racked and stacked?

Vista123

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when it comes to the first board are they racked and stacked or does your school selection come into play?
 
when it comes to the first board are they racked and stacked or does your school selection come into play?

Racked and Stacked until the unit fills its allocations. Mind you, there is a bit of triage going on in that most cadets will get few choices (particularly when your list is full of the most popular) as to which school to offer more cadets contracts.

So to some extent both ranking and school selection come into play.
 
there is a bit of triage going on in that most cadets will get few choices (particularly when your list is full of the most popular) as to which school to offer more cadets contracts..

Can you clarify for the clueless (me) ?
 
Can you clarify for the clueless (me) ?

My best understanding (and this could be inaccurate, of course) is that CC has a target of awarding a certain number of scholarships on the a board. When they start with OML rank #1 all of his or her schools have scholarships to offer. They can give that candidate up to 5 choices of schools.

The problem arises when the top candidates all tend to select the most popular schools. They fill quickly, potentially leaving lower candidates no schools to choose from.

Of course, the very top candidates can choose only 1 of the choices offered, returning the rest of the scholarship opportunities for a later board. To make up for this, CC may oversubscribe (offer more scholarships than they intend to be accepted). More often, they will reduce the choices of some candidates (sometimes only 1 or 2 schools are offered, even in the early boards) to spread the scholarships available over the number of recipients targeted.

It is a delicate balancing act they must carry out. And don't forget many of these early board schools are very competitive from an admissions perspective, so they have to guess not only as to what percentage will accept a particular school, but also whether these candidates will be accepted to said institution.

Not a pretty system, but it is what they use.

Personally, I've mentioned it before, I'd rather they send you've been selected for a scholarship letters to top (first board) applicants and tell them they have a choice of schools subject to others in the same board on a first-come first-serve basis. This letter could go out in October. The second board could happen in January (after the ED/EA cycle in December with all the first board applicants having a chance to lock in).

The third board could go out right after the spring notification cycle, giving the second board a chance to have first dibs on the spring decisions and everyone else first come first serve.

The trick here is that you need to send a copy of your letter of admission to lock your slot. It doesn't lock a scholarship up to someone who won't use it, minimizing the horse trading that goes on in late April, when recipients who don't get admitted to their scholarship school panic.

Let's say you are a first board candidate who gets a rolling admission at State U in September, an EA (non-binding) December decision at an elite private school, and an Ivy acceptance in the Spring. CC could allow him/her to lock in the Safety State U in October, trade it in for the elite private school in December (subject to competing with other first board applicants), and trade it in again (subject to other first and second board applicants who may have gotten an EA/ED and reserved earlier) in the Spring for that Ivy scholarship.

This system would reward those who apply early, get accepted early, and make up their mind early within tiers of scholarship recipients.

Of course, this will never happen, so just cross your fingers and make sure your son applies to schools where he will be accepted if the scholarship is critically important to your decision.
 
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