Find a nomination?

J

JDBx3

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I have seen comments about Service Academies being able to "find nominations" for those who were nominated in their particular congressional district, but were not the top candidates on their slate. In fact, I have seen appointments immediately go out to the top candidate on a particular MOC's slate upon nomination. Is that normally not the end of game for everyone else nominated on that slate absent other nomination sources? I also understand that no MOC may have more than 5 nominees in a particular SA at any moment in time. That seems to dramatically restrict runner up nominees from appointment. My ultimate question is: are the Service Academies allowed to charge a nomination to a MOC from a less competitive district (even from another State) in order to appoint a qualified and nominated candidate who does even reside in that MOC's district? In other words, can a nominated runner up candidate in competitive Northern Virginia be appointed via a Congressional nomination from a completely different district in another state? What is the "finding nominations" thing about? And I am not talking about presidential and VP outliers. Thanks!
 
Almost 30% of cadets and midshipmen at the SAs do not come directly out of high school. Many attend a year or two of college or a prep school. Without a nomination, I advised my students to focus on Plan B and C. Many on the forum provide advice around this path. I have had four students accomplish this route successfully: attend college, join an on-campus ROTC unit and reapply to one or more of the SAs as a freshman. You should start as soon as you can lining up the 'next' applications and steps that you will take to achieve an appointment next year, if that is what you desire. Good luck!
 
If you have a nomination, there is no need to find a nomination.

There is confusion about nominations and where appointees get charged to. You can have 10 nominees from a slate get appointed to the same SA. Only one gets charged to the MOC. The others are charged to discretionary places.

There are 435 MOC and 100 senators. There are others like presidential, etc. Over a thousand get appointments.
 
A1Janitor said:
If you have a nomination, there is no need to find a nomination.

There is confusion about nominations and where appointees get charged to. You can have 10 nominees from a slate get appointed to the same SA. Only one gets charged to the MOC. The others are charged to discretionary places.

There are 435 MOC and 100 senators. There are others like presidential, etc. Over a thousand get appointments.
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Thanks, A1, but this is what is confusing me in light of @Stealth_81 's response above. Your response seems to give hope to a candidate who only received one nomination from that candidate's respective congressional representative, but was not the top one or two candidates. Is that accurate? Indeed, as you stated, it seems that multiple nominees from a slate may get an appointment. How can that be with the 5 cadet/midshipman limit per MOC? Where are these "discretionary places" coming from? It seems like a mysterious element to what is an extremely regulated process. Thank you for your insight and that of @Stealth_81 . If need be, I am okay with mysterious.....
 
101JAG said:
Thanks, A1, but this is what is confusing me in light of @Stealth_81 's response above. Your response seems to give hope to a candidate who only received one nomination from that candidate's respective congressional representative, but was not the top one or two candidates. Is that accurate? Indeed, as you stated, it seems that multiple nominees from a slate may get an appointment. How can that be with the 5 cadet/midshipman limit per MOC? Where are these "discretionary places" coming from? It seems like a mysterious element to what is an extremely regulated process. Thank you for your insight and that of @Stealth_81 . If need be, I am okay with mysterious.....
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I think you can only have 5 charged to the MOC….
 
101JAG said:
Thanks, A1, but this is what is confusing me in light of @Stealth_81 's response above. Your response seems to give hope to a candidate who only received one nomination from that candidate's respective congressional representative, but was not the top one or two candidates. Is that accurate? Indeed, as you stated, it seems that multiple nominees from a slate may get an appointment. How can that be with the 5 cadet/midshipman limit per MOC? Where are these "discretionary places" coming from? It seems like a mysterious element to what is an extremely regulated process. Thank you for your insight and that of @Stealth_81 . If need be, I am okay with mysterious.....
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Once the slates have been resolved, other nominees from the slate compete for what USNA calls "Additional Appointees" and some folks refer to as the National Wait List. Everyone who gets in through these actually have noms but were not the slate winner for their District MOC /Senator.

By the way, many folks ASSUME that all MOCs/Senators actual slots get filled but that is not the case. Yes, there are "slots" that go unfilled but not really as the Academies bring on Additional Appointees to get the class up to the desired number.
 
To those who doubt or don't want to believe what I said above ---^, Here are the final results in a fairly competitive district.

I deleted the names but you can count the numbers here for just ONE cycle.

June 17, 2023
Press Release
Parsippany, NJ–– Representative Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) is announcing the 27 students from New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District appointed to the U.S. Service Academies and Service Academy Preparatory Schools. These students will begin their education and service careers this year at the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and their associated Preparatory Schools. Rep. Sherrill hosted an event to recognize the students yesterday in Denville.

“Each and every year, I continue to be so impressed by the caliber of students who apply to my office for nominations to the military service academies. From personal experience, I know how rigorous the course of instruction is at these schools – both academically and physically – and I’m proud to wish them well as they begin their careers as future leaders of our men and women in uniform,” said Rep. Sherrill.

The 25 NJ-11 students attending U.S. Service Academies:
  • , Mountain Lakes – U.S. Naval Academy
  • , Morris Plains – U.S. Naval Academy
  • , Montclair – U.S. Naval Academy
  • , Chatham – U.S. Naval Academy
  • – U.S. Naval Academy
  • Whippany – U.S. Military Academy
  • Rockaway – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Livingston – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Kinnelon – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Cedar Grove – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Riverdale – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Livingston – U.S. Military Academy
  • , North Caldwell – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Livingston – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Sparta – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Chatham – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Morristown – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Madison – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Parsippany – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Millburn – U.S. Military Academy
  • , Essex Fells – U.S. Air Force Academy
  • , Chatham – U.S. Air Force Academy
  • , Montclair – U.S. Air Force Academy
  • , Pompton Plains – U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
  • , Wayne – U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

The following two NJ-11 students will be attending Service Academy Preparatory Schools in the coming year:

  • , Wayne – U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School
  • , Wayne – U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School

The Merchant Marine Academy allows Representatives to nominate candidates from anywhere in New Jersey. In addition to the appointees above, Rep. Sherrill nominated the following student who received an appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy

, Mount Laurel – U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
 
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101JAG said:
Thanks, A1, but this is what is confusing me in light of @Stealth_81 's response above. Your response seems to give hope to a candidate who only received one nomination from that candidate's respective congressional representative, but was not the top one or two candidates. Is that accurate? Indeed, as you stated, it seems that multiple nominees from a slate may get an appointment. How can that be with the 5 cadet/midshipman limit per MOC? Where are these "discretionary places" coming from? It seems like a mysterious element to what is an extremely regulated process. Thank you for your insight and that of @Stealth_81 . If need be, I am okay with mysterious.....
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Listen to @Stealth_81 and @OldRetSWO, among others. They are the experts.

Search the forums - you will find threads that explain it well.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Once the slates have been resolved, other nominees from the slate compete for what USNA calls "Additional Appointees" and some folks refer to as the National Wait List. Everyone who gets in through these actually have noms but were not the slate winner for their District MOC /Senator.

By the way, many folks ASSUME that all MOCs/Senators actual slots get filled but that is not the case. Yes, there are "slots" that go unfilled but not really as the Academies bring on Additional Appointees to get the class up to the desired number.
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Ah, that is what I was inquiring about. Thank you and thank you for posting about NJ-11. Now I understand how a SA can "find a nomination" for a candidate they desire to offer an appointment to even if the candidate was not the top prospect on their respective slate. If that is the case, the process seems like a very good one in how it accounts for multiple important considerations in building a particular class.
 
101JAG said:
Ah, that is what I was inquiring about. Thank you and thank you for posting about NJ-11. Now I understand how a SA can "find a nomination" for a candidate they desire to offer an appointment to even if the candidate was not the top prospect on their respective slate. If that is the case, the process seems like a very good one in how it accounts for multiple important considerations in building a particular class.
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Actually, this is a little different from "finding a nomination" as these folks HAD nominations but clearly, there are more appointees than there are slate winners. I do know that a small number of these appointees had other noms such as Presidential but the vast majority had just MOC/Senatorial noms.
 
What @OldRetSWO said is so very accurate.

I received a "letter of commendation" from Senator Jon Kyl (several years ago) when he had 14 appointees for two openings he had.
(I'm sure it had weight when I went up for promotion)

"Qualified alternate" is VERY real...

Steve
USAFA ALO
 
I posted this in another thread but it also applies here. As others have said number of nominations and number of charged candidates are two different things.

This is how the class develops and how they are charged:
  • MOC Nominations - 650 Openings (Assume 1 per plus 20% for the additional spot) In theory we could have 6500 nominations
  • Presidential Nominations - 100 Openings Unlimited Nominations
  • Service Connected Nominations - 100 Openings Unlimited Nominations
  • Qualified Alternates - 150 Openings (This is the 150 of the NWL. Must be 2-1 ratio MOC to Service Connected
  • Additional Appointees - 200-300 Depending on class size. This is the LOA holders, recruited athletes, diversity candidates. The academy can choose by any criteria but must keep the 2-1 ratio.
 
USMA 1994 said:
I posted this in another thread but it also applies here. As others have said number of nominations and number of charged candidates are two different things.

This is how the class develops and how they are charged:
  • MOC Nominations - 650 Openings (Assume 1 per plus 20% for the additional spot) In theory we could have 6500 nominations
  • Presidential Nominations - 100 Openings Unlimited Nominations
  • Service Connected Nominations - 100 Openings Unlimited Nominations
  • Qualified Alternates - 150 Openings (This is the 150 of the NWL. Must be 2-1 ratio MOC to Service Connected
  • Additional Appointees - 200-300 Depending on class size. This is the LOA holders, recruited athletes, diversity candidates. The academy can choose by any criteria but must keep the 2-1 ratio.
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So an LOA holder gets a nomination from an MOC (thus an appointment) is not to be charged to the MOC's slate ?
 
gniyji said:
So an LOA holder gets a nomination from an MOC (thus an appointment) is not to be charged to the MOC's slate ?
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If an LOA recipient has a nom from a MOC, the only definitive statevent we can make is that the LOA recipient has a nom. Whether that candidate’s appointment is charged to that MOC is not a given. For example, Senator Bigwig gives Jack a principal nom and Jill a regular nom. Jack has no LOA and Jill does. It’s most likely (perhaps guaranteed) that Jack’s appointment is charged to Senator Bigwig and Jill’s appointment is charged elsewhere.
 
USMA 1994 said:
I posted this in another thread but it also applies here. As others have said number of nominations and number of charged candidates are two different things.

This is how the class develops and how they are charged:
  • MOC Nominations - 650 Openings (Assume 1 per plus 20% for the additional spot) In theory we could have 6500 nominations
  • Presidential Nominations - 100 Openings Unlimited Nominations
  • Service Connected Nominations - 100 Openings Unlimited Nominations
  • Qualified Alternates - 150 Openings (This is the 150 of the NWL. Must be 2-1 ratio MOC to Service Connected
  • Additional Appointees - 200-300 Depending on class size. This is the LOA holders, recruited athletes, diversity candidates. The academy can choose by any criteria but must keep the 2-1 ratio.
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Can you please explain "This is the 150 of the NWL. Must be 2-1 ratio MOC to Service Connected"?
 
mj23 said:
Can you please explain "This is the 150 of the NWL. Must be 2-1 ratio MOC to Service Connected"?
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For instance, there are good candidates who only have JROTC or Presidential noms but get beaten out on their slates as there are only 100 Presidential and 20 JROTC/ROTC slots (thus slates). The Academy is allowed to appoint others with nominations (who did not win their slates) to bring the class up to planned strength and has to appoint two candidates with MOC noms for every one candidate with other nom sources.
 
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