Am I an ideal canndidate?

hey i think everyone's pretty much cool with everything, deeper conversation, but no hurt feelings !
 
Well, we were told during an admissions briefing, it does help to be a minority if you are an african-american or hispanic candidate but not asian. The reason was the ratio of officers vs. enlist members. They said there are a lot of hispanic and african-american enlists but not enough officers to represent them. But as far as asians are concerned, the percentage ratio of officers vs. enlists is reversed.
 
I don't believe they have affirmative action. Every SA tries to meet a certain percentage but does not have to meet those goals. I read an online article that only USMA has a policy where they must meet that percentage. But that article might have been outdated.
 
I was told being a minority in general was better, even if you are asian. (Imagine my reaction when I was told that.)
 
Whoa - everyone take a deep breath and relax.

Folks - no one is 'lowering the bar' for anyone. There is a huge difference between accepting an applicant because of gender or race and seeking out (recruiting) qualified candidates who are an under-represented minority - either race or sex.

This is what the CGA has done and continues to do. As do the other Service Academies.
The "big" three, however, all have prep schools and they do have the opportunity to offer a chance to a minority candidate who may have not had the same academice opportunities as other candidates yet who excel in leadership and/or athletics.
CGA does have a prep program and indeed does use it in this manner.

NO CANDIDATE is admitted if they do not have the ability to succeed at a Service Academy. It is true that the services have a goal - basically, they want their officer corps to "look like" the enlisted corps. Roughly same ration of gender and race.
This have been in effect since the Vietnam era - which many of you are too young to remember and there are excellent reasons for this.

None of you can control who applies. You can only control your own application and your own strengths and weaknesses. Worry about what you can control.
 
JAM is right on target.

For those of you who think/believe that you were offered NROTC or USNA or another SA because of race, etc...........years ago I was one of few females entering a male dominated field of agriculture. One of my first bosses, an old white guy BTW, told me to take advantage of the fact that I partially got my first job because they were "diversifying" their work force and to "DO THE JOB BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE THEY COULD HAVE HIRED!"
 
I believe that only qualified candidates are accepted to both SA's and ROTC. Officers good and bad come from each, no matter what ethnicity or gender. Please remember we should all be on the same page.
 
Wow I didn't expect this 'plethora' of answers and.. various debates mainly on whether affirmative action applies or not. What I think many should consider is that the SA such as the USNA needs and desires to represent not only Annapolis, not only MD, not only the east coast, but AMERICA. It doesn't matter if education in ... one state is awful compared to a number 1 state in education, both will have the same chances. Ironically, therefore, due to the necessity that USNA represents America, a scenario such as this would happen :

Only the top 15 candidates of a state will get a nomination, but if the 16+ remaining students were maybe in a state where it isn't as competitive, they would get the letter instead of the one's in that 'bad' state who got it.

Also, based on race, again, representing America means one of the core ideals that have been with America for a while now: diversity.

But as we all know, there are miniorities. And there are more white peoples than asians. It's that way even in schools, around 65% white, and the remaining percentage is a summation of 5 different ethnicities.

YET, everyone is given an equal chance. Although the ratio of white to -asian, or whoever, may be 5:1, the asain must be given a fair chance.

So wouldn't it be reasonable that there is a certain... procedure going on that isn't entirely void of affirmative action?


I think yes. And lastly,

I don't think anyone should doubt the USNA or any other SA on this issue; the fact that USNA is such a prestigous school itself will no doubtedly train excellent officers. and from the likes of it now, they haven't been doing bad at all.

and yea, of course, the good and bad officers that result are not all based on paper and statistics and blabla. That comes from the will and choice of the one's who go there. The USNA will train officers to be officers, and beyond, but there are some things that people will learn for themselves, whether it be good or bad.

and I'm pretty sure everything is being taken care of just wonderfuly
 
Only the top 15 of a state will get a nomination
Click to expand...

Not sure where you get that number. 1st, every MOC can only nominate 10 per slate, if they have 2 openings they can nom 20. You can have much more than 15. Just in Sen for ea state you have at least 20, than add in the cong and more still, add in Pres and even more. In some states the MOCs match their list with no duplicates.

Second, when you go in the national pool, you are going against everybody, your SAT scores are apart of the WCS, so is your CFA and ECS, these scores don't matter whether you come from a comp state or not. The kid from Idaho with a 2200 SAT, top CFA scores, Eagle Scout, capt of LaCrosse would get the same pts as the kid from NoVA.

I maybe wrong, but I don't recall your ethnicity being scored on the WCS. The last I knew for promotion, ethnicity and religion are masked.

I do agree that the miltary is recruiting the best qualified candidates, but I don't believe affirmative action is a part of that success.

Maybe I am not comprehending what you are trying to get across, but it does seem like you believe that affirmative action is occurring
 
Here is another article on the subject explaining how it's not affirmative action yet, it (Minority) does help. BTW, if it's not an agenda, why are there Minority Admissions Officers?

Does Being a Minority Increase My Chances of Getting Into an Academy?

Can you depend on affirmative action to drag you out of the gutter and blast you into an open seat in a service academy? The service academies have been actively trying to recruit more minorities as part of their admissions policies. This reason for seeking out minority candidates will be explained below. So being classified as a minority can help you get into a service academy, but we have to clarify what this means. By the way, don’t expect a free ride because, despite your minority status, you still need to show Admissions that you have what it takes to succeed as a leader in the US Armed Forces.

Currently, there is a lack of ethnic diversity in the officer ranks in comparison to the enlisted ranks. For instance, in the Navy, 47 percent of the enlisted ranks are minorities while only 17 percent of the officers are minorities. This lack of representation in the officer ranks is a critical matter of national security, because the members of the US Armed Forces should accurately reflect the diversity of the country that they are defending. Morale among the troops and trust in the leadership are key components in how any military functions, while racial differences can lead to low morale and ultimately the breakdown of the system.

The Naval Academy Dean of Admissions in 2003 said, “Everybody that receives an offer to the academy has to be fully qualified, but beyond that, we want a brigade that reflects our country, geographically diverse, we want it to be diverse in other regards, too.” Hence, the service academies will not lower their standards of admission for the sake of minority candidates. That would be asking for major trouble in the future when incompetent officers manage to slip through into the service.

As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, being a minority does not guarantee you a spot in the academy in the traditional sense of affirmative action. Instead, each of the service academies seems to pay special attention to qualified minority candidates. This results in an increase in the number of minority applicants because the service academies actively seek them out. And, naturally, the number of minorities who are accepted into the service academies will continue to increase with continued efforts by the respective admissions departments.

If you are a minority candidate, don’t think that you have an unfair advantage over non-minority candidates in the applicant pool. But what you should consider is this. America needs you in the Armed Forces to provide leadership for this diverse nation.
 
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