Date Mass Mailing of Appointments?

Since my son's status has not been changed from "Candidate", it's safe to assume he will get a letter sometime in March...either the fat one or the skinny one

Anyway, I was wondering about when those letters start arriving, and are they mailed in bulk all at once or do they trickle out. All I've read here says sometime in March. Anything more specific?

Appointments start going out at the end of October and they are continual through March-April. It's not like there's a point where they stop and then pick up again in March. "Hence, the date you are looking for". It's just that come March, the amount of appointments mailed out will simply increase. Just like March-April isn't the end. Some receive appointments in May and even to the beginning of June. It's a continual process. Just that they increase in frequency during March-April. Hope this helps. Mike....

So come Monday, if the status has not changed from candidate to appointment offered, does he start the process over again for class of 2015, or does he wait until the skinny envelope comes? And what is the typical mailing date for the skinny envelope?

During my son's year (USAFA Class of 08) the bulk of the appoinments went out the third week in March so don't give up yet. You are in the home stretch.

homewith4 said:

So come Monday, if the status has not changed from candidate to appointment offered, does he start the process over again for class of 2015, or does he wait until the skinny envelope comes? And what is the typical mailing date for the skinny envelope?

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I am sorry that I have not made myself clear. 1st thing is: Forget about dates. There is no "Magic Date". It doesn't exist. IF, your son is going to receive an appointment, the offer as well as the online status change could happen today, tomorrow, on the 1st, on the 5th, on the 12th, on the 17th......... April 2nd, 4th, or the 15th, or the 17th, etc... In other words, from 1 minute from now, until the first week of june, your son could receive and appointment. There is no special date. Just that during march and april, the MAJORITY of the appointments will be offered. But it's not a specific date. OK, got that figured out.

Next: If you did have to start the process over, because you weren't offered an appointment, you CAN'T start the process over, meaning the application, until June/July just like you did last year. In other words, applications for the class of 2015 are not available and accessible yet. Just like you had to wait last year until june/july. Same with this year.

Finally; the skinny envelope. That's trickier. There are 2 times the skinny envelope come out. 1st time is for applicants that obviously do not qualify for the academy. Those are usually handed out earlier because they can't get an appointment. It usually follows a status changing to disqualified or something similar. The other type of skinny envelopes is for those who are qualified, but they didn't get an appointment. When you get this envelope is also a situation where there is NO FIRM DATE. I know; frustration. Let me explain. These are ball-park numbers; MAINLY FOR ILLUSTRATION.

10,000+/- Were prospects in the beginning
8000+/- become applicants
6000+/- become candidates
4000+/- become qualified candidates
1700+/- are offered an appointment
<1300-1400 Accept their appointment
additional appointments will be given to reach the 1300-1400 accepted appointments.

So, that means after everyone has been scored and ranked, they offer out about 1700 appointments. The academy knows that 300-400 will turn them down and take other schools and educational opportunities that they've been offered. If more than the 300-400 turn it down, the academy will offer MORE late appointments. The problem is: It gets complicated on who the next person in line can be. If a congressman's primary nominee changes their mind, the academy will most times give that congressman the replacement slot. However, if the person who turned it down was in the pool, the replacement for them could be from a totally different state. Same with the other different nominations. So getting the skinny letter could come any time from today until June. Sorry, but you getting a later appointment could be affected by so many different issues.

I know it sounds complicated. And it is, in some ways. But the complication is because it tries so hard to be fair. The academies are paid for by EVERYONE'S tax dollars. So all districts and all states need to be equally represented. They can't just rank scores highest to lowest and pick 1400 appointments. Anyway, I hope that sort of explains part of the process. mike....

Isn't it also possible to receive an appointment to the P or a Falcon Scholar Scholarship to some other prep school?

If you want to call it an appointment, you can. But the prep school at the academy isn't something you apply to. You apply to the academy, and if you don't make it and THEY want to offer you a slot at the prep-school, they will offer it to you. As for the other type of schools; e.g. NMMI; I believe you actually apply to those. (I could be wrong, I've never had any of the applicants go to those. But I do know some here who applied to the academy, didn't make it, and was "OFFERED" a slot at the prep-school). mike....

Does the status actually change to "qualified candidate"?

I was wondering, did anyone without an LOA get an appointment yet? It seemed like those were the only appointments so far...

Blueskies; are you talking about just forum members here? Reason I ask, is because there are a lot of appointments that are given out "without" LOA's early. For instance, anyone who has a presidential nomination, could have received that nomination as early as last July. If they had their application complete, they could have been offered actual appointments as early as late October or November. I know quite a few over the last few years who have gotten those.

But if you're talking about others, with traditional nominations, I too would be curious if any received an appointment yet, who didn't have an LOA prior. Good question. mike...

My son did not receive an LOA but got his appointment last Feb 1st. But his situation is different from most candidates as he got his nomination ahead of completing his application. Sen. Hutchison gave him a nomination last Nov 4 but he only completed his application (essays) on the first week of January. I don't know if he could have gotten an LOA if he had completed his application in October.

Christcorp said:

Blueskies; are you talking about just forum members here? Reason I ask, is because there are a lot of appointments that are given out "without" LOA's early. For instance, anyone who has a presidential nomination, could have received that nomination as early as last July. If they had their application complete, they could have been offered actual appointments as early as late October or November. I know quite a few over the last few years who have gotten those.

But if you're talking about others, with traditional nominations, I too would be curious if any received an appointment yet, who didn't have an LOA prior. Good question. mike...

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Yeah...I got the feeling that the Academy is going through all the LOA, presidential noms, etc first...which makes sense...then starting on the mass appointments...since the final noms cam in jan and feb....makes sense that they would just now be finalizing those and now getting into the rest of us...which would explain the majority of acceptances in March. So...I was wondering if that had actually started....was there anyone that has already received an appointment that didn't have a "special" circumstance such as LOA, presidential nom, etc.?

Thing is, each state is different. If a state has a cutoff for applying for a nomination as of 1 November; they could in theory have all their interviews and selections done by 1 December. They can then submit their slate. There's nothing that says they have to wait. And if a person had their package in early enough, and it was scored and was sitting pretty high, and/or they were their MOC's Principle Nominee from a ranked slate, they could get an appointment in December. Matter of fact, one of our senators has his interviews ALL on December 12th. We have a small state. He could easily have his slate submitted prior to christmas.

But generally, what you are saying is correct. The LOA's. Presidential's, ROTC, principle nominations, and other nominations are usually done ahead of the rest. Then it's usually the non-ranked slates that get selected. Once the mandatory district/state slots are accounted for, then the general pool is where the rest of the appointment come from.

ok...makes sense...anyway...waiting is rough ... hopefully will be within next 4 weeks...

Waiting is TERRIBLY rough...

My son completed his application in September, (no LOA, no nothing for a long time),had his MOC interview (only rep interviewed) Jan.9, received his nomination Jan. 27 and got the call from his MOC on Feb. 11. Status has changed on-line but still haven't received the Big Fat Envelope (BFE)! Hang in there everyone - it will happen!

Appt offered w/o LOA, pres, or princ nom

My son's on-line app. status was just updated to "Appointment offered" in the last week, although he has not yet gotten any other communication. He did not have an LOA, presidential, or principle nom (as far as we know, as he never received any communication from the senator's office that he got the nomination from).
He did check his on-line status for 3 days in a row just to make sure that he wasn't imagining it!

Sort of on topic

This is kind of related to the topic of letters but I already recieved my appointment and sent in my acceptance pretty much immediately. I was wondering what else I should be expecting, if anything, and when. If anyone has an idea when I-day information and related gets sent out that would be super helpful. And goodluck to those still waiting on letters!

We're kind of all wondering the same thing - the original appointment said "in February" we'd get the next packet - well, I guess they still have 2 days!

I have a similar question to yours shortbread945. Does anyone know when data collection starts (or when it started last year)?

Later,

Brian