NAPS Path For Confirmed Selection?

[Longhorn]

I know of a very recent lacrosse recruit who just committed to the Naval Academy.

I heard he is going into the NAPS program. Is this predicated by his profile or timeline(Mid December of 2011) of his athletic involvement & verbal committment? He is a current Senior in high school?

Are they required to recieve a nomination from MOC to go to NAPS? Do they need to interview with MOC boards? Is the NAPS process selection primarily the athletic departments involvement with NAPS?

 

[Luigi59]

Are they required to recieve a nomination from MOC to go to NAPS? Do they need to interview with MOC boards?

No nomination is needed to go to NAPS.

However, those completing NAPS will need a nomination to enter USNA. If they are unable to get one from their MOC, the Supe can grant one.

Is the NAPS process selection primarily the athletic departments involvement with NAPS?

Sadly yes, NAPS has become an athletic red-shirt system according to the data unveiled via Fleming's FOIA request.

Although a simple review of the football roster would have confirmed it as well - until they removed that info from the official roster - now you can still get it via the bio pages of every player, which I believe last year showed over 50% of the football team went to NAPS.

 

[time2]

Rather then quibble with others on here about statistics and percentages, you should also reaslize that NAPS is also used for those who are NOT 3Q (lacking the scholastic Q), to provide an additional year of academic development.

 

[Longhorn]

NAPS School Committment Question?

Does the NAPS selected candidate go 1 year to Prep School & then 4 additional years after that at the Naval Academy?

Or does their first year at Prep School count the same as if they were a Plebe at the Naval Academy? Bascially start at the academy as a second year student.

Is it a 5 year committment to school going through the Prep path or 4 like the academy?

Just speaking specific to the school portion of the committment.

Thanks for your responses & Happy New Year!

 

[ctuma2]

As in the name, NAPS is a PREP school which means it prepares you for the Naval Academy. Therefore, if you go through NAPS and then are appointed to the Naval Academy, it will be a 5 year commitment. With all the SAs, there is no "transferring in." You always start at the beginning because even if you do go to a prep school, the leadership aspect the SAs try to teach you takes 4 years of training.

 

[Luigi59]

Does the NAPS selected candidate go 1 year to Prep School & then 4 additional years after that at the Naval Academy?

Yes.

Or does their first year at Prep School count the same as if they were a Plebe at the Naval Academy? Bascially start at the academy as a second year student.

No. A year at NAPS is like 13th grade. They still enter as plebes.

Is it a 5 year committment to school going through the Prep path or 4 like the academy?

NAPSters have no commitment. They are free to disenroll without obligation.

 

[cb7893]

Just spent 5 minutes doing a quick search to determine the tuition costs of NAPS.

Please tell me it's not free.

 

[Whistle Pig]

NAPS, strictly speaking, may be (along with the first 2 years at USNA) the ONLY aspects of a USNA education that are "free" i.e., there is no payback required.

 

[cb7893]

NAPS, strictly speaking, may be (along with the first 2 years at USNA) the ONLY aspects of a USNA education that are "free" i.e., there is no payback required.

Okay, it's established that USNA does the same sort of thing as other D1 schools. Not only do they give preference to certain folks, they even give them an extra year to get them ready, i.e. bigger, faster, stronger, and hopefully, better able to do linear algebra.

Two questions:

1. Are the Admiral's kid with the Superintentdent's Nom and the the LAX team's top scorer subject to the same academic scrutiny as my run of the mill, in excellent shape, super well-rounded kid who worked his a** off to get an appointment?

2. Will the starting quarterback be awakened at 2AM, 10 hours before kickoff, to recite the next day's lunch menu, just like they will do to my son who has an 8:00 AM differential equations exam?

I am more curious than worried about the preferential treatment. I just want to know the extent of it. If it exists, but its existence is denied, any institution will slowly rot from the middle and really mess up some good tough kids in the process.

My kids were raised knowing that life isn't fair and they shouldn't unfairly judge those who get the preferential treatment. My kids have caught and will catch their share of unearned breaks in life.

 

[goldenlion]

I don't know about USNA, but at USAFA the athletes are treated differently. Both my husband and I are USAFA grads. However, we can't discuss our experience without getting into an argument. I was an athlete and he wasn't.

He "mistakenly" thinks that the athletes had it easier. He forgets that the afternoons/weekends that he wasn't in a training session, playing intramural sports, etc, he could be sleeping or doing homework or out on a pass. Meanwhile, the athletes were training for their sport. Along with daily afternoon practices, we had practices on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings and during Christmas break. Then there is the amount of school you miss for games, meets, competitions, etc. Look at the basketball schedule. They have a minimum of 2 games every week. Then there is travel time, etc. Being able to eat lunch without being yelled at is a perk. But a necessary perk if athletes are expected to perform at the D1 level.

Now, most cadets believed it was good to have the quarterback in your physics, calculus, English class, etc. As long as you scored higher on the exam, it was believed you would automatically pass (the quarterback's 50% would be curved to a C). I'm not sure how accurate this was, but everyone believed it.

We also had some cadets that had a general officer as a parent. Those cadets were not given any special treatment by other cadets. In fact, most seemed to work harder.

 

[cb7893]

I don't know about USNA, but at USAFA the athletes are treated differently. Both my husband and I are USAFA grads. However, we can't discuss our experience without getting into an argument. I was an athlete and he wasn't.

He "mistakenly" thinks that the athletes had it easier. He forgets that the afternoons/weekends that he wasn't in a training session, playing intramural sports, etc, he could be sleeping or doing homework or out on a pass. Meanwhile, the athletes were training for their sport. Along with daily afternoon practices, we had practices on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings and during Christmas break. Then there is the amount of school you miss for games, meets, competitions, etc. Look at the basketball schedule. They have a minimum of 2 games every week. Then there is travel time, etc. Being able to eat lunch without being yelled at is a perk. But a necessary perk if athletes are expected to perform at the D1 level.

Now, most cadets believed it was good to have the quarterback in your physics, calculus, English class, etc. As long as you scored higher on the exam, it was believed you would automatically pass (the quarterback's 50% would be curved to a C). I'm not sure how accurate this was, but everyone believed it.

We also had some cadets that had a general officer as a parent. Those cadets were not given any special treatment by other cadets. In fact, most seemed to work harder.

Great Post!

Thanks!

p.s. my wife and I never argue.

 

[NavyHoops]

As you can tell from my screen name I was an athlete. I did not attend NAPS. Do athletes get special treatment... Yes, some positive and some negative. All my room mates were non-athletes at USNA. After living a year with them it was always interesting to hear their perspective. I asked them if they thought I had it easier... they all answered without hesitation, NO. In fact they thought it was way harder for me. Yes, we get team tables, miss most of drill, and are not always around in the hall. As another poster stated already on this thread, my room mates were shocked by the amount of time a sport took, what little time I had to study, what little leave we get, and how much class we miss. Not all sports are as bad as others. The basketball teams year in and year out missed the most amount of school when I was there. Yes, a lot of us can take summer school. More than anything this allowed flexibility to move our schedules around to not schedule courses on routine travel days. Also during summer school we help out with summer camps and often time we sacrifice part of our leave to help with summer camps to work with the kids and help represent our programs. On Saturdays and Sundays when everyone is on libo we are often at practice, have games or have recruits. I never had Thanksgiving break, had Christmas twice (3 days) and never had spring break. It was hard to watch my friends leave while we headed back to the gym. But this is something we all chose to do and for all the good breaks we get, this was the sacrifice. Actually when I reached the fleet I had much more time off and leave than I ever did at USNA. But it was a choice of mine and I would not have traded it for anything. The extra leadership opportunities, time management challenges, and being able to representative the Academy on the basketball team was amazing.

Do some people get in because they are athletes, yes, absolutely. But, trust me unless they buy into the system and are committed to what USNA is, they will not make it. Countless team mates did not make it and to be honest, they should not have. Some left because it wasn't for them, others failed academically, had honor offenses or were tossed for conduct. Those who did graduate are/were great officers.

Do Admirals kids/athletes get special treatment... maybe. I think it depends if the Academy (and that means from their Company Officers, Officer Reps, faculty, and administration) think they are worth a second chance and will become good officers. I don't think that is really different then a non-athlete/Admirals kid. If not, no one will have an issue with them being told to leave. I saw plenty of both get tossed. I never saw or experienced a curve being set by an athlete/Admirals kid either. I don't really remember many curves at all when I was there.

Also will they be woken up at 0200 to recite menus? No. And neither will any other Mid. Plebes are hands off between 2300-0630 (actually 1930 is study time). Messing with them is not allowed.

Also consider being a Navy QB... Every person on The Yard knows you and watches every move you do. The amount of media time and cameras on you, and those just aren't on Saturday. Kriss Proctor was the center of a documentary, was nursing some bad injuries all season, leading a team, memorizing play books, film sessions, etc. What we don't see is all the time the extra physical therapy he had to try to be on the field (trust me most of that was done at 0530 and lunch when most are sleeping), interviews he has, etc. Not the easiest thing to manage with a full course load and pending service selection decisions to be made.

Bottom line is every athlete and non athlete chose their path. They know what they are getting into. As long as USNA has D1 sports there will be some differences. Is it fair, no. But its life and the system seems to have worked for decade after decade.

 

[cb7893]

Golden and Navy. Excellent!

Thank you both for your posts and best of luck in all you do.