Luigi, thanks for the reply. It helps...some. Going to the Coast Guard Academy has been my son's single minded objective for years. It is difficult for him to even conceive of doing anything else although he has a plan B, it is a far second to the USCGA.
In the past few weeks I've watched him go from being realistic but confident that he was a competitive candidate to this morning being soberly aware that even though he is very competitive, it is at best a long shot that he gets an offer. That is to say that he knows/knew how competitive it is and is aware that there are some candidates who can "walk on water" and they would, of course, be snatched up. What he was not aware of was that even if he may rank higher in a purely merit based system he could still get the TWE due to choosing EA over RA (or vice versa), the academy's need for diversity, or due simply due to the reduction in the class of 2016.
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Not to worry, he still checked this morning to see if the application had gone live. Yesterday he talked to his Coach and to several of his teachers about the upcoming recommendations for the CGA and is really looking forward to going to his scheduled "Cadet for a Day" in November.
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Are the number of prep school appointees reduced for 2016 too?
Since there are about 165 slots...does that mean that there are 82ish slots for each EA and RA?
(I think this more stressful for the parents than the applicants!)
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