Waiting is the pits, but it's too early to give up! Our DS was home on break last week, and we were talking about how amazing it is that one year ago he hadn't received his appointment yet.
Here's how it played out for us - his file was completed by Labor Day, and sometime during the fall we received the 3Q letter from USNA. He received a Congressional Nom before Christmas, and a Senatorial Nom in January. Also in Jan came an invite to CVW, which he attended in February. Coming right out of high school, not recruited for any athletics.
I really thought we would have heard by mid-January at the latest - not sure why, but that was the timeline I had in my mind. We were really getting anxious by mid-March - the tension in our house was at an all-time high. Initially people called to see if we had heard, then they stopped calling, afraid that we had gotten bad news.
I remember saying to DS, "maybe we should start getting excited about Plan B (NROTC at Villanova) - after all, it's a really great school as well", and he said, "Mom, this is my dream, and I'm not ready to start focusing on Plan B yet". I was very proud of his response, but the mom in me was starting to wonder how I was going to help him through this huge disappointment if we didn't get good news.
I'll remember the day as long as I live - March 28th, and I came home to a message on the machine from the Congressman's office for someone in the family to please give them a call. I had already gotten the OK from DS to talk with anyone who called regarding USNA - while I was on hold (the longest 20 minutes I've ever spent) I tried to think of any other reason that they would have called. The aide I spoke with said this was the highlight of her year, when she got to call the families who were receiving an appt. from a Service Academy!
I didn't mean to ramble, but for everyone who's still waiting, we know what you're going through. I was surprised that we didn't hear until late March, but in the end it it didn't matter - we made DS a "jersey" out of bubble wrap and took a photo that evening! Hang in there!