Nominations

Joined
Feb 7, 2019
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20
Hello,

I have received two nominations to USAFA. One from my representative and one from a senator. Does this look good on my application, or does it have no bearing at all?
 
No bearing at all.

It just means you could be appointed several different ways. It all comes down to your WCS vs the others on your slates or in comparison to others in the national pool.

You only need one. :)
 
+1 to A1Janitor. You only need one... but two or more is better. They are like lottery tickets. The more you buy the more chances you have to win.
 
How do you know if you were the “principal nominee?” My DD applied to all 4 SA’s and was thrilled to get a nomination for all 4 in a largely populated congressional district. She had to rank her choices. MOC also only has 1 cadet at USAFA, so if she ranked USAFA first among her choices, do her chances improve for an appointment?
 
How do you know if you were the “principal nominee?”

Sometimes the MOC will tell you; sometimes they won’t. Sometimes SA admissions will tell you; sometimes they won’t. It’s different for everyone.

MOC also only has 1 cadet at USAFA, so if she ranked USAFA first among her choices, do her chances improve for an appointment?

One would think. Simple math, right? But few things are assured when it comes to SA appointments.
 
Hello,

I have received two nominations to USAFA. One from my representative and one from a senator. Does this look good on my application, or does it have no bearing at all?
I received two nominations as well to USAFA. One from my rep and one from a senator.
 
How do you know if you were the “principal nominee?” My DD applied to all 4 SA’s and was thrilled to get a nomination for all 4 in a largely populated congressional district. She had to rank her choices. MOC also only has 1 cadet at USAFA, so if she ranked USAFA first among her choices, do her chances improve for an appointment?

atf_mom Your MOC should have a person that handles all of the Service Academy stuff for them. Our state's senior senator's service academy staff member was super helpful and told us exactly how they ran the process (she had been doing it for 17 years), how they interacted with the other senator and how they interacted with representatives. It felt very transparent and open and she gave us great feedback on how our candidate ranked and how they ranked in the entire time she had been working the process. I felt like I could call her and ask her anything about the process. I would absolutely reach out and have a polite candid conversation with them.
 
Thank you. All very helpful. Our MOC was not relelected, so that very helpful lady is gone....
 
How do you know if you were the “principal nominee?” My DD applied to all 4 SA’s and was thrilled to get a nomination for all 4 in a largely populated congressional district. She had to rank her choices. MOC also only has 1 cadet at USAFA, so if she ranked USAFA first among her choices, do her chances improve for an appointment?

Having one cadet there may still only mean that the MOC only plans to use one or two appointments this year. MOC‘s are only allowed to have five at each SA. Therefore, if they use all of their slots this year they will have no slots in future years which would not fare well for their constituents. If they are managing their slots correctly, they will only appoint a max of 2 this year.
 
If the MOC does not submit a full slate, regardless of method used, regardless of how many slots the MOC might have available, that means a good handful of people will not get a nom, and be eligible for an offer of appointment from the national pool, assuming they are fully qualified.

Those who are appointed from the pool per the SA guidelines, do not have those appointments charged to the elected official, even though that was the original source of the nom required to be placed in the pool.

The SAs keep careful track of how many appointments are actually charged to the elected official and work with the official’s staff. It may appear to be absolutely true that X number of candidates nominated by Rep Y were offered an appointment, but behind the green curtain, some of them may actually have their appointments charged elsewhere.

I don’t understand why a full slate would not be chosen so as to offer qualified others a chance at an appointment charged to another source.
 
How do you know if you were the “principal nominee?” My DD applied to all 4 SA’s and was thrilled to get a nomination for all 4 in a largely populated congressional district. She had to rank her choices. MOC also only has 1 cadet at USAFA, so if she ranked USAFA first among her choices, do her chances improve for an appointment?

Our MOC called My DD directly and let her know she was his Principal nominee the day after she received her letter that advised she had received a nomination from him.
 
My husband is an AD soldier is his nomination for our son enough or should we also aim to get one from a senator or a representative?
 
My husband is an AD soldier is his nomination for our son enough or should we also aim to get one from a senator or a representative?
MT, I would highly recommend seeking a nomination from every nominating body your DS is eligible for (Senator, Congressman, Presidential, and VP).
 
My husband is an AD soldier is his nomination for our son enough or should we also aim to get one from a senator or a representative?
MT, I would highly recommend seeking a nomination from every nominating body your DS is eligible for (Senator, Congressman, Presidential, and VP).
For the senator and representative nomination do you have to do an interview in person with them? We are OCONUS...
 
My husband is an AD soldier is his nomination for our son enough or should we also aim to get one from a senator or a representative?
MT, I would highly recommend seeking a nomination from every nominating body your DS is eligible for (Senator, Congressman, Presidential, and VP).
For the senator and representative nomination do you have to do an interview in person with them? We are OCONUS...
MT, it depends on the individual MOC. Some do panel interviews, others just take the packet and make a decision based on the information in hand. You would want to look at your MOC's nomination site or contact them directly to know for sure.
 
For the senator and representative nomination do you have to do an interview in person with them? We are OCONUS...

We are OCONUS too. Our Senators did not interview so we just submitted the application packets from here and then followed up on their receipt because, well, APO is what it is [emoji6]. For our Rep, he interviewed. We decided to fly back for the weekend for the interview. Not an easy trip with jet lag but I think it made a world of difference to show our DS's commitment. If travel is not possible the MOC's committee offered to conduct the interview by phone but that's a hard way to give the interview panel a sense of your posture, physical fitness, mannerisms, etc. Our son also has a Pres nom, but only 100 of those can be used, even though 600-700 are given out (someone correct these stats if I'm off) so we wanted to maximize DS's chances. Good luck!!
 
Some MOCs will ask for a video and will ask for a disinterested proctor to ask the questions as to not allow a candidate an advantage over another appearing in person. In our DS' case the proctor was an officer not in our chain of command.
 
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