Nomination question

1st time post :

Son is scheduled to go before a MOC review board next week to seek a nomination. Talking to our representative's SA advisor, there is only one slot available this year. He assured me that since my Son has already received a LOA being listed as an alternate nominee will still get him an appointment.
Is this correct info ? Is the LOA a "golden key " ? I would think "primary" nominee is his goal . By receiving the LOA has he been shuffled down the line in the nomination process ?
Thanks for your input.
G5

you have a golden ticket

Your son has the golden ticket. Any nom, no matter primary or on the slate, will get your son the coveted appointment. Typically wait time between getting nom (with an LOA in hand) and getting appointment is a few weeks. That was our experience with USMA a few weeks ago, and USNA nom came Monday, so we expect appointment here shortly. Neither nom was primary. Those in the know here assured me primary noms are for great candidates without LOA's.

greeneagle5 said:

1st time post :

Son is scheduled to go before a MOC review board next week to seek a nomination. Talking to our representative's SA advisor, there is only one slot available this year. He assured me that since my Son has already received a LOA being listed as an alternate nominee will still get him an appointment.

Click to expand...

Sounds like this MOC knows how to "game" the system. By picking someone else as his principal nominee and your son as an alternate, he virtually assures he'll get 2 people from his slate into the SA. The SA must give the principal nominee an appointment if that individual is qualified. And they must give your son an appointment if he receives a nomination.

This, BTW, is why SAs don't like MOCs to use the principal nom method -- they prefer that the MOC simply provide 10 names. That way, they can choose the best 1, up to 10, from that slate. This way, they're arguably forced to take the principal nom if he is otherwise qualified, even if they believe that up to 9 of the others are more qualified. But, Congress makes the rules.