My son has been invited to an Admissions meeting in our area on a date that conflicts with a recruiting visit to his top back-up school. He has a call into his MALO to discuss the conflict (his MALO would like to conduct his formal interview at that time as well). With regards to eventual appointment, would not attending that meeting be detrimental? He could likely attend a different meeting but it would not be as geographically close to us as this one. Any advice would be appreciated.
Admissions Meeting Conflict
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RLTW
15-Year Member
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- Dec 18, 2008
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It's about priorities overall
At the risk of being overly simplistic, if USMA is your son's number one priority, that should set his priorities regarding meetings or any opportunity to strengthen his application.
Overall, a strong interview can be a plus, that said it’s the whole package that matters. With a strong application, your son might also do sufficiently with a rescheduled interview, if your MALO and your region offer those alternatives. Those are options your son may look into if he has not done so yet.
You don’t state if your son has looked into optional dates for the backup plan activities, and the backup plan is important to develop, no mistake on that, just wondering what other options your son has investigated to evaluate in his decision.
Finding out more about possible options and then assigning his priorities to those options may help your son make his best choice.
Best wishes,
RLTW
At the risk of being overly simplistic, if USMA is your son's number one priority, that should set his priorities regarding meetings or any opportunity to strengthen his application.
Overall, a strong interview can be a plus, that said it’s the whole package that matters. With a strong application, your son might also do sufficiently with a rescheduled interview, if your MALO and your region offer those alternatives. Those are options your son may look into if he has not done so yet.
You don’t state if your son has looked into optional dates for the backup plan activities, and the backup plan is important to develop, no mistake on that, just wondering what other options your son has investigated to evaluate in his decision.
Finding out more about possible options and then assigning his priorities to those options may help your son make his best choice.
Best wishes,
RLTW
Thanks. Definitely agree that it is a priorities issue. The interview can easily be conducted at another time; that is not an issue. He can attend a different admissions event but not one that is really geared for our district so he may not meet some of the people that could help him. Unfortunately, the event at the back-up school is a one time opportunity but he will get into the backup irregardless but the price tag may be different.
Mostly just looking for feedback as to whether the admissions events that USMA sponsors are important to attend.
Mostly just looking for feedback as to whether the admissions events that USMA sponsors are important to attend.
My personal opinion (my background, FFR and hosted many admissions event),
Most admissions events are not important - usually get a canned briefing about West Point, might have the regional commander there (could be important to just establish face to file connection), and might have the Congressional Office reps there (again could be important to just establish face to file connection). Otherwise nothing to worry about if MALO is okay with rescheduling the interview.
From my perspective, good candidates don't really need attend the admissions meeting, if there is a conflict, as he or she should already know the stuff being covered and be contact with a MALO already.
Most admissions events are not important - usually get a canned briefing about West Point, might have the regional commander there (could be important to just establish face to file connection), and might have the Congressional Office reps there (again could be important to just establish face to file connection). Otherwise nothing to worry about if MALO is okay with rescheduling the interview.
From my perspective, good candidates don't really need attend the admissions meeting, if there is a conflict, as he or she should already know the stuff being covered and be contact with a MALO already.
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Just a parent of a plebe, but I believe these two points are important if you are not recruited for other reasons.
If you are serious about USMA you will have already learned what is normally presented in the briefings. You may pick up some tid-bits in the Q&A. You also sometimes get to talk with a current cadet, also helpful.
But the opportunity to have an admissions rep or MOC staffer provide input on your stats? That's quite valuable as well. And putting a face beyond the paper stats is critical. Each event DS attended he ended up with about 10-15 minutes of dialog with admissions, including recommendations on how to improve the competitiveness. Same for the key MOC staffers from academy day briefings.
In very competitive districts the nom selection process can be as difficult as a competitive file for USMA.
My recommendation, for what it is worth: See if you can reschedule the plan B visit, and then hit every USMA event (briefings, academy days, etc) you can. The only exception would be if it conflicted with SAT testing, etc. (you are taking the SAT multiple times, aren't you??)