Do I qualify for the National Waiting List?

G

Ger0nim0sal

USAFA C/O '27
Joined
Jan 28, 2022
Messages
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I recently heard back from my Congressman and found out that I did not receive a nomination to the USNA, but I did to another academy. This is obviously still good news as I come from a district in NJ, which I believe is pretty competitive. However, I was not too concerned because I received a nomination for children of deceased or disabled veterans, which I believed gave me a decent shot at the 16ish spots available for that nomination source as well as the spots available through the NWL.

However, based on some information I found, I may not qualify for the National Waiting list. The relevant information is in the table on page 7 on the following link:
This link is report from the Congressional Research Service on nominations (which I found from Capt MJ). Is the National Waiting List only for people with congressional nominations or do I also qualify with a service connected nomination? Does this mean if I don't receive one of the 16 spots I'm out of luck? Any further information on the topic is greatly appreciated
 
I quickly read page 6 and 7.

Where specifically do they talk about only congressional nominations on the NWL?
 
If you look in the table, next to the Service Secretary, it says "One hundred-fifty qualified alternates who received congressional nominations but were not appointed in order of merit." I assume that this is talking about the National Waiting List, but I could be mistaken.
 
The statute that authorizes appointments is 10 U.S. Code Section 8454. While I'm having difficulty following your question, I think the correct question would be "do you qualify for an appointment as one of the 150 Qualified Alternates?" The answer is that you would not qualify for those appointments unless you had a nomination from a Senator or Congressman (woman).

I'm afraid that I'm not seeing the reference to "16" in the authorizing statute listed above. That doesn't mean your number is wrong, but it is the numbers in that statute that should govern the number of appointments with specific types of nominations.
 
dddad said:
The statute that authorizes appointments is 10 U.S. Code Section 8454. While I'm having difficulty following your question, I think the correct question would be "do you qualify for an appointment as one of the 150 Qualified Alternates?" The answer is that you would not qualify for those appointments unless you had a nomination from a Senator or Congressman (woman).

I'm afraid that I'm not seeing the reference to "16" in the authorizing statute listed above. That doesn't mean your number is wrong, but it is the numbers in that statute that should govern the number of appointments with specific types of nominations.
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The reason I say 16 is due to the fact that there are 65 slots available for appointments charged to the children of deceased/disabled veterans nominations at any time at the academy. So you figure 65 divided by four years at the academy leaves around 16 available for any given application cycle
 
Page 7, the reference above, the table notes 65 appointments are available in each class for the nom category you have.

Since you are not on a congressional slate for USNA, I believe you would not be considered for a “qualified alternate” appointment.

I hope you have applied for the VP nom.

Technically, 1 nom is all it takes, though the SAs recommend you apply for all the ones you are eligible for. That gives them flexibility in where to charge an appointment, should they offer you one.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about any of this except hope for the best, tend alternate plans, go PT, enjoy family and friends in the moment.
 
Ger0nim0sal said:
The reason I say 16 is due to the fact that there are 65 slots available for appointments charged to the children of deceased/disabled veterans nominations at any time at the academy. So you figure 65 divided by four years at the academy leaves around 16 available for any given application cycle
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Per class or Admissions cycle.
 
Capt MJ said:
Page 7, the reference above, the table notes 65 appointments are available in each class for the nom category you have.

Since you are not on a congressional slate for USNA, I believe you would not be considered for a “qualified alternate” appointment.

I hope you have applied for the VP nom.

Technically, 1 nom is all it takes, though the SAs recommend you apply for all the ones you are eligible for. That gives them flexibility in where to charge an appointment, should they offer you one.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about any if this except hope for the best, tend alternate plans, go PT, enjoy family and friends in the moment.
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Capt MJ, thank you for your advice. I have applied for the Vice Presidential Nomination and I am trying my best to enjoy senior year and finish up preparation on plan B and C.

Every source that I have found says that there is the limitation of 65 total at the academy among all classes, similar to the 5 maximum for the MoC. The Congressional Research Service Report isn't very specific. Can you go into more detail about where you found this?
 
Ger0nim0sal said:
Capt MJ, thank you for your advice. I have applied for the Vice Presidential Nomination and I am trying my best to enjoy senior year and finish up preparation on plan B and C.

Every source that I have found says that there is the limitation of 65 total at the academy among all classes, similar to the 5 maximum for the MoC. The Congressional Research Service Report isn't very specific. Can you go into more detail about where you found this?
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You have an excellent point about the 65. I asked someone some years ago in Admissions, so there is margin for error there.
 
I recently saw words to the effect that the FIRST 150 Additional Appointees had to be candidates who had Congressional Noms. People often call this the National Wait List.

After that 150, the Supe was authorized additional Appointees to "Fill Out" the class to the desired number and those Appointees (after the first 150) were allowed to include other nomination sources although most (I think 3/4) had to have Congressional Noms.
 
Ger0nim0sal said:
Capt MJ, thank you for your advice. I have applied for the Vice Presidential Nomination and I am trying my best to enjoy senior year and finish up preparation on plan B and C.

Every source that I have found says that there is the limitation of 65 total at the academy among all classes, similar to the 5 maximum for the MoC. The Congressional Research Service Report isn't very specific. Can you go into more detail about where you found this?
Click to expand...
The authorizing statute at Section (a)(1) does indicate that the number is 65 for the category you are inquiring about. It reads as if that number is authorized across all 4 classes. Thus, you seem to be correct that there would likely be about 16 slots available per year. But, if there are a couple of years where there are light appointments to this category of nominations (think fewer applicants in the category), then there would be more available slots. Looking back at some of the recent class profiles, I haven't seen a great likelihood that USNA fills all these slots annually. The slots appear to be filled based on Order of Merit (per the statutory language). While you may not be competing as a Qualified Alternate, the category in which you are competing could be more or perhaps less competitive. Good luck!
 
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