Is the new system still

Romad

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
486
Slamming up and down?

Our status page keeps opening additional documentation boxes and then closing them again. The only AD we need according to his counselor is his Consular Report of Birth since he was born at Frankfurt General.

New systems...:rolleyes:

Best

Romad
 
The system is still running a little slow, my son received his "official notification" of candidate status this morning - it was dated 15 Aug...! I guess the techs are still dealing with glitches... :biggrin:

We, however, are almost done with the application. What's left is out of our control - DODMERB (awaiting results), ALO interview, Drug sheet, - question - should we now schedule an interview with his ALO? They have been in regular contact and the ALO has indicated that they would get together soon. I'm not sure that the ALOs are ready to do interviews yet - with the selection process slower and the Academy taking more time this year.

Should we just wait a while or drive on?

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks and Best Regards

Romad
 
Your ALO should have been in contact with you. They need to give you a drug/alcohol briefing. Once that briefing is done, they will annotate online, and the section in the application for Drug&Alcohol will light up and allow you to click on it and fill out that section. You can also schedule a time for your interview at that time also. So definitely give your ALO a call being they haven't contacted you yet.

The selection process and academy aren't actually slower. They are simply trying to be more efficient and not waste time. There's more than 12,000 people applying initially. A lot of these individuals don't complete the process. They change their mind. They aren't qualified. etc... The academy and the ALO's have decided that they don't want to wast time doing interviews and paperwork on applicants who haven't shown their motivation. Once you've accomplished a certain percentage of your application; which it sounds like you have; the ALO will be notified that they can now do an interview and paperwork on the candidate. They have a deadline of usually up to 60 days. Later in the cycle, the deadline will be reduced to 30 days. Towards the end of the cycle, the deadline will be about 2 weeks. Being you are as far along as you say, the ALO has been notified of such, and has up to 60 days to interview and do the paper work.

Most ALO's don't want to make motivated candidates wait. If you're ready, I recommend that you contact your ALO, introduce yourself, express your enthusiasm, and see about scheduling an interview. Best of luck. Mike.....
 
Quick question, sort of along the same lines. Our ALO, whom my son has emailed and remained in contact with, is out of town (it seems frequently) on missions. I believe he is a Reserve pilot. So scheduling can be dicey. Will this have any effect on my sons application? I know it is still early, but we are nearly as close as Romad. We have our DoDMERB qualified back already, but are waiting on two teacher evaluations. Just the CFA, Drug and Alcohol abuse screening left. Our ALO won't be back until after Labor Day sometime, he wasn't specific. My son is a competitive swimmer, so we figure the CFA(he has been practicing and we do an unoffical test on Sundays) and Drug stuff will be done as soon as we can schedule when the ALO returns. Just hoping the ALO has time for all of this before he leaves on another mission. Sometimes it is hit or miss getting him to respond to emails. The Presidential Nomination process is really slow, or they are not processing many of them yet. I have sent documentation twice now. Wondering if anyone else is in the same boat on that one. We are almost finished with the Congressional and that should be in the mail next week.
 
...question - should we now schedule an interview with his ALO? They have been in regular contact and the ALO has indicated that they would get together soon. I'm not sure that the ALOs are ready to do interviews yet - with the selection process slower and the Academy taking more time this year.

You are good to schedule with your ALO. I did mine yesterday. I can't believe that the ALOs schedules are that much different, concerning when they'll do interviews. You should be good to start.
 
One thing to add, just as a reminder.

ALO's do this purely out of their sincere regard and respect for the AFA. They have jobs, families, and an outside life, on top of having maybe 15 candidates.

SO...if they don't return your phone call ASAP, it may be because they are juggling everything and everyone in their life.

On a whole, I will say that ALO's are an amazing source of support and information. I am sure you will be more likely to post on here regarding questions, but keep them in the loop too regarding questions or progress, noms, updating scores, awards, EC's etc.

For Ex: Questioning if the CFA is good enough to submit.

People here can give you a generic thumbs up or down, but that is not really going to help you if the ALO has 5 candidates with the same PAR and you have the lowest CFA out of the top 5.

They are specific to your area, and the way a board works is it starts from a geographic slate. You need to concern yourself there too.

Additionally, unless the scores are really high or really low, traditionally you will get a generic response of "submit if you feel you cannot improve".

You also want to inform them if you are applying multiple SAs. If you get an LOA to USMA, you should inform them. JMPO, but I have to say, after @ 4 yrs here, I have seen very frequently that an LOA comes down for a candidate applying to one SA, and a few days later it comes down for another SA...I have come to my personal opinion (mind OPINION), that the ALO, MALO, BGO has "talked" to admissions re: the LOA. Understand AFA is the stingiest of all handing these out, and it means nothing come I-Day, but it is important to keep that ALO informed with what is happening in your life.

They are your partner during this yr. The more you inform them, the more you will feel confident about the roller coaster ride you are going to live on for the next 9 months.

As I said we had the best ALO ever, he had a dozen candidates, but the day the noms were released for any MOC, there was a phone call from him congratulating our DS. One time he knew before DS did, but thought DS knew. DS didn't find out for @ 3 more weeks, because it took that long to show up on the portal. For 3 weeks he wondered if the ALO made a mistake!

Good luck.
 
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Quick question, sort of along the same lines. Our ALO, whom my son has emailed and remained in contact with, is out of town (it seems frequently) on missions. I believe he is a Reserve pilot. So scheduling can be dicey. Will this have any effect on my sons application? I know it is still early, but we are nearly as close as Romad. We have our DoDMERB qualified back already, but are waiting on two teacher evaluations. Just the CFA, Drug and Alcohol abuse screening left. Our ALO won't be back until after Labor Day sometime, he wasn't specific. My son is a competitive swimmer, so we figure the CFA(he has been practicing and we do an unoffical test on Sundays) and Drug stuff will be done as soon as we can schedule when the ALO returns. Just hoping the ALO has time for all of this before he leaves on another mission. Sometimes it is hit or miss getting him to respond to emails. The Presidential Nomination process is really slow, or they are not processing many of them yet. I have sent documentation twice now. Wondering if anyone else is in the same boat on that one. We are almost finished with the Congressional and that should be in the mail next week.

My ALO is a Delta pilot, and is out of town a lot too. Just try to schedule a date to do the interview and CFA with him when you can. Also, your DS can do his CFA with his P.E. teacher.
 
A couple of people have already their Presidential, so they are going out. Just remember that it all has to do with the queue and people that submitted before you will get it prior to you.

I wouldn't worry. The board for handing out appointments will not meet until October (mid) you have a long time in front of you. Additionally the 1st board usually doesn't have many that will have a nom., you will.

Your MOC unless totally unique, will not start reviewing your application until after the deadline date. They don't do rolling noms. If they require interviews you could be looking at a few months from now before you have a definitive answer for that source. (DS back in 07, had to have it in by 10/15, interview was Jan. 5th, and slate was announced Jan. 31st.)

Flyboy is correct your ALO is just one that can administer the CFA. DS had his PE teacher do it. Just make sure during the practice tests he follows it to a tee regarding form and rest times between each. Wrong form and you are in trouble very quickly because you have wasted energy without a positive result. Try to max it out, beware to do it wisely.

Doing more the max is not going to do anything, but physically wear you out. If you can do 18 pull ups, don't do 21. If you can run at 5:30, don't do it at 5:00. You will not get more points for going passed the max. Think SMART!

Also perform this in all types of weather. If it is humid, don't wait until the humidity decreases to do a practice test, because you may be forced to do it in that humidity for scheduling issues and your practice test will not be near your CFA score when you are lungs are burning since you only did it at 6 p.m. at night, but the CFA was done at 3 p.m.
 
My son's High School Athletic Director and Head Football Coach administered his CFA. If your coach is anything like ours, he or she will probably consider it an honor to help - as well as provide a letter of rec. Who better knows the applicant's focus level and how they will perform under stress and pressure than their coach?

Best
 
Couple things.

1. The ONLY 2 things you need from your ALO is their Interview and their Drug/Alcohol briefing. You can get a LOT MORE from them; but those are the only 2 things you NEED. As Romad mentioned, you can get your CFA done by your local P.E. teacher. Have I helped do CFA for applicants? Yes, but they were local. I have applicants/candidates that live hundreds of miles away. I'm not doing their CFA. So basically, I'm saying to be more Pro-active. You only need the ALO for the interview and the drug/alcohol briefing. (And of course for them to do the paperwork for the admissions department). ALO's are there to answer a lot of questions; provide advise; help you through the process; etc... But none of that stops you from accomplishing the application on your own.

2. The first round of boards reviewing completed applications, isn't until the last week of September or first week or two of October. (It changes each year depending on how many applications are 100% and ready to be reviewed). So you still have plenty of time to get everything completed.
 
We have taken the time to do correct form on the CFA while doing test runs, so it is "real" in his mind every time he does it. He is not familiar with any of the high school P.E. teachers in the school. He has always done Independent Study PE because as a swimmer he usually puts in 20-25 hours a week in at the pool and it is an option in our district. So, he took extra classes at school versus the PE. I am not sure his swim coach would qualify. Used to be another USAF officer could do the testing, but I am not sure if that still applies. If it does we may be able to go that route. I am sure we can schedule before October though.
As to the Presidential Nomination, we submitted his first one April 16th of this year and then I sent it off again last week just to make sure. He qualifies for it with both my husband and I. Husband is 22 yr retiree off active duty, and I retired Reserve after 21 yrs.(though I am not yet receiving pay yet). But to cover all the bases I submitted all the paperwork on both of us. Guess we will just keep checking the portal, and then I will call as soon as everything is finished in the portal. Plenty to still accomplish. Thanks for all the responses :smile:
 
Was the Presidential even open back in April? I ask because the PCQ doesn't open until @ that time, thus nobody is even an applicant yet since results aren't released until end of June regarding who is an applicant. Maybe the problem was you requested too early, thus were floating in the black hole of the internet.

I am sure somebody else can answer this, but maybe you created confusion by applying for the Pres. using both you and your DH as the source. He can't get 2 Presidential noms., which may place him back in the black hole of the internet.

Good luck.
 
If your son's application doesn't say: "Nomination received: Presidential". Contact your academy admissions counselor. Have your son ask them the status on his presidential nomination. The academy handles the presidential nominations directly; delegated by the president. So they are the right office to contact.
 
We sent his nomination early, as we had done for our daughter two years ago, same thing, sent in both sets of information, in case they questioned one. We did send it out after the application initially opened at the end of March. Like I said, I sent it again last week, Delivery Confirmation, to ensure that it wasn't in a black hole. We had received a letter about three weeks after the initial one in April that said they would process later this summer. When I started seeing others with their PN I became concerned.
I will call on Monday, as son is in school, and cell phones are not allowed on campus.
Just an oddity, that I just noticed on his application page, his USAFA Counselor just changed. Is this normal? DD had the same one throughout her process and they were very helpful. I am sure they rotate due to areas that are more work, such as California.
 
Counselors are assigned by 1st letter of last name. Not by state. As for the application process; that didn't open until July. That's why they told you they'd process it in the summer. Just call and find out the status.
 
Mike has the system changed? When DS went through it was 1st letter of last name AND region. For example, if your last name was ABLE from NC you weren't likely to be with the same counselor as WILLING from NC.

Same as if you were Ready, Set from NJ, your counselor would not be the same as Ready, Go from OR., because of he region.
 
Not sure about the region and last name. I was simply responding that counselors weren't set up directly by region. I.e. Counselor smith isn't in charge of California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona.... Counselor jones isn't in charge of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Montana.

Now; it's been a couple of years since I had to call down there, but the last time I did, you get the vectoring. (Similar to voicemail, but it says: Press 1 for spanish, 2 for polish, 3 for parts department, etc...) I'm pretty sure it said: If your last name begins with A-G Press 1; H-S press 2; etc.... Or something similar. I don't ever remembering it asking what state you were from. But then again, maybe it has changed. I don't normally have a need to speak with counselors; but when my son was applying, I remember him saying, I remember when I called, that it said to press a number based on your last name.
 
Had to laugh today when I got the mail! USAFA sent DS a postcard that says he was identified as being eligible for a Presidential Nomination and should refer to the guide on steps to apply or call such and such a phone number. I WILL be calling that number on Monday. Sometimes one has to wonder if the left hand talks to the right hand. I also figure that maybe the counselor change was due to him being identified as an IC in swimming. Not sure, but will cross that bridge on Monday too.
 
Had to laugh today when I got the mail! USAFA sent DS a postcard that says he was identified as being eligible for a Presidential Nomination and should refer to the guide on steps to apply or call such and such a phone number. I WILL be calling that number on Monday. Sometimes one has to wonder if the left hand talks to the right hand. I also figure that maybe the counselor change was due to him being identified as an IC in swimming. Not sure, but will cross that bridge on Monday too.

Might want to call to clarify. I got the same thing about 2 months after I put in for it. I think it's just an automatic thing. The system probably flags your DS because on the PCQ, he put that a parent is retired military or something like that.
 
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