2026 State Nominations Thread

My boy has his first nomination interview tomorrow, with our Congressman’s panel and he is so nervous.. any last minute advice or areas he should brush up on or be aware of? He interviews good, knows his goals and qualities, but in our congressman’s letter it talked about the moral and ethical questions, and also said to be up on current world events and be prepared to answer questions about our militaries role in this, and this is what has him concerned as it is overly broad, so any last minute advice would be awesome.
 
BBMomma said:
My boy has his first nomination interview tomorrow, with our Congressman’s panel and he is so nervous.. any last minute advice or areas he should brush up on or be aware of? He interviews good, knows his goals and qualities, but in our congressman’s letter it talked about the moral and ethical questions, and also said to be up on current world events and be prepared to answer questions about our militaries role in this, and this is what has him concerned as it is overly broad, so any last minute advice would be awesome.
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Hey, deep breath. Your DS can sense your angst. This is their battle and the more they own it and run it the better. I feel your pain. I was nauseous before each of our DS’s interviews.
If he doesn’t feel confident regarding current events or things like who our allies are then he should say so. This is not the time to bs his way through. That will be seen and noted. And not in a positive light.
In regards to ethics or morality questions don’t overthink it. Your DS should know right from wrong and be able to pause, collect himself and say his truth.
This is NOT the time for platitudes and gushing things people want to hear.
Authenticity and honesty rule the day in my opinion.
If he gets in, there will be no shortage of ethics classes and legal classes he will be exposed to. The panels know this. They don’t expect your son to have all the answers. They expect him to admit when he doesn’t. Let us know how it goes.
 
Heatherg21 said:
Hey, deep breath. Your DS can sense your angst. This is their battle and the more they own it and run it the better. I feel your pain. I was nauseous before each of our DS’s interviews.
If he doesn’t feel confident regarding current events or things like who our allies are then he should say so. This is not the time to bs his way through. That will be seen and noted. And not in a positive light.
In regards to ethics or morality questions don’t overthink it. Your DS should know right from wrong and be able to pause, collect himself and say his truth.
This is NOT the time for platitudes and gushing things people want to hear.
Authenticity and honesty rule the day in my opinion.
If he gets in, there will be no shortage of ethics classes and legal classes he will be exposed to. The panels know this. They don’t expect your son to have all the answers. They expect him to admit when he doesn’t. Let us know how it goes.
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That is pretty much what I had told him, that if he didn’t know the answer, politely and honestly say that. He is fairly confident in many of the current events but he doesn’t stay abreast of all of them and didn’t know if he should read up on any of it tonight. I believe he will be just fine with all ethics and morality questions, and told him these will only be questions he can answer. I told him that I can’t even begin to tell him how to answer these type of questions as each of us would have a different answer and he just has to be genuine and himself. He’s got brothers serving, so he knows quit a bit about current events in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as some ongoings in Europe, but not so much in other areas. This is why he was so worried and I told him he may be overthinking it but I really didn’t know.

Thank you so very much for the advice, I read him your response and I think it made it better hearing it from someone else, because he seems a lot calmer.
 
BBMomma said:
That is pretty much what I had told him, that if he didn’t know the answer, politely and honestly say that. He is fairly confident in many of the current events but he doesn’t stay abreast of all of them and didn’t know if he should read up on any of it tonight. I believe he will be just fine with all ethics and morality questions, and told him these will only be questions he can answer. I told him that I can’t even begin to tell him how to answer these type of questions as each of us would have a different answer and he just has to be genuine and himself. He’s got brothers serving, so he knows quit a bit about current events in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as some ongoings in Europe, but not so much in other areas. This is why he was so worried and I told him he may be overthinking it but I really didn’t know.

Thank you so very much for the advice, I read him your response and I think it made it better hearing it from someone else, because he seems a lot calmer.
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He just needs to sleep. And be himself tomorrow. His authentic self. Be confident without being a jerk. Be honest and forthright. Show how he sees a leader acting to advocate for his team. He’s got this.
 
Heatherg21 said:
He just needs to sleep. And be himself tomorrow. His authentic self. Be confident without being a jerk. Be honest and forthright. Show how he sees a leader acting to advocate for his team. He’s got this.
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💕 thank you so much!!
 
Just wanted to update everyone that finally Senator Padilla's ofc sent confirmation email to DS that his LORs are complete as of 10:12pm. The staff seems to be working late and probably swamped, bless them. We'll login to the portal and check the green marks. Whew.
 
On the eve of our sons interview several then candidates got last minute late night calls for resumes, letters of recommendation etc. Of course applicants scrambled and fought for those items.

Come to find out the panel was not well organized and the member of Congress was absent. They did the best they could and it was absolute chaos. No green check marks or checked boxes. All of the requested items were received or the interviews would not have been scheduled but it was a total disaster. The applicants were a hot mess for no reason.
Sigh. I digress. Sorry for the trip down memory lane.
 
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Candd82026 said:
Just wanted to update everyone that finally Senator Padilla's ofc sent confirmation email to DS that his LORs are complete as of 10:12pm. The staff seems to be working late and probably swamped, bless them. We'll login to the portal and check the green marks. Whew.
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Nice! What email or number did you use? I couldn’t find a good email other then the one used to send the application. Thanks!
 
Heatherg21 said:
On the eve of our sons interview several then candidates got last minute late night calls for resumes, letters of recommendation etc. Of course applicants scrambled and fought for those items.

Come to find out the panel was not well organized and the member of Congress was absent. They did the best they could and it was absolute chaos. No green check marks or checked boxes. All of the requested items were received or the interviews would not have been scheduled but it was a total disaster. The applicants were a hot mess for no reason.
Sigh. I digress. Sorry for the trip down memory lane.
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Wow! This is good to know. What state are/were you in at the time?
 
dav1y said:
Just finished my interview! (Senator Sinema, AZ). Not sure if it went well or not since it was only 15 minutes but hoping it went well!
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That’s standard. Our DS’s appointment was charged to Senator Sinema and his interview was 15 minutes for the class of ‘24.
 
I do not think the status was due to the casework I filed because they didn't refer to that. But if you want to try to file a casework, I used this from his website:
www.padilla.senate.gov

Agency Assistance - Senator Alex Padilla

Thank you for coming to the office of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla for federal assistance. To request help from Senator Padilla’s office, please begin the process by completing and submitting the electronic privacy release form below or by contacting any of our district offices in California...
www.padilla.senate.gov www.padilla.senate.gov

Just type "Other: Service Academy Nomination application" for the kind of help requested - there's space on the form to describe the issue. The pdf gives the San Diego number for followup and a casework email:
Casework_padilla@padilla.senate.gov
(619) 239-3884
 
USMA2026Cadet said:
This was last year's timeline of correspondence for me. After you submit your applications and receive confirmation, their offices become streamlined into one nominating body. Meaning you'll only interview with one office for both of them. Think of it as a slate of 20 instead of two slates of 10.

Application due: 10/16
Confirmation of completed app and interview dates: 10/28 (Booker) 10/30 (Menendez)
Assignment of interview date: 11/12
Interview: 11/21
Results: Never heard back. Unless nominated by them, you won't hear anything.
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Thanks. Last year’s timeline helps to understand the progress. This year, for both senators, the deadline was extended to 10/22.
 
I’m in VA, congressional district 1. Just had interviews today and I recently received and email from senator Warner saying I was a top individual and my application was being sent to the advisory board of the academy I’m applying to! Super exciting!
 
carson8644 said:
I’m in VA, congressional district 1. Just had interviews today and I recently received and email from senator Warner saying I was a top individual and my application was being sent to the advisory board of the academy I’m applying to! Super exciting!
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DS interviewed in Virginia today too!
 
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