Late VP Nomination

ath42

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My son applied to West Point, but did not receive a nomination from any MOC. He received a letter from WP (in March?) saying that he was qualified but needed a nomination. He has not received any other communication from WP.

He has moved on to plan B: he was fortunate to have received a 3-year ROTC scholarship, accepted it and is preparing to attend that college.

Today he received a letter in the mail saying that he has received a nomination from Vice President Biden. The letter is dated May 22. He checked his WP file status, and it says it was updated May 11 with the VP nomination information.

We are now confused: the VP nominations are controlled by the academy itself, right? Why would they wait until so late? If they want to offer him an appointment, why hasn't anyone contacted him since May 11? If they do not want to offer an appointment, why bother with the nomination?

On Monday we can get in touch with admissions office, but in the meantime I thought I would ask if anyone has had an experience like this? What does it mean?
 
They try to save the VP nominations to the end to be used by strong candidates who were unable to obtain any other nomination. They need to wait in order to see what they have left to deal with to make their best selections.
 
Is there an offer of appointment, or just the nomination?
 
I've never had experience with anyone getting VP nom (they are rare!) so I'm just speculating.
Once the Nom came in, the Admissions committee would still need to vote on the appointment. With all the graduation activities going on this past week, they may not have been able to meet. Again - just speculation.
Check your DS's portal and see if there is a box that says - 'Appointment Offered' (or something along those lines). That should be in a box under the VP nom box.
And yes - WP chooses who gets the VP noms.
Let us know what you find out on Monday!
 
I also have a son with the exact same situation. He received a VP nomination letter this week. We have been trying to contact WP admissions but you cant seem to get to a human. We finally emailed the regional office and are waiting for a reply. We don't want to get too excited but it seems to be pointing to a positive outcome for him.

He was originally declined because he did not get a nomination and 2 months later this just pops in to our mailbox. He has already committed to another school but will gladly step down and go to WP.
 
I believe a VP Nomination is treated like any other congressional nomination. Ten will receive the nomination and, most likely, one will receive an offer of admission. I would email your admissions representative to ask them.
 
I believe a VP Nomination is treated like any other congressional nomination. Ten will receive the nomination and, most likely, one will receive an offer of admission. I would email your admissions representative to ask them.

I don't believe the VP Nom is like the MOC Nom process: I found the following in the "sticky" notes on USMA SAF page:

the VP also has 5 cadetships at WP. Each VP vacant slot will be filled with a candidate chosen by WP from those that have applied for the VP nomination.
 
I don't believe the VP Nom is like the MOC Nom process: I found the following in the "sticky" notes on USMA SAF page:

the VP also has 5 cadetships at WP. Each VP vacant slot will be filled with a candidate chosen by WP from those that have applied for the VP nomination.

sounds similar to the competitive congressional nomination process. see next post.
 
I believe a VP Nomination is treated like any other congressional nomination. Ten will receive the nomination and, most likely, one will receive an offer of admission. I would email your admissions representative to ask them.

From West Point.org:

Let me cover the nomination and admission process.

Each member of Congress (MOC = Senators and U.S. Representatives) and the Vice President can have a total of five cadets at West Point at any one time. (I will talk about West Point, but this procedure would also apply to all the other service academies, except Coast Guard which does not require a Congressional nomination. I will also refer to members of Congress - MOCs; but, the Vice President's quota and method of nomination is identical to the MOCs). Usually, each MOC allocates their chargeable quota at each academy by appointing one candidate per year. That way, there would be four or five cadets at West Point at any one time - usually one in each class. When those cadets appointed by the MOC graduate or drop out, another slot or slots are available for the MOC to fill. That's why in some cases a MOC can send more than one person to an academy in a given year.

For each vacancy, the MOC can nominate up to ten candidates. They are not obligated to nominate ten, but the MOCs are encouraged to nominate a "full slate." There are three possible ways for the MOC to nominate candidates:

1. Principal with numbered alternates: The MOC "nominates" one candidate as his/her principal nominee. The other nominees are in ranked order - first alternate, second alternate, third alternate, etc. If the principal is qualified, that person gets "appointed" to West Point and that MOC is charged with that appointment which counts against the MOC's quota. The principal nominee may be actually a weaker candidate than some of the other alternates. But if that person is qualified - as determined by West Point's objective Whole Candidate Scores - that person is in. If the principal does not qualify for any reason (academic, medical, recent robbery of a 7-11), the next numbered alternate gets a crack at admission, and so on. The principal and numbered alternate method is not used very much any more.

2. Principal with competing alternates: Same as #1 above, but if the principal fails to qualify for admission, the alternates compete for the slot.

3. Competitive: The MOC give WP ten names. West Point rank orders the candidates and picks the best one for admission. If that person isn't qualified, West Points continues to go down the list until a qualified candidate is found.

Qualified candidates who are not picked for admission on this intitial round are put into a national waiting list and are picked up in order of merit until the class is full.
 
sounds similar to the competitive congressional nomination process. see next post.

What you fail to grasp is that the academy chooses who will get the VP nomination/appointment. The academy doesn't "nominate" anyone who is not getting an appointment.

Repeat - There are no VP "nominations" that don't get appointments.

There is no "nominate 10 for 1 vacancy" with the VP - the academy chooses who they want; they assign the appointment to the VP; the appointment is awarded, charged to the VP's quota of 5.

Hence a VP "nomination" is a de facto appointment.

If you think this is incorrect, then I challenge you to find any qualified candidate who has ever received a VP nomination and has lost the appointment to another VP-nominated candidate. It just doesn't happen, VP "nominations" are not wasted, every one of them is an appointment.
 
What you fail to grasp is that the academy chooses who will get the VP nomination/appointment. The academy doesn't "nominate" anyone who is not getting an appointment.

Repeat - There are no VP "nominations" that don't get appointments.

There is no "nominate 10 for 1 vacancy" with the VP - the academy chooses who they want; they assign the appointment to the VP; the appointment is awarded, charged to the VP's quota of 5.

Hence a VP "nomination" is a de facto appointment.

If you think this is incorrect, then I challenge you to find any qualified candidate who has ever received a VP nomination and has lost the appointment to another VP-nominated candidate. It just doesn't happen, VP "nominations" are not wasted, every one of them is an appointment.

no problem. two individuals on this thread have received VP nominations. We can have them post by 2 July to let us know if they are members of the class of 2016.
 
no problem. two individuals on this thread have received VP nominations. We can have them post by 2 July to let us know if they are members of the class of 2016.

We are 1 of those 2, we tried on Friday to call Admissions but could not get to a human, really strange for WP. We then emailed the southeast rep, if we don't get a response, we will be calling Monday.

Will post an update...Good luck to my son.
 
We are 1 of those 2, we tried on Friday to call Admissions but could not get to a human, really strange for WP. We then emailed the southeast rep, if we don't get a response, we will be calling Monday.

Will post an update...Good luck to my son.


Definitely good luck!
 
The VP is like any other MOC who can nominate 10 candidates. The difference is that the VP has WP choose who those 10 nominees are from those who applied for the VP nom. In almost all cases, the VP noms go to those with LOAs who did not receive a nom. Therefore, a LOA holder who receives a VP nom, will get the appointment.
 
The VP is like any other MOC who can nominate 10 candidates. The difference is that the VP has WP choose who those 10 nominees are from those who applied for the VP nom. In almost all cases, the VP noms go to those with LOAs who did not receive a nom. Therefore, a LOA holder who receives a VP nom, will get the appointment.

The VP does not get 10 appointments, only 5.
 
The VP does not get 10 appointments, only 5.

I agree. But as I said, the VP noms are like MOC noms. One 'gets' the VP nom and the others are qualified alternates and can be appointed pursuant to USC 4343.
 
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I agree. But as I said, the VP noms are like MOC noms. One 'gets' the VP nom and the others are qualified alternates and can be appointed pursuant to USC 4343.

True, and I think we both agree that no VP "nominations" are going to be awarded by WP to any candidates who are not getting appointments.

Thus, they are essentially appointments.
 
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True, and I think we both agree that no VP "nominations" are going to be awarded by WP to any candidates who are not getting appointments.

Thus, they are essentially appointments.

According to my RC, VP nomination is not an automatic appointment.

Two individuals on this thread have received VP nominations can confirm or deny.
 
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