This was the guidance as to the difference between admissible and competitive that we (Field Force) just received from our RC a couple weeks ago:
For the class of 2012, an "Admissible" candidate would almost certainly have gotten an offer. What has changed is how competitive it is to get in. Candidates generally need a much higher whole candidate score (WCS) to get in, so an admissible candidate is probably competing for admission, but may or may not be a shoe-in.
It probably describes the top 30-40% of our candidates these days, but it also covers a very wide range. You could have two Admissible candidates from the same district and one could have a WCS that is literally 1000 points higher than the other.
Competitive candidates don't have any risk factors in their files, but overall we do not rate them quite as high as the Admissibles. An Admissible candidate will have a higher whole candidate score than a Competitive candidate. [/COLOR]
I don't have the email in front of me, but we were also told that the guidance was that for 2017 the only LOA's would be for minority candidates and recruited athletes. I'm curious to see if this in fact ends up being the case.