How depressing!

Greyhairedmom

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My son had his first MOC interview this weekend and was told there are 300 candidates this year! Apparently it is the biggest turn out ever - ugh. So we are trying to be realistic - if he doesn't get a nomination from our 2 senators, congressman or VP, he has 2 plan B college apps in the works. He had heard though that if an academy really wanted you, you could be accepted and the academy heads have nominations they can give out. Is there any truth to that or just wishful thinking?
 
My son had his first MOC interview this weekend and was told there are 300 candidates this year! Apparently it is the biggest turn out ever - ugh. So we are trying to be realistic - if he doesn't get a nomination from our 2 senators, congressman or VP, he has 2 plan B college apps in the works. He had heard though that if an academy really wanted you, you could be accepted and the academy heads have nominations they can give out. Is there any truth to that or just wishful thinking?

Where are you guys from?
 
He had heard though that if an academy really wanted you, you could be accepted and the academy heads have nominations they can give out. Is there any truth to that or just wishful thinking?

It's possible , but very unlikely.

Those nominations are usually reserved for highly desired recruited athletes or under-represented minority candidates who were unable to obtain a MoC nomination.
 
My son had his first MOC interview this weekend and was told there are 300 candidates this year! Apparently it is the biggest turn out ever - ugh.
Don't give up. With 300 candidates, the only logical explanation is a Senator. In many states, the Senatorial slate is a "pie in the sky" of highly qualified candiates. His realistic chance is with the local Congressman. Also remember that many of the lesser qualified candidates will not 3Q and some of the top qualified ones will opt for another school. Again, stick with it.
 
Thanks for the encouraging words everyone! We are in CO and there are a ton of great kids here!
 
Similar boat. Not sure on what the final number was from GA, but I know from my district and the two surrounding districts there were between 120-160. This is only from 3 of the 13 districts. And that was just for USNA. Doesn't include the district where kings bay and the AF/Army bases are...where one could assume there would be equal if not more interest. WP is even more competitive around here, but not sure on the numbers.
 
Those are NORMAL numbers. Remember, there are 50 states, and approximately 10,000 applicants for the air force and I believe about 14,000 applicants for Navy. If all states were about the same size, that would be 200-300 applicants from each state. Obviously, higher populated states and more "Military Friendly" states are going to have more. But that 200-300 applicants; or even 600, is generally State-Wide. You could have maybe only 10-20 in your district for your representative to sort through. There are some mega-states like California that has around 500 applicants; YET, I remember 3 or 4 years ago, an individual in the berkley california area; "Not sure which district"; said that his representative said he was the ONLY person applying to the air force academy from that district. Apparently, not too many individuals interested in the military from that area. Then there's states like Wyoming, that only have 550,000 people in the entire state, but they only have 1 representative/district. And there's generally around 15-20 interested applicants. But because there's 2 senators also, they have a pretty good chance of getting a nomination. "But the MOC's are pretty picky to make sure you deserve to be at the academy".

So don't worry about the 300 as much as if you can find out how many are from your district. Either way, 300 in a state is about average. Best of luck. Mike....
 
I was interviewed this past weekend for Senator Warner. Out of those 600 applications, 300 were for USNA. The SA coordinator said they narrowed it down to 48 for interviews and Senator Webb will not be doing interviews. They also coordinate with congressional offices to make sure no one receives more than one nom. Out of the 10 Warner nominated last year for USNA, 8 received appointments so you could still be very competitive even if you did not make it to the interview process.
 
And know that, no matter how hard you crunch the numbers, you still won't be any closer to knowing whether you will receive an appointment or not...
Last year I spent hours reading, crunching, worrying over numbers and facts. Everytime my son, now Plebe, walked past me sitting at the computer he would shake his head and say, "Mom, I did my best and the rest is out of our control." Ah, you are wise beyond your years, young Padawan!
 
I was interviewed this past weekend for Senator Warner. Out of those 600 applications, 300 were for USNA. The SA coordinator said they narrowed it down to 48 for interviews and Senator Webb will not be doing interviews. They also coordinate with congressional offices to make sure no one receives more than one nom. Out of the 10 Warner nominated last year for USNA, 8 received appointments so you could still be very competitive even if you did not make it to the interview process.

The above isn't always true. I had a candidate not long ago who received 2 MOC noms in VA.

I've not heard that the Senators split the state, although it could well be true. I think in general each wants to nominate students from every area of the state -- after all, all folks in the state are their constituents.

But, as all of us say, MOCs can do whatever they want, provided they comply with the law. Practices change from MOC to MOC and from year to year. Thus, what happened last year may have everything or nothing to do with what will happen this year.
 
I've not heard that the Senators split the state, although it could well be true.
John Warner and Chuck Robb definitely did. I left the state when George Allen came into the picture and have no idea what happened since then.

Additionally, they were rather low key about the way they did it so perhaps candidates didn't even realize that they had been split up.

They also coordinate with congressional offices to make sure no one receives more than one nom.

I'm with '85 on this. I would be shocked if it were true.
 
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For several years our two senators conducted joint interviews, shared the results, ensured that the max number of candidates got noms. They also pre-selected the candidates who would be invited to interview. The end result was that their noms were very successful at receiving appointments to an academy. Recently the local senators conduct joint service academy days, but go their own way on interviews and noms. Things do change - not always for the better.
 
The above isn't always true. I had a candidate not long ago who received 2 MOC noms in VA.

I'm sorry I did not clarify. Senator Warner's SA coordinator told me his office will communicate with congressional districts to make sure they do not duplicate nominations. I cannot speak for Senator Webb.
 
I'm sorry I did not clarify. The SA coordinator told me that Senator Warner's office will communicate with congressional districts to make sure they do not duplicate nominations. I cannot speak for Senator Webb.
This can be extremely dangerous. Only one appointment is guaranteed from the Senator's slate of 10. All others go into the national pool. If they are competitive in this pool, great. If not, no appointment. Period. Done. End of trip. What if one of these candidates had been the principal candidate on his local Representative's slate? He would have received an appointment. If is very common for the two Senators to coordinate lists. Nothing wrong with this. However, when local Representatives start leaving candidates off their list because they are on an unranked Senator's slate, especially without an LOA, very bad things can happen. If this is happening to someone, they should probably inform the CGO.

Conversely, if a Senator chooses to omit someone from his list who has a nomination from his local Representative, it is not good but less really bad things can happen. Should this happen across the entire state, those on the Senator's slate would be of an overall lesser quality than any of the 10 on each of the Representative's slates and the selection would probably not be the best candidate available.
 
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One of our Senator's Academy coordinator sent out a letter to the applicants stating if you had an LOA and a congressional nom, they would not nominate you (makes sense since you only need one nom with an LOA, right?). Otherwise, I think they would nominate even if you had a congressional nom.
 
There are some mega-states like California that has around 500 applicants

According to Senator Boxer's website, there are around 1000 applicants every year. So I know for me, a senator nomination will be a bit of a long shot. But I'm still applying. And unfortunately I'm not in one of those districts with little military interest. My district gets quite a few applications every year as well.
 
I suppose I'm lucky that I'm from Iowa. Also, most qualified candidates are more interested in the USAFA. I'd love to say that I would have the same chances of getting in if I was from a larger state, but I don't think I can. And how do you know if you're a primary candidate?
 
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