Appointments from the National Pool

falconfamily

5-Year Member
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Jan 28, 2011
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Considering how competitive it is this year (and the impending reduction in class size), I am wondering if anyone has any perspective on how many appointments are offered from the national pool (people with nominations who were not offered appointment).

It was my understanding that typically there are about 6000 cadets with various types of nominations, of these about 600-700 are offered appointments, that means that the remaining 5300 or so are then placed into a national pool and the remainder of the class is appointed from there. Is that correct?

This might be good information for us to understand as this process continues in March.

Best!
 
The statistics from the academyadmissions.com website said that there were 11,267 applicants, of which 7,543 were in the final candidate pool, of which 2,445 were found qualified, of which 1566 were offered admission. Of those 1566, only 1294 were admitted in June, for the class of 2014. From the numbers I've seen, about 4,000 people receive nominations, so if you have one, you might be one of the 1600/4000 to be offered an appointment.
The idea of 600-700 receiving early admissions decisions for highly qualified applicants sounds reasonable.
 
Thanks GK

I appreciate the info. What does it mean to be completely qualified? DODMERB, PFA, Academics? I had no idea until now that of the thousands of applications only about 2445 were considered qualified for appointment.
 
The idea of 600-700 receiving early admissions decisions for highly qualified applicants sounds reasonable.
600-700 seems high to me. I would think that about 25% of the appointments are offered before mid-March. If that is the case then about 400 candidates would have received early admission appointments for the class of 2014 and almost certainly less this year.
 
The 600+/- isn't really early admission; although some are definitely early. Those are the guaranteed nomination slots. E.g. 453 representatives each with at least 1 guaranteed slot. Add another 100 senators each with a guaranteed slot. Throw in another 100 Presidentials. I think you get the message.

Then, there will be the remaining 500-600 appointments that are basically from "The National Pool" you hear about. They still need nominations, but these are the nominees who aren't being appointed again the allotted slots mentioned previously.
 
How do you know if you are a fully qualified candidate?

Do they tell you if you are not? Does it show with your online application? Currently my DS's application shows as a "Candidate/Complete" and he has two nominations. So does this mean he is a fully qualified candidate? Sorry if these questions sound dense, but this process is ... daunting. Thanks!
 
Do they tell you if you are not? Does it show with your online application? Currently my DS's application shows as a "Candidate/Complete" and he has two nominations. So does this mean he is a fully qualified candidate? Sorry if these questions sound dense, but this process is ... daunting. Thanks!

Candidates who are qualified for admission are those who are scholastically (class rank, grades/transcripts, SAT/ACT, ECs, ALO interview), medically (DODMERB), and physically (CFA) qualified and have a valid legal nomination.
 
I haven't seen anything on the online application that says that I'm in the "national pool". In fact, I haven't really heard much of a "national pool" verbatim. But I think what it means on the online application when it says "Candidate" is that the individual's application is competitive, but not necessarily of the 2,445 that are deemed "qualified" by USAFA.

My own application says "Candidate/Complete" as well. I have three nominations (one from JROTC). I was told the board has already viewed my file, and that I was competitive. I was told I wouldn't get the news until March or April, and nothing has changed on my online application.
 
For the vast majority of applicants, it's really simple.

1. You receive a nomination from your representative or senator.
2. You are 100% qualified, completed your application, and have been offered an appointment for your Member of Congress' (MOC) 1 guaranteed slot, where you competed for that 1 slot against up to 9 other individuals.

OR:

3. You weren't given the appointment slotted against your MOC's 1 guaranteed slot, and you are automatically put into the national pool. Whereby you will be competing against a couple thousand others, in exactly the same status as you, but for approximately 500-600 slots.

There is no notification. If you were qualified for an appointment and you received your MOC's nomination, and you didn't receive their slot, then you're automatically in the national pool. But because many of the MOC slots aren't notified of an appointment until the same March/April time frame, you won't know, should you be fortunate enough to receive an appointment, if you received the MOC slot or one from the national pool.
 
Hi folks!

Just a quick comment...I just came back from a really excellent meeting at USAFA...and was shown a slide that I can NOT quote from here...

But what I can say is this...

80% or more of the new appointee's...

HAVE NOT BEEN SELECTED YET.

Because the number of offers this year will be less, they're giving everyone to the very last minute to get things to them: SAT/ACT/CFA, etc...etc...and they realize some will come in later...they're going to give everyone all the "leeway" that they can.

That's NOT to say "take your time...don't be concerned..." Feb 15th is FAST approaching!!! I still have one evaluation to do!!! Good news; it'll be done before the game today (interviews done, notes written, now to put it all on the form)

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
I haven't seen anything on the online application that says that I'm in the "national pool". In fact, I haven't really heard much of a "national pool" verbatim. But I think what it means on the online application when it says "Candidate" is that the individual's application is competitive, but not necessarily of the 2,445 that are deemed "qualified" by USAFA.

My own application says "Candidate/Complete" as well. I have three nominations (one from JROTC). I was told the board has already viewed my file, and that I was competitive. I was told I wouldn't get the news until March or April, and nothing has changed on my online application.
We're in the same boat. This waiting thing is simply nerve wracking. It's tough if your DS has offers to play sports at some colleges and every couple of weeks a coach writes back to let you know that another student who has been accepted ED has committed to play the sport at the position that he was recruiting you for and that you can still attempt to walk on. It is like a punch in the gut each time, but that is part of the process of gaining acceptance to the Academy. Good luck to you. Hope we both hear back before too long.
 
Our son called his admissions rep. That's how we found out he did not get the appointment from the nominations that he received. So now he is on the NWL.
 
falcon family: how did you hear that your DS had their application reviewed? Do they send another postcard for that as well?
 
Great news fleiger83! Thank you for the update since we just submitted CFA results yesterday. Wasn't sure if completing application so late would be a problem so it's a relief for us to know.
 
They do not send a post card to say you met the board, usually the candidate or the ALO will call the RD that has been assigned to them to find out their current status.
 
According to RD very few people are offered Early appointments

@AZStudent : my understanding is that very few people are offered early appointments. Your application might be reviewed if complete and your WCS recalulated based upon the results, but from what I was told most people will not be offered an appointment until the March/April boards with the exceptional few (about 150 -200) who were offered early appointments.
 
They can shift you over into the NWL earlier because you scored high enough to compete nationally, but not high enough to win the MOC apptmt.

You will see some getting it earlier because everyone on that slate has submitted their packet and received a WCS. Thus, they know who won the apptmt.

If just one person on that slate has yet to receive their WCS yet, they cannot charge to that MOC yet until everyone has a WCS.

It is true, only a few hundred will get an apptmt early. It should be stated that just because you get it in the mass mailing has no impact on how successful you will be at the AFA.

You know what they call the cadet with an LOA who got apptd in November compared to the cadet who got in with no LOA in March?

CADET!

Good luck.
 
Can candidates without a MOC nomination, but who didn't make the cut for a Presidential nomination be put on the NWL?
 
We were told today that as of January, there had been 300 appointments offered and 61 had accepted.
 
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