Applicants and the Process

Kazakh93

5-Year Member
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What's the difference between the offers of admission and the number of students admitted to the USNA? The number of offers of admission is around 1,500, and the amount actually admitted is around 1,200. Hypothetically speaking, what happens if all 1,500 students want to go to the academy if only 1,200 can attend?
 
What's the difference between the offers of admission and the number of students admitted to the USNA? The number of offers of admission is around 1,500, and the amount actually admitted is around 1,200. Hypothetically speaking, what happens if all 1,500 students want to go to the academy if only 1,200 can attend?

That's a good question and one I've asked before.

I was under the impression that, at any one time, the Naval Academy never had more offers of admission than they had spots available.

For example, let's say they have 1,200 spots to fill. So, they'll send out 1,200 offers of appointment. As rejections come in, they send out more offers of admission. That's how I thought it worked.

But I have been advised, by a Blue & Gold Officer, that it does not work that way. Statistically speaking, the academy anticipates a nominal number of rejections.

Let's say, nominally, they get about 250 rejections.

So, to be on the safe side, they may send out 1,450 initial offers of admission to fill those 1,200 slots. If they get more than the anticipated 250 rejections, that's when they'll start sending out more offers of admission to those on the Wait List. Some of those offers may go out very late.

Let's say there are 50 more rejections than anticipated - 300 in total. That would generate 50 more offers of admission, bringing the total number of offers up to 1,500.

This is why the process can be so torturous for those who neither received an offer of admission nor have received a rejection letter. Basically, they are standing by for those last minute rejections.

This method actually makes sense.

NOTE: Remember, a fair number of these "rejections" are candidates who have applied to more than one service academy. It's not as if all the rejections are going off to civilian universities.

And yet, invariably, there is somebody who gets an appointment, accepts the offer, and simply does not show up on I-Day or, for some reason, becomes ineligible at the last minute due to injury or some other issue (i.e. gets pregnant, gets arrested, etc.)

It's sort of the way airlines overbook for their flights. To ensure all the seats get filled, they book more than the aircraft actually holds because experience has taught them that a certain percentage of those with reservations do not show-up for one reason or another.

I'll let one of the Blue & Gold Officers correct this if I have misinterpreted it - but this is the way I've had it explained to me.
 
It's sort of the way airlines overbook for their flights. To ensure all the seats get filled, they book more than the aircraft actually holds because experience has taught them that a certain percentage of those with reservations do not show-up for one reason or another.
Using this same analogy; Occasionally the airlines have more people show-up then they anticipated. More people than they have physical seats on the plane and they have to schedule those people for different/later flights. Could this happen at the USNA? Is it possible that the USNA could get more acceptances of admissions than they expected and have the facilities to accommodate? Just curious.
 
Using this same analogy; Occasionally the airlines have more people show-up then they anticipated. More people than they have physical seats on the plane and they have to schedule those people for different/later flights. Could this happen at the USNA? Is it possible that the USNA could get more acceptances of admissions than they expected and have the facilities to accommodate? Just curious.

My understanding is that they have to "eat" those extra offers. In other words, I don't think they ever un-appoint somebody to whom they have offered an appointment provided the candidate has not become disqualified for some other reason.

I think this happened at USMA for the Class of 2014.

I'll bet the "nominal" number of rejections are probably at an all time low, considering the state of the economy and rapidly rising college tuitions. But, maybe they make an adjustment for that, as well.

Unlike the airlines, there is a bit more flexibility with admission. If an aircraft only has 150 seats, obviously, they cannot take 152 passengers.

However, having a class size of 1,202 is manageable, even if the target was 1,200. I don't think there is going to be a huge disparity between the target number and the actual number such that it becomes a logistical problem.
 
Hmmm...when we were at the parents meeting in Alumni Hall, I remember the Dant or the Sup (can't remember which one) saying that there were, "as of today 1,233 members of the Class of 2014...". I also heard/saw a number somewhere around 1,245 prior to this, and there appear to be many more than this on the back of my t-shirt. Do people accept and not show up on I-Day? I know there can be people who get injured or or in some kind of trouble, but I didn't imagine that number would be in the teens. Just curious.
 
yep, people accept and then don't show up...last year a plebe didn't make it past the haircut station b/c he didn't want to have his hair shaved...it was in the paper the next day. he walked away just like that...i couldn't believe it!
 
Last year I remember seeing on the tables in Alumni Hall about 15 packets for kids who did not show. I would imagine they are "just no-shows" as one would think if you were injured you would have called a head to report injury and get guidance, hence no packet would be on the table. Those who had been waiting on clearing a wait list from another institution may just not show. Many different reasons for no shows. One never knows about teens, parents and manners!
 
YUP! Strange things happen between Appointment and I-Day. Another Acaemy, free ride at Stamford or free ride University of Chicago or anywhere else with another non BS major. One of my son's best friends on Crew was heavily reqruited by many schools. Very smart kid and a great athlete. Decided on Brown at the last minute. I asked him at the last race why he was still wearing a "Navy" shirt.:eek: and why Brown? He said Emma Watson was a Coxswain at Brown. He was kidding, I think.:shake:
 
yep, people accept and then don't show up...last year a plebe didn't make it past the haircut station b/c he didn't want to have his hair shaved...it was in the paper the next day. he walked away just like that...i couldn't believe it!

Stories like that almost make me mad. But, sadly, it's true. To think, some disappointed candidate, who would probably have made a great midshipman and have been a tremendous contribution to the Navy or Marine Corps, is sitting at home on I-day.
 
Hmmm...when we were at the parents meeting in Alumni Hall, I remember the Dant or the Sup (can't remember which one) saying that there were, "as of today 1,233 members of the Class of 2014...". I also heard/saw a number somewhere around 1,245 prior to this, and there appear to be many more than this on the back of my t-shirt. Do people accept and not show up on I-Day? I know there can be people who get injured or or in some kind of trouble, but I didn't imagine that number would be in the teens. Just curious.

It takes a while before they finally settle on a final number.

I know, for a fact, that one kid in the Class of 2013 was injured while driving to his congressman's recognition ceremony just a couple of weeks prior to I-Day. He was OK, but the nature of his injury precluded admission. His name was already printed on the Class of 2013 t-shirt.

You think that's sad? That same kid was accepted into the Class of 2012 and had shoulder surgery (baseball pitcher) that disqualified him for admission.

Talk about, "... it just wasn't meant to be"?

Very sad.
 
I saw a news clip from Iday about a kid on the wait list this year that was told to come just incase there were no shows...at the end of the clip it showed he and his parents walking away and the reporter stated that amazingly there weren't any no-shows for the 2014 class--now this was a news report, so not sure how accurate it was, but the wait listed kid was bummed, it was his 2nd year in a row on the wait list. And it was his birthday.
 
The term is YIELD. Most "elite" (in this use, meaning highly sought after)shools can predict their yield within a percentage point or two, as they have been at this for years. They occasionally miss one way or the other. Miss low and it's off to the waitlist. Miss high and it's double bunking.

In my opinion, yield is becoming harder to predict, with so many HS Seniors applying to so many schools and delaying their decision until the last moment. On the other hand, it is a statistical issue and the people running these schools are very good at it. There is the occasional statistical anomaly. I believe one year the University of Michigan was off on their predicted yield by a few percentage points and they had freshmen 3 and 4 to a room in what would normally be a 2 person room. By 2nd semsester, things had straightened out.
 
I heard on the yard at this years I-Day that there were 8 no shows and one that left immediately prior to the oath...all 9 are on the back of the shirt...also was told that the shirt used to be available not before Parents Weekend.
 
For the Class of 2010 the shirt was available on IDay.

In our household, we jokingly refer to that shirt as the "tournament shirt." I have a daughter who played competitive/travel fastpitch softball and my twin boys played competitive/travel baseball - all when they were younger. We would travel to these big tournaments all over the country and they would always seem to be selling the "tournament shirt" which had a list of all the names of all the teams who were participating in the tournament on the shirt, often from a wide geographical area.

My wife was in the Midstore near the end of May and she called me to say, "They already have the 2014 tournament shirts out."

She saw the name "M C Klunder" on the shirt - Admiral (formerly Capt) Klunder's son. We thought that was kind of neat since I was Matt's first set Plebe Summer squad leader when he was a Plebe ... and he ends up being the Commandant of Midshipmen when my sons enter ... and now he has his own son enter ... and I think he is in the same company as one of my sons. My wife calls that kind of stuff "The Circle of Life." :smile:
 
And the canvas bags with all of the names on it is the "Mom Bag"
 
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