Is it Possible?

Question, a friend said his son received LOA's to Navy and Air Force as a recruited athlete without ever applying to either and after he had committed to West Point for a sport. Has anyone heard of a situation like this? It seemed kind of odd.

Its not likely, because he must have completed some kind of correspondence to the academies. But then again, the LoA he received must be contingent with completing the entire application including the nomination and CFA. I've heard of blacks in my area who received LoA's after just filling out some information for an academy at a college fair, they still had to complete the entire application (CFA, nomination, correspondences) to secure their spot.

K_Delrosario said:

Its not likely, because he must have completed some kind of correspondence to the academies. But then again, the LoA he received must be contingent with completing the entire application including the nomination and CFA. I've heard of blacks in my area who received LoA's after just filling out some information for an academy at a college fair, they still had to complete the entire application (CFA, nomination, correspondences) to secure their spot.

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I'm sure there was more to it than simply being black.

I agree with Riv-Rod. West Point or USNA or any of the other academies does not give unfair advantage for being a certain race. They wish to see increase in their diversity of races being admitted, but if your black or hispanic or whatever, and your less qualified than others, you cannot have a higher advantage than a more qualified candidate. As in the 1978 Supreme Court decision UC v. Bakke-a college cannot admit less qualified indivuals solely becuase of their race. Just my thoughts.

USMAalltheway

my apologies, I forgot to add that the individual who got the LoA from my area a couple years back was a varsity athlete and a regional all-star in my area for basketball, so that might have been a big draw for an LoA even before he delved into the app process.

His name is Greg Brown, he's on the Mids Basketball team and a 2nd class at USNA.

DevilDog said:

Question, a friend said his son received LOA's to Navy and Air Force as a recruited athlete without ever applying to either and after he had committed to West Point for a sport. Has anyone heard of a situation like this? It seemed kind of odd.

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I would not call your friend or his son a liar yet.
First, even though an athlete says they have "committed" it is not binding on either the academy or the athlete's part.
Academies do not participate in the National Letter of Intent program and don't announce their recruits officially until R-Day.
Some recruits may make their own press releases, however.

This scenario is entirely possible. Believe me, a coach knows if an athlete is academically qualified to attend or not.
An LOA is simply an offer of admission with stipulations attached.
Some high school sports have very early recruiting - namely the spring sports and those kids can be offered admission very early in the game.
It is also not unusual for kids to be recruited by more than one academy - they are basically competing for the same pool of kids.

Hi,

My son just participated in a sport camp where there were athletes in attendance who were contacted and asked to participate. Based on the parents of the kids I spoke with, none of these athletes had completed the app prior to attendance. For the record, these invited kids were kids with all different racial backgrounds.

GoNavyMom