Preliminary Application

Hello I just recently sent my preliminary application in for the class of 2023 and I got an email saying that I would have the packet of application instructions mailed to me in two weeks and its past two weeks, my stats are low, but is it possible that they did not mail it to me because they know I'm not competitive enough?

Not really the only reason they might not have gave you a shot is if you didn't qualify because you were married or had a child or along those lines or just completely terrible grades

Or the snail mail could just be slow. If it’s being “mailed to you in two weeks,” you allow another 7-10 business days after the mailing date (reading what you wrote literally) for receipt.

Give it another week, and call Admissions, ask if your name is on the list for mail-out of the app packet. Best to go to the primary sources and skip anonymous internet guessing, including mine.

Capt MJ said:

Or the snail mail could just be slow. If it’s being “mailed to you in two weeks,” you allow another 7-10 business days after the mailing date (reading what you wrote literally) for receipt.

Give it another week, and call Admissions, ask if your name is on the list for mail-out of the app packet. Best to go to the primary sources and skip anonymous internet guessing, including mine.

Click to expand...

This is true thank you!

Undecided2023 said:

Not really the only reason they might not have gave you a shot is if you didn't qualify because you were married or had a child or along those lines or just completely terrible grades

Click to expand...

If the preliminary application reveals low ACT/SAT and/or Class Rank, USNA will not consider you an "Official Candidate", assign you a Candidate ID, and give you access to the Portal to complete the application. In BGO parlance , this is a "Contact and Counsel" candidate. The Contact and Counsel candidate is encouraged to improve ACT/SAT scores, Class Rank, etc. in order to qualify as an Official Candidate.

In anticipation of the inevitable follow up question -- I don't think anyone really knows what the cutoff between Official Candidate and Contact and Counsel is, or even if there is a a clear cutoff. My observation is that it is a pretty ambiguous as I have seen Official Candidates with lower ACT/SAT than C&C's. However, it's important to keep in mind that the line really isn't all that important because once someone is an Official Candidate, he/she is competing with the pool of all Official Candidates , and someone that is just barely a Qualified Candidate rarely fares well in the end game.

I'm not saying this is applicable to OP -- but if more than a few weeks late, it is a likely explanation. USNA is usually pretty good about getting the Application portal open for Qualified Candidates. As others hve note, if in doubt--Contact USNA or your BGO directly.

I wouldn't read to much into it if I were you. USNA seems to operate on their own timetable. You could hear back in days or weeks, depending upon how much application information that they're handling at the time.

The good news is that it always gets handled. You will no doubt hear back from them - either by mail or EMail - soon.

It depends a lot on how far away you live from USNA, as well.
If you are on the West coast, you could be waiting a week longer than someone who lives in the Midwest.