National Pool

dell

5-Year Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2014
Messages
65
Just checked "Class of 2018 appointment" thread and saw that someone received an appointment from my congressional district. Does it mean that my DS automatically goes to the National Pool? If I understand correctly each MOC has only 1 spot at the Academy per year and if it is taken the chances to get an appointment are very slim. Am I right?
 
If your DS did not have a Principal nom, but the candidate from your district did, then yes, your DS goes to the NWL. Each MOC has 1 spot/year, except for that rare year when a 2nd spot is open (because there are only 4 class levels; maybe someone left mid-year or prior to graduating, etc). The odds of getting an appointment have bounced around on this forum (anywhere from 50% to 75% chance getting an appointment off the NWL). I think it's closer to 50%, but don't know the actual number. Until your DS receives the TWE he is still competing. Hang in there, and he should make sure he has Plans B, C, D lined up just in case.

Also, USNA admissions stated on FB that all candidates would know their status by 15 APR.
 
Thank you. At this point 50% sounds pretty good. Conrad's on your DS USMA appointment. Mine also is waiting from USMA. :(
 
If your DS did not have a Principal nom, but the candidate from your district did, then yes, your DS goes to the NWL.

I don't understand your mentioning the Principal nom. If any candidate from your district gets appointed, doesn't that push all the remaining candidates into the National Pool? (disregarding LOAs and NAPsters)
 
I don't understand your mentioning the Principal nom. If any candidate from your district gets appointed, doesn't that push all the remaining candidates into the National Pool? (disregarding LOAs and NAPsters)

It's a complicated process. Without a Principal nom or Presidential/service related nom or ranked slate (where you're #1), you should go to the NWL. The best way I can explain what I was trying to say is this: my DS received a "competitive alternate" nom from his MOC and no other noms for USMA (he did not have an LOA; not a recruited athlete). Our assumption was that a Principal nom was given out by this MOC. DS received an appointment to USMA in January. So our assumption is that he is charged to the MOC's slate rather than going to the NWL so early. Did the candidate with a Principal nom have an additional nom? Did he/she decline to go somewhere else? We don't know. The MOC doesn't have 2 slots open at the SA (he provided a list of 10 names). We could be wrong in our assumption. As for my DS's nom for USNA, his other MOC didn't specify what kind of nom it is. DS has not heard anything yet, so our assumption is that he has gone to the NWL.

Clear as mud?
 
A Congressman can have up to 5 constituents charged to them for each service academy attending at one time. So sometimes there are more than one a year.
 
Seeing another candidate from the same district receive an appointment doesn't necessarily mean that candidate was charged to your congressman's slot. The other candidate could have had an alternate nominating source, like a senator from your state, an ROTC/JROTC nomination, or a Presidential nomination. There's even the chance that the other candidate was charged to the 'National Pool' before the congressman's slot was assigned.

I can point to my own son's experience as an example of how you cannot safely read between the lines. My son was a competitive alternate on his congressman's slate of candidates. (The congressman nominated a Primary Nominee.) My son is a college reapplicant, with no letter of assurance. Nevertheless, he received an appointment at the end of January, within 2 weeks of completing his USNA application and submitting his 1st semester grades. Word came from the admissions office while he was on the yard for a CVW. Of particular interest is that, at the time of my son's appointment, a decision had not yet been made on the Primary Nominee in his congressional slate (so my son was not picked as an alternate -- he had to be charged to another nomination source). He also received an NROTC nomination, but the paperwork for that nomination hadn't been filed yet at the time he received word of appointment. Where did his appointment get charged? Your guess is as good as mine, but it seems to me that the admissions board simply made the decision to offer the appointment and figured they would work out the nomination "charge" at a later time.
 
+1 to 3rdGenUSNA2018. It's possible that your DS was pushed to the National Pool. But it's also possible he was not. It all depends on slotting. Don't want you to get your hopes up, but I also don't want to see them get unnecessarily diminished either.
 
+1 kinnem and 3rdGenUSNA2018. Your words are encouraging. Do you know when the admissions will start looking at the national pool applicants?
 
If this is a senators first year to nominate to the academies will the academies take 5 from his list? The senators office said they nominated 20 to each academy and did not have a principle.

I saw on the appointment thread one person from this senators list already received an appointment.
 
+1 kinnem and 3rdGenUSNA2018. Your words are encouraging. Do you know when the admissions will start looking at the national pool applicants?

As I tried to convey in my prior post, it's entirely possible that they already are issuing national pool appointments, and have been doing so for some time. I don't believe that the process isn't as clear-cut as, "Congressional appointments first, then National Pool appointments last."

I can add that, based on our experience last year, and those of others we know, most offers of appointment will have been communicated to candidates by the end of March. There are still a lot of appointments to go out between now and that point. However, if April rolls around and your son has not yet heard any news, then the likelihood of a TWE is very real. There are some appointments in April, but the quantity appears to be very limited. Just my 2¢.
 
If this is a senators first year to nominate to the academies will the academies take 5 from his list? The senators office said they nominated 20 to each academy and did not have a principle.

I saw on the appointment thread one person from this senators list already received an appointment.

New congressional representatives and senators inherit the existing appointments of their predecessor. I'm not sure what happens during redistricting years (like 2012) when brand new districts are created in one state and old districts in another state are eliminated.
 
If this is a senators first year to nominate to the academies will the academies take 5 from his list? The senators office said they nominated 20 to each academy and did not have a principle.

I saw on the appointment thread one person from this senators list already received an appointment.

Your MOC must have 2 slots open if he/she nominated 20 candidates. The 3 current MIDN at the academy were nominated by his predecessor. When they graduate/leave, their spot opens up.
 
I believe that the Senator is only allowed 5 at each Academy at any given time. If he is a new Senator, i would only guess that his predecessor's appointment would be charged to him.

Some districts use a competitive slate where they make 10 nominations for each open slot. So, if he/she nominated 20 for each academy, I think he/she may have two open slots to fill at each academy. If any of those 20 had LOA's, they are likely to get the slot first, and the remainder go to the National Pool.
 
Looking back through the Class of 2017 and Class of 2016 appointment threads I saw quite a few candidates from the same congressional districts receive appointments. I would assume the posters noted correctly whether it was a congressional or senatorial nomination but you never know...

As stated on the USNA Admissions Facebook page, "The nomination process is very complicated, so we discourage students and parents from trying to figure out their admission status..."

Good advice but it doesn't make the waiting and wondering any easier! :wink:
 
Where the NOM is issued, isn't necessarily where USNA will CHARGE the appointment. I wouldn't worry too much if you see someone from your district got an appointment.
 
time2 is quite correct. In fact, the appointments are not even charged until AFTER I-Day when the Navy sees who really shows up. Members of Congress are given the privilege of announcing the appointment to anyone they have interviewed and nominated whether they are eventually charged to them or not. An example would be if a MOC had two absolutely eyewatering candidates and only one slot. If the Academy wanted both, one would be charged to the MOC and the second would be found another nomination source but the Congressperson would call both of them. It is an opportunity for the Congressperson to spread the maximum joy among his constituents. After I-Day nobody is going to give a rip where their nom came from anyway. It also points up why it is so important for a candidate to apply to every possible source of nomination. Make it easy on the Academy, for pete's sake.
 
Spud is dead on. Additionally, to clarify about this "national pool," 75% of those selected MUST come from MOC nominations and the remaining 25% from other sources. It is just another reason why you should apply to all MOCs.
 
My DS received the principal Nom from our MOC, and received his appointment, but another candidate that interviewed had a LOA --she did not receive principal Nom, but rather alternate Nom--due to the fact she had the LOA all she needed was the alternate Nom. Both her and DS have appointments from our MOC. However it was explained to me that my son is charged to our MOC as one of his five, but the other individual is not. (I honestly do not know if this is accurate or not--that's just how it was explained to me!!)
 
Same exact thing happened to my son. He was the MOC alternate but got the nom with a LoA


Sent using the Service Academy Forums® mobile app
 
Back
Top