appointment also got accepted to many of those schools. Just like many of you who received the thin envelope has probably been accepted to a number of other schools. Hopefully, the academy wasn't the only school you applied to. Anyway; as approximately 25% of the appointments will TURN THEM DOWN; you could very possibly be on the list to be offered an appointment. The other option is if you re-apply for the academy in June/July. Knowing the system/process now; you have the ability to kick out that application 100% complete by 31 July 2009. Get you high school teachers lined up BEFORE YOU GRADUATE. You know what you need. Retake the ACT/SAT IMMEDIATELY (Unless you kicked it's butt already). Then; if you get the application completed by 31 July 2009, you will have an EXCELLENT chance for an LOA. As such; it won't matter WHERE on that slate of 10 you are. Get on the list and you are GUARANTEED the appointment. The academy looks VERY FAVORABLY on those who RE-APPLY. The congressmen look favorably also. They will remember you from this year. They will see your determination. If you truly are worthy, you will be at the top of their list. Or at least MUCH HIGHER.

If you don't get the appointment this year; go to that school that you got accepted to. Take math and science classes. Do well. Get into ROTC so you can verify and validate that the Air Force really is what you want. Plus; your ROTC detachment also has the ability to nominate. You know the system, use that to your advantage to WIN. There are many posts on this forum and others from those who received an appointment either on the wait list or the 2nd year trying. You are in great company. You aren't any LESS QUALIFIED than those with the big package and appointment. The academy simply can't take all the qualified cadets. I/They wish they could. (We could really use having our military strength built up). But the law states how many can be at the academy/graduated/commissioned. (Simplified). So hang in there. Don't lose hope. And if necessary, use this to your advantage to be a BETTER, STRONGER, and more DETERMINED candidate for the next cycle. Best of luck to you all. Later.... Mike.....
 
Christcorp: Thank you for the excellent information, encouragement, and most of all your kind attention to the TWE gang. If USNA 2013 doesn't come in, it's back to the drawing board! Your wealth of information is impossible to find elsewhere!
GuitarHero
 
It is apparent that nearly the majority of qualified candidate has gotten their notification(.i.e appointment letter,etc). However, I have yet to receive any letter from the AFA. I am really excited, but at the same time nervous because I do not what the letter contains. However, whatever it is in there, we as candidates, should be proud of ourselves for getting this far. If things did not work for us this year, we still have next year to apply. By the way, this is my second time applying because during my first time application I was days away from becoming Naturalized citizen and I needed that to get a nomination and appt. However, I got my nomination this year and still waiting for that appt. letter. Wish me luck and to all 2013 candidates and appointee.
 
Well I called USAFA today and the lady told me that I app had be reviewed already and that nothing has been mailed out yet? She also said that the board has at least 2 more Tuesdays that they will be meeting.

So is this good? Good in the fact that my application is still there..I'm guessing it might possibly get reviewed again since nothing has been mailed out yet. I know there are people who have got the thin white envelope already. I guess I'm just confused about why it's still there and why nothing has been mailed out if the board met 2 days ago.
 
This is so frusturating! The rejection could be in the mail, or they could be holding my application to review it again? Does anyone know if they are still sending out appointments?
 
Yes they are still sending them out (and I AM talking about primary appointments) I know this for two reasons.
One: I called my district congressional office and as of last weekend they still had not been contacted about our district's appointment to the AFA
Two: A good many appointments went out the last weekend of march last year.

Keep up the hope. If you're getting anxious you could contact your local representative's office and see if your district's slot is taken yet (you may even get the good news right then and there if they didn't realize they were supposed to contact you)
 
I'm sure they'll be continuously sending out appointments, albeit at a slower rate. (I don't want to repeat the appointment 2 days before I-Day story again) Don't worry/stress, think positive, be confident, and remember that you've done everything in your power for the app and they're simply taking their time to review it.
 
Back
Top