Timing of Acceptance of Appointment

Greetings. Can anyone shed some light on whether it is best to accept an appointment immediately if there are applications still pending at other service academies? Does accepting an appointment at one service academy immediately stop a candidate's consideration for appointment to another candidate (in other words, do they talk)? Appreciate any insight from anyone "blessed" with such a dilemma. Thanks!

If that's where you 100% want to go, I recommend accepting the appointment,I dont believe they cancel out any of the other applications because they're different schools

I'd be interested to see what the BGO posters say.

I was always under the impression that once you sign the paperwork than you are locked into attending. Being appointed and accepting it are two different things. You can be appointed by multiple SAs, but I always thought you can only accept one.

IOWs accept it now, and USNA believes you are class of 19. The SAs are not like ED college admissions. I always assummed they are like EA college admissions., difference is college admissions puts you in their class pile as soon as it is offered and EAs put you in the pile as soon as you accept. The matriculation rate is very high. Typically @85+% is the difference between appointments offered and those that show up on I Day.

The only exception I know is you can accept ROTC scholarships with a no harm no foul because an appointment to any SA trumps the scholarship.

DC is correct the SA admisssion boards do not talk. Not only do they not talk to each other, but ROTC boards within the branch do not talk either when it comes to selection, which is why it is more common than not that a candidate could be offered an appointment, but not a scholarship or vise a verse.
~ For lurkers that is why you should not assume a scholarship means an appointment will show up in your mailbox, and if you don't get a scholarship don't assume the BFE won't be in your mailbox the following day!

Pima said:

I'd be interested to see what the BGO posters say.

I was always under the impression that once you sign the paperwork than you are locked into attending. Being appointed and accepting it are two different things. You can be appointed by multiple SAs, but I always thought you can only accept one.

IOWs accept it now, and USNA believes you are class of 19. The SAs are not like ED college admissions. I always assummed they are like EA college admissions., difference is college admissions puts you in their class pile as soon as it is offered and EAs put you in the pile as soon as you accept. The matriculation rate is very high. Typically @85+% is the difference between appointments offered and those that show up on I Day.

The only exception I know is you can accept ROTC scholarships with a no harm no foul because an appointment to any SA trumps the scholarship.

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This is they way we have always understood this, too. It's just like any other colleges, where technically, you shouldn't accept and enroll in more than one at the same time.

Don't accept unless you are fully committed. My son received an early appointment to USNA last year as well. While he did not apply to any other service academy, he did apply to other colleges and NROTC.
He wanted to give himself time to make best decision and in his case that was after all the acceptances from all colleges were released. So although receiving his appointment in early November, he did not officially accept until April.
He also accepted an nrotc scholarship in January and we put a deposit down on his plan B school, just as insurance. He was in contact with the nrotc unit at the other school-they were completely aware of his situation and seemed fine with it.
I will say however, he did receive a few phone calls last winter from a coach as well as admissions gently nudging him to make a decision. He did-he's a Plebe now.

AHS,

Thanks for the post. It has been years for me, but I thought that appointments did not need to be accepted until April and ROTC OTOH had to accept within 45 days.
~ See earlier post that appointment trumps scholarship acceptance.

That being said, and if it is still the case, I would strongly advice my child to hold off for months.
~ If you are the one that won the appointment and charged to a nomination source, they can come back in April/May/June and fill the slot later on Fri on someone else with a nomination. It is not like ROTC scholarship where they do not hold boards after March and you are taking the scholarship. NO flaming or diverting the thread with that statement please! The pool is set in January when the nominations are due.

Tell them to take this time and research AD life because it will be 9 years of their life. 5 will be where they station him and in the career field they decide. It will be 24/7/365. They may like Annapolis over C Springs campus/location wise, but that 4 years is not 24/7/365.

You are correct, Pima regarding acceptance windows.
From what I read on here subsequent to my sons acceptance, USNA found themselves in a bit of a pickle perhaps with no available appointments for principal nominees, etc. Understandably, there were some angry, confused, posters on here. Maybe that explains why my son was getting calls?

As for the NROTC acceptance, he visited the unit he was accepted to but he was still waiting to see if he was accepted to the college. The officer of that unit knew his status with USNA. He strongly advised him to accept the scholarship while he waited for a BFE from the college since he only had a limited window to accept nrotc scholarship which was months before he would hear about acceptance from that college.

As soon as he made his decision, he informed the nrotc officer at that college. We still went ahead and put down a deposit because I had heard on this forum that it was insurance in case something happened to him that would render him ineligible on IDay.

If I remember correctly, the "paperwork" enclosed in the BFE was a little slip to check "Yes" or "No" and sign your name.

You can accept it now. That acceptance is the sort that can be undone with a phone call i.e. it's not the real thing. The real paperwork that locks you in comes in April in the Permit to Report package, with a two copies of a nice long contract that you will reaffirm two years later as a 2/C (2 for 7 is just for show, the contract was already signed).

That said, you can sit on that appointment all the way until May; they won't rescind it. This is an important decision. Think carefully. Take your time.